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Tech helps disabled speed demons
An organisation has been launched to encourage disabled people to get involved in all aspects of motorsport, which is now increasingly possible thanks to technological innovations.
The Motorsport Endeavour Club left the starting grid yesterday at the Autosport International 2005 show at Birmingham's NEC, with several technologies to adapt vehicles on display.
Motorcycle racer, Roy Tansley, from Derby developed his electronic sequential gear changer following an accident which resulted in part of his left leg being amputated. "I needed to find a way of changing gear and generally you do that with your left leg," Mr Tansley told the BBC News website. "In simple terms, I needed to invent a left foot - initially it was quite a Heath Robinson device." Mr Tansley had to argue his case to be allowed to continue competing with motorcycle racing's governing body, the Autocycle Union. "At that time they wouldn't let any amputee race at all, but eventually they told me I could have a licence as long as I raced sidecars." Mr Tansley's invention, the Pro-Shift, is designed to work with Hewland gearboxes which are widely used in motorcycle racing. In addition to helping disabled riders to compete, Mr Tansley reckons that the Pro-Shift saves at least 20 seconds per lap when he competes in the Isle of Man TT. As a result, there has been considerable interest in the product from other riders keen to improve their performance. "I'm not prejudiced, I'll sell to able-bodied people if I have to!" he joked.
Another exhibit on the Motorsport Endeavour stand is a Subaru Impreza rally car, adapted to accommodate a variety of disabilities. The vehicle belongs to ParaRallying, the world's only rally school for disabled drivers which is based in Lincolnshire.
"We use the latest technology supplied by an Italian company," said rally driver Dave Hawkins who runs the company. "The cars have electronic throttles, electronic brakes, electronic clutches - we've yet to turn anybody away." Mr Hawkins - a paraplegic himself - says his customers have included right or left arm amputees, quadriplegics, people who have had strokes and a woman who had had all four limbs amputated. ParaRallying uses a Vauxhall Astra GSI with an automatic gearbox and manual Subaru Imprezas. The car on display is fitted with a 'duck clutch' - a switch on the gear stick used instead of the clutch pedal. It also has a second ring behind the steering wheel to operate the throttle and a hand operated brake bar.
When Joy Rainey started competing in motorsport in 1974 she was continuing the family tradition - her father, Murray, is a former Australian Formula 3 champion.
And it was Rainey Senior who modified a sports racer to accommodate his daughter's small stature so that she could take part in hill climbs. She uses an ordinary road car by putting extensions on the pedals, a cushion behind her back and raising the seat. "But in a competition car you have to have everything right or you'll lose the balance of the car," she said. "I bring everything back to me - steering wheel, steering column, gear lever and pedals." When she recently took part in the London to Sydney Marathon she shared the driving with her partner, Trevor, who now does the engineering work. He designed a system for their Morris Minor so that the adaptations could be totally removed in under a minute. The Motorsport Endeavour Club is hoping that putting such technologies on display will result in more disabled people becoming involved in all areas of the sport and at every level. | tech |
Web photo storage market hots up
An increasing number of firms are offering web storage for people with digital photo collections.
Digital cameras were the hot gadget of Christmas 2004 and worldwide sales of the cameras totalled $24bn last year. Many people's hard drives are bulging with photos and services which allow them to store and share their pictures online are becoming popular. Search firms such as Google are also offering more complex tools for managing personal photo libraries. Photo giants such as Kodak offer website storage which manages photo collections, lets users edit pictures online and provides print-ordering services. Some services, such as Kodak's Ofoto and Snapfish, offer unlimited storage space but they do require users to buy some prints online. Other sites, such as Pixagogo, charge a monthly fee. Marcus Hawkins, editor of Digital Camera magazine, said: "As file sizes of pictures increase, storage becomes a problem. "People are using their hard drives, backing up on CD and DVD and now they are using online storage solutions.
"They are a place to store pictures, to share their pictures with families and friends and they can print out their photos."
While many of the services are aimed at the amateur and casual digital photographer, other websites are geared up for enthusiasts who want to share tips and information. Photosig is an online community of photographers who can critique each other's work. On Tuesday, Google released free software for organising and finding digital photos stored on a computer's hard drive. The tool, called Picasa, automatically detects photos as they are added to a PC - whether sent via e-mail or transferred from a digital camera.
The software includes tools for restoring colour and removing red eye, as well as sharpening images. Photos can then be uploaded to sites such as Ofoto. Many people use the sites to edit and improve their favourite photographs before ordering prints. Mr Hawkins added: "The growth area is that you can order your prints online. Friends and family can also access pictures you want them to see and they can print them out too. "Rather than just a place to dump your pictures, it's about sharing them."
The vast majority of pictures remain on a PC's hard drive, which is why search tools, such as those offered by Google, become increasingly important. But some historians and archivists are concerned that the need for perfect pictures will mean that those poor quality prints which offered a tantilising glimpse of the past may disappear forever. "It's one thing taking pictures, it's another finding them," said Mr Hawkins. "But this is the same problem that has always existed - how many of us have photos in wallets tucked away somewhere?" | tech |
Speak easy plan for media players
Music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them, under plans in development by two US firms.
ScanSoft and Gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. They want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car, or at home or on the move. Huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. "Voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections," said Ross Blanchard, vice president of business development for Gracenote. "These applications will radically change the car entertainment experience, allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel," he added.
Gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as Apple's iTunes. The new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection, just by saying its name. Users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion, or a film just by saying the actor's name. "Speech is a natural fit for today's consumer devices, particularly in mobile environments," said Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. "Pairing our voice technologies with Gracenote's vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they've never imagined." The two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than English. Users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: "What is this?" Portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with Apple to device interfaces to control the firm's iPod music player. But with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player, voice control would make finding that elusive track by Elvis Presley much easier. The firms gave no indication about whether the iPod, or any other media player, were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. The companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005. | tech |
Cable offers video-on-demand
Cable firms NTL and Telewest have both launched video-on-demand services as the battle between satellite and cable TV heats up.
Movies from Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Touchstone, Miramax, Columbia and Buena Vista will be among those on offer. The service is similar to Sky Plus, as users can pause, fast forward and rewind content, but they cannot store programmes on their set top box - yet. It could sound the death knell for some TV channels, Telewest predicts. "It allows us to demonstrate a clear competitive advantage over Sky for the first time in many years," said Telewest chief executive Eric Tveter.
"Video-on-demand will offer a deeper range of content than currently exists on TV. There will be less compromising around the TV schedule and some of the less popular channels may go by the wayside," said Philip Snalune, director of products at Telewest. Telewest customers in Bristol and NTL viewers in Glasgow will be the first to test the new service, which sees a raft of movies on offer for 24 hour rental. During the year, the service will be extended to all cable regions. Films will range in price from £1 or £2 for archived movies to £3.50 for current releases. New releases initially on offer will include 50 First dates, Kill Bill: Volume 2, Gothika and The Station Agent. In addition, NTL is offering children's programmes, adult content, music video and concerts. Telewest will launch similar services later in the year. NTL is also offering viewers the chance to catch up with programmes they have missed. Its pick of the week service will offer a selection of BBC programmes from the previous seven days such as Eastenders, Casualty, Top Gear and Antiques Roadshow. The BBC is trialling a similar service, offering broadband users the chance to watch programmes already broadcast on their PC. For Telewest it is the beginning of a £20m investment in TV-on-demand which will also see the launch of a personal video recorder (PVR). PVR has been a big success for Sky because it gives customers control over programmes. Satellite customers without PVR cannot pause, rewind or fast forward their programmes.
With both services on offer from Telewest, Mr Tveter is confident the cable firm can dent not just the viewing figures for terrestrial TV but also gain a huge competitive advantage over Sky.
"We offer the best of both worlds and most households have an interest in having both video-on-demand and PVR," he said. Video rental stores may also have to watch their back. "Video-on-demand is better than having a video-store in your living room and is more convenient," he said. NTL said it had not ruled out the possibility of offering a PVR but for the moment is concentrating on video-on-demand. "PVR is a recording mechanism whereas what we are offering is truly on demand," said a spokesman for the company. Video-on-demand has the added advantage of not requiring a separate set-top box or extra remote controls, he added. Adam Thomas, an analyst at research firm Informa Media believes the time is ripe for video-on-demand to flourish. "While Sky will remain the dominant force in UK pay TV for some time to come, NTL and Telewest seem well placed to successfully ride this second wave of VOD enthusiasm and, if marketed correctly, this could help them eat into Sky's lead," he said. | tech |
Cyber crime booms in 2004
The last 12 months have seen a dramatic growth in almost every security threat that plague Windows PCs.
The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Also on the increase are the number of networks of remotely controlled computers, called bot nets, used by malicious hackers and conmen to carry out many different cyber crimes.
One of the biggest changes of 2004 was the waning influence of the boy hackers keen to make a name by writing a fast-spreading virus, said Kevin Hogan, senior manager in Symantec's security response group. Although teenage virus writers will still play around with malicious code, said Mr Hogan, 2004 saw a significant rise in criminal use of malicious programs. The financial incentives were driving criminal use of technology, he said. His comment was echoed by Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant from anti-virus firm Sophos. Mr Cluley said: "When the commercial world gets involved, things really get nasty. Virus writers and hackers will be looking to make a tidy sum."
In particular, phishing attacks, which typically use fake versions of bank websites to grab login details of customers, boomed during 2004. Web portal Lycos Europe reported a 500% increase in the number of phishing e-mail messages it was catching. The Anti-Phishing Working group reported that the number of phishing attacks against new targets was growing at a rate of 30% or more per month. Those who fall victim to these attacks can find that their bank account has been cleaned out or that their good name has been ruined by someone stealing their identity. This change in the ranks of virus writers could mean the end of the mass-mailing virus which attempts to spread by tricking people into opening infected attachments on e-mail messages. "They are not an efficient way of spreading viruses," said Mr Hogan. "They are very noisy and they are not technically challenging." The opening months of 2004 did see the appearance of the Netsky, Bagle and MyDoom mass mailers, but since then more surreptitious viruses, or worms, have dominated.
Mr Hogan said worm writers were more interested in recruiting PCs to take part in "bot nets" that can be used to send out spam or to mount attacks on websites.
In September Symantec released statistics which showed that the numbers of active "bot computers" rose from 2,000 to 30,000 per day. Thanks to these "bot nets", spam continued to be a problem in 2004. Anti-spam firms report that, in many cases, legitimate e-mail has shrunk to less than 30% of messages. Part of the reason that these "bot nets" have become so prevalent, he said, was due to a big change in the way that many viruses were created. In the past many viruses, such as Netsky, have been the work of an individual or group. By contrast, said Mr Hogan, the code for viruses such as Gaobot, Spybot and Randex were commonly held and many groups work on them to produce new variants at the same time. The result is that now there are more than 3,000 variations of the Spybot worm. "That's unprecedented," said Mr Hogan. "What makes it difficult is that they are all co-existing with each other and do not exist in an easy to understand chronology."
The emergence of the first proper virus for mobile phones was also seen in 2004.
In the past, threats to smart phones have been largely theoretical because the viruses created to cripple phones existed only in the laboratory rather than the wild. In June, the Cabir virus was discovered that can hop from phone to phone using Bluetooth short-range radio technology. Also released this year was the Mosquito game for Symbian phones which surreptitiously sends messages to premium rate numbers, and in November the Skulls Trojan came to light which can cripple phones. On the positive side, Finnish security firm F-Secure said that 2004 was the best-ever year for the capture, arrest and sentencing of virus writers and criminally-minded hackers. In total, eight virus writers were arrested and some members of the so-called 29A virus writing group were sentenced. One high-profile arrest was that of German teenager Sven Jaschen who confessed to be behind the Netsky and Sasser virus families. Also shut down were the Carderplanet and Shadowcrew websites that were used to trade stolen credit card numbers. | tech |
Dublin hi-tech labs to shut down
Dublin's hi-tech research laboratory, Media Labs Europe, is to shut down.
The research centre, which was started by the Irish government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a hotbed for technology concepts. Since its opening in 2000, the centre has developed ideas, such as implants for teeth, and also aimed to be a digital hub for start-ups in the area. The centre was supposed to be self-funded, but has failed to attract the private cash injection it needs. In a statement, Media Labs Europe said the decision to close was taken because neither the Irish Government nor the prestigious US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was willing to fund it. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern had wanted to the centre to become a big draw for smaller hi-tech companies, in an attempt to regenerate the area.
About three dozen small firms were attracted to the area, but it is thought the effects of the dot.com recession damaged the Labs' long-term survival. The Labs needed about 10 million euros (US$13 million) a year from corporate sponsors to survive. "In the end, it was too deep and too long a recession," said Simon Jones, the Labs' managing director. Ian Pearson, BT's futurologist, told the BBC News website that the closure was a "real shame". BT was just one of the companies that had worked with the Labs, looking at RFID tag developments and video conferencing. "There were a lot of very talented, creative people there and they came up with some great ideas that were helping to ensure greater benefits of technology for society. "I have no doubt that the individuals will be quickly snapped up by other research labs, but the synergies from them working as a team will be lost."
Noel Dempsey, the government's communications minister, said Mr Ahern had been "very committed" to the project. "He is, I know, very disappointed it has come to this. At the time it seemed to be the right thing to do," he said. "Unfortunately the model is not a sustainable one in the current climate."
During its five years, innovative and some unusual ideas for technologies were developed. In recent months, 14 patent applications had been filed by the Labs. Many concepts fed into science, engineering, and psychology as well as technology, but it is thought too few of the ideas were commercially viable in the near-term. Several research teams explored how which humans could react with technologies in ways which were entirely different. The Human Connectedness group, for example, developed the iBand, a bracelet which stored and exchanged information about you and your relationships. This information could be beamed to another wearer when two people shook hands. Other projects looked at using other human senses, like touch, to interact with devoices which could be embedded in the environment, or on the body itself. One project examined how brainwaves could directly control a computer game. The Labs, set up in an old Guinness brewery, housed around 100 people, made up of staff, researchers, students, collaborators and part-time undergraduate students. It is thought more than 50 people will lose their jobs when the Labs close on 1 February. According to its latest accounts, Media Lab Europe said it spent 8.16 million euros (about US$10.6 million) in 2003 and raised just 2.56 million euros (US$3.3 million). | tech |
Games help you 'learn and play'
'God games' in which players must control virtual people and societies could be educational, says research.
A US researcher has suggested that games such as The Sims could be a good way to teach languages. Ravi Purushotma believes that the world of The Sims can do a better job of teaching vocabulary and grammar than traditional methods. The inherent fun of game playing could help to make learning languages much less of a chore, said Mr Purushotma.
There must be few parents or teachers that do not worry that the lure of a video game on a computer or console is hard to resist by children that really should be doing their homework. But instead of fearing computer games, Ravi Purushotma believes that educationalists, particularly language teachers should embrace games. "One goal would be to break what I believe to be the false assumption that learning and play are inherently oppositional," he said. He believes that the "phenomenal ability" of games such as The Sims and others to capture the interest of adolescent audiences is ripe for exploitation. The hard part of learning any language, said Mr Purushotma, were the basic parts of learning what different words refer to and how they are used to build up sentences. Boring lessons drumming vocabulary into pupils couched in terms they do not understand has made many languages far harder to learn than they should be. "The way we often teach foreign languages right now is somewhat akin to learning to ride a bike by formally studying gravity," he said.
By contrast, said Mr Purushotma, learning via something like The Sims may mean students do not feel like they are studying at all. This was because The Sims does not rely solely on words to get information across to players. Instead the actions of its computer controlled people and how they interact with their world often makes clear what is going on. The incidental information about what a Sim was doing could reinforce what a player or student was supposed to be learning, said Mr Purushotma. By contrast many language lessons try to impart information about a tongue with little context. For instance, he said, in a version of The Sims adapted to teach German, if a player misunderstood what was meant by the word "energie" the actions of a tired Sim, stumbling then falling asleep, would illustrate the meaning. If necessary detailed textual information could be called upon to aid players' or students' understanding.
One of the drawbacks of The Sims, said Mr Purushotma, was the lack of spoken language to help people brush up on pronunciation. However, online versions of The Sims, in which people have to move in, meet the neighbours and get to know the local town, could be adapted to help this. Although not wishing to claim that he is the first to suggest using a game can help people learn, Mr Purushotma believes that educationalists have missed the potential they have to help.
Getting a simulated person to perform everyday activities in a make-believe world and having them described in a foreign language could be a powerful learning aid, he believes. Before now, he said, educational software titles suffer by comparison with the slick graphics and rich worlds found in games. But, he said, using pre-prepared game worlds such as The Sims has never been easier because tools have been made by its creators and fans that make it easy to modify almost any part of the game. This could make it easy for teachers to adapt parts of the game for their own lessons. "I'm hoping now to re-create a well-polished German learning mod for the sequel by this summer," he told the BBC News website. "I'm encouraged to hear that others are thinking of experimenting with Japanese and Spanish." Earlier work with a colleague on using Civilisation III to teach students about history showed that it could be a powerful way to get them to realise that solving a society's problems can not always come from making a single change. A report on the experiment said: "Students began asking historical and geographical questions in the context of game play, using geography and history as tools for their game, and drawing inferences about social phenomena based on their play." Mr Purushotma's ideas were aired in an article for the journal Language Learning and Technology. | tech |
Hacker threat to Apple's iTunes
Users of Apple's music jukebox iTunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat.
Hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting Trojan code. A new version of iTunes is now available from the Apple website which solves the problem. Security firm iDefence, which notified users of the problem, recommended that users upgrade to iTunes version 4.7.1. The problem affects all users of iTunes - Windows and Mac OS - running versions 4.7 and earlier. Users can automatically upgrade iTunes by opening the "look for updates" window in the program. The security firm says users should avoid clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. Itunes is the world's most popular online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in 2003. | tech |
Format wars could 'confuse users'
Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video.
The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy.
Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy "appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium.
The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. "In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past," said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. "The difference is that it is very fragmented," he said. "It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come.
Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. "Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods," she said.
She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. "It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run," she said, "and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest." Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. "People want portability," she said, "and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability." Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. "Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying," he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. "The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on." | tech |
Peer-to-peer nets 'here to stay'
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are here to stay, and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms, says a panel of industry experts.
Once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year, firms will be very keen to try and make money from P2P technology. The expert panel probed the future of P2P at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier in January. The first convictions for P2P piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. Since the first successful file-sharing network Napster was forced to close down, the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of P2P technology, blaming it for falling sales and piracy. But that is going to change very soon, according to the panel.
The music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate P2P networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. But they have slowly realised that P2P is a good way to distribute content, said Travis Kalanick, founder and chairman of P2P network Red Swoosh, and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. They are just waiting to come up with "business models" that work for them, which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards.
But, until the legal actions are resolved, experimentation with P2P cannot not happen, said Michael Weiss, president of StreamCast Networks. Remembering the furore around VCRs when they first came out, Mr Weiss said: "Old media always tries to stop new media. "When they can't stop it, they try to control it. Then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money." Once the courts decided that the VCR in itself was not an illegal technology, the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. In August 2004, the San Francisco-based US Court of Appeals ruled in favour of Grokster and StreamCast, two file-sharing networks. The court said they were essentially in the same position that Sony was in the 1980s VCR battle, and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal.
P2P networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. Instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. There are now many different types of P2P systems than work in different ways. P2P nets can be used to share any kind of file, like photos, free software, licensed music and any other digital content. The BBC has already decided to embrace the technology. It aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use P2P technology to distribute them. The files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. But the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. The global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month, and about half a million films are downloaded a day. Legal music download services, like Apple iTunes, Napster, have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. Sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months, the IFPI reported this week. But such download services are very different from P2P networks, not least because of the financial aspect.
There are several money-spinning models that could turn P2P into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. Paid-for-pass-along, in which firms receive money each time a file is shared, along with various DRM solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. "We see there are going to be different models for commoditising P2P," said Marc Morgenstern, vice president of anti-piracy firm Overpeer.
"Consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together," agreed Mr Morgenstern. But many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry's potential controlling grip on content and P2P technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. Unsigned bands, for example, use P2P networks to distribute their music effectively, which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. "Increasingly, what you are seeing on P2P is consumer-created content," said Derek Broes, from Microsoft. "They will probably pay an increasing role in helping P2P spread," he said. Looking into P2P's future, file sharing is just the beginning for P2P networks, as far as Mr Broes is concerned. "Once some of these issues are resolved, you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content, but also in ways that are unimaginable now," he said. "File-sharing is the tip of the iceberg." | tech |
Text message record smashed
UK mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging, with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004.
The figures collected by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in December alone, the highest monthly total ever. That was 26% more than in December 2003. The records even surpassed the MDA's own predictions, it said. Every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. Before December's bumper text record, the previous highest monthly total was in October 2004, when 2.3 billion were sent. Text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too, said the MDA, with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year.
Even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications, texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. People are using SMS to do much more too. Booking cinema tickets, text voting, and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. Mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) Asian Tsunami fund by texting "Donate" to a simple short code number. Looking further ahead in the year, the MDA's chairman Mike Short, has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles, estimating 15 billion WAP page impressions. Handsets with GPRS capability - an "always on" net connection - will rise to 75%, while 3G mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. These third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. Globally, mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004, according to a recent report from analysts Gartner. That was 26% more than the previous year. It is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005. | tech |
Big war games battle it out
The arrival of new titles in the popular Medal Of Honor and Call of Duty franchises leaves fans of wartime battle titles spoilt for choice.
The acclaimed PC title Call of Duty has been updated for console formats, building on many of the original's elements. For its part, the long-running Medal of Honor series has added Pacific Assault to its PC catalogue, adapting the console game Rising Sun. Call of Duty: Finest Hour casts you as a succession of allied soldiers fighting on World War 2 battlefronts including Russia and North Africa. It is a traditional first-person-viewed game that lets you control just one character, in the midst of a unit where cohorts constantly bark orders at you. On a near-identical note, Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault does all it can to make you feel part of a tight-knit team and plum in the middle of all-out action. Its arenas are the war's Pacific battles, including Guadalcanal and Pearl Harbour. You play one character throughout, a raw and rather talkative US soldier.
Both games rely on a carefully stage-managed structure that keeps things ticking along. When this works, it is a brilliant device to make you feel part of a story. When it does not, it is tedious.
A winning moment is an early scene in Pacific Assault, where you come under attack at the famous US base in Hawaii. You are first ushered into a gunboat attacking the incoming waves of Japanese planes, then made to descend into a sinking battleship to rescue crewman, before seizing the anti-aircraft guns. It is one of the finest set-pieces ever seen in a video game. This notion of shuffling the player along a studiously pre-determined path, forcibly witnessing a series of pre-set moments of action, is a perilous business which can make the whole affair feel stilted rather than organic. The genius of something like Half Life 2 is that it skilfully disguises its linear plotting by various means of misdirection. This pair of games do not really accomplish that, being more concerned with imparting a full-on atmospheric experience.
Call of Duty comes with a suitably bombastic score and overblown presentation. Finest Hour has a similar determination, framing everything in moody wartime music, archive footage and lots of reflective voice-overs.
Letting you play a number of different roles is an interesting ploy that adds new dimensions to the Call of Duty endeavour, even if it sacrifices the narrative flow somewhat. The game's drawback could be said to be its format; tastes differ, but these wartime shooters often do seem to work better on PC. The mouse control is a big reason why, along with the sharper graphics a top-end computer can muster and the apparent notion that PC games are allowed to get away with a bit more subtlety. Call of Duty on PC was more detailed, plot-wise and graphically, and this new adaptation feels a little rough and ready. Targeting with the PS2 controller proved tricky, not helped by unconvincing collision-detection. You can shoot an enemy repeatedly with zero question as to your aim, yet the bullets will just refuse to hit him. Checkpoints are so few and far between that when you get shot, which happens regularly, you are set harshly far back, and will find yourself covering vast tracts of scorched earth again and again. The game wants to be a challenge, and is, and many players will like it for that. It is as dynamic a battlefield simulator as you will experience and even if it is not as refined as its PC parent, the sense of being part of the action is thoroughly impressive.
Both of these games feature military colleagues who are disturbingly bad shots and prone to odd behaviour. And in Pacific Assault in particular, their commands and comments are irritatingly meaningless.
But the teamwork element in titles like this is superficial, designed to add atmosphere and camaraderie rather than affect the gameplay mechanics at all. Of the two games, Pacific Assault gets more things right, including little points like auto-saving intelligently and having tidier presentation. It engages you very well and also looks wonderful, making the most of the lush tropical settings that are reminiscent of the glorious Far Cry, although we had to ramp up the settings on a high-spec machine to get the most out of them. Finest Hour is by no means bad, and it is only because the PC original was so dazzling that this version sometimes feels underwhelming. Those looking for a wartime game with plenty of atmosphere and a hearty abundance of enemies to shoot will be contented. But they will also have a niggling puzzlement as to why it does not break a little more ground rather then just being competent. | tech |
Mobiles rack up 20 years of use
Mobile phones in the UK are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend.
Britain's first mobile phone call was made across the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. In the 20 years since that day, mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of Britons own a handset. Mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline.
The first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in New York but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. The UK was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. The first call was made from St Katherine's dock to Vodafone's head office in Newbury which at the time was over a curry house. For the first nine days of 1985 Vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the UK. Then on 10 January Cellnet (now O2) launched its service. Mike Caudwell, spokesman for Vodafone, said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase, cost about £2,000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes.
"Despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s," he said. "They became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk." This was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. He said it took Vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. "It's very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people," he said. "Cellnet was forecasting half that." Now Vodafone has 14m customers in the UK alone. Cellnet and Vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the UK until 1993 when One2One (now T-Mobile) was launched. Orange had its UK launch in 1994. Both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. The analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. Called Global System for Mobiles (GSM) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. Mr Caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things, such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular. | tech |
Fast moving phone viruses appear
Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs.
The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir.
The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time.
However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens. | tech |
Doors open at biggest gadget fair
Thousands of technology lovers and industry experts have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in the next year. About 50,000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds. Microsoft chief Bill Gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on Wednesday when he is expected to announce details of the next generation Xbox.
The thrust of this year's show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia content so they can store, listen to, and watch what they want on devices any time, anywhere. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. Highlights will include the latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies. The show also includes several speeches from key technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard among others. "The story this year remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and revolutionising products and the way people interact with them," Jeff Joseph, from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) told the BBC News website. "It is about personalisation - taking your MP3 player and creating your own playlist, taking your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no longer at the whim of the broadcasters."
Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers, the CEA, on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. Shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004. That trend is predicted to continue, according to CEA analysts, with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. The fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank DVD media, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), and portable music players. "This year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place shifting - so if you have your PVR [personal video recorder] in your living room, you can move that content around the house. "Some exhibitors will be showcasing how you can take that content anywhere," said Mr Joseph. He said the products which will be making waves in the next year will be about the "democratisation" of content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more with music, video, and images. There will also be more focus on the design of technologies, following the lead that Apple's iPod made, with ease of use and good looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern.
The CEA predicted that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year. Gaming would continue to thrive, especially on mobile devices, and would reach out to more diverse gamers such as women. Games consoles sales have been declining, but the launch of next generation consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox and PlayStation, could buoy up sales. Although it has been widely predicted that Mr Gates would be showcasing the new Xbox, some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be talking about in the keynote. Some have suggested the announcement may take place at the Games Developers Conference in the summer instead. With more than 52% of US homes expected to have home networks, the CEA suggested hard drive boxes - or media servers - capable of storing thousands of images, video and audio files to be accessed through other devices around the home, will be more commonplace. Portable devices that combine mobile telephony, digital music and video players, will also be more popular in 2005. Their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content and services which will let people watch and listen to films, TV, and audio wherever they are. This means more storage technologies will be in demand, such as external hard drives, and flash memory like SD cards. CES runs officially from 6 to 9 January. | tech |
Microsoft debuts security tools
Microsoft is releasing tools that clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware.
The virus-fighting program will be updated monthly and is a precursor to Microsoft releasing dedicated anti-virus software. Also being released is a software utility that will help users find and remove any spyware on their home computer. Although initially free it is thought that soon Microsoft will be charging users for the anti-spyware tool.
The anti-spyware tool is available now and the anti-virus utility is expected to be available later this month. Microsoft's Windows operating system has long been a favourite of people who write computer viruses because it is so ubiquitous and has many loopholes that can be exploited. It has proved such a tempting target that there are now thought to be more than 100,000 viruses and other malicious programs in existence. Latest research suggests that new variants of viruses are being cranked out at a rate of up to 200 per week. Spyware is surreptitious software that sneaks on to home computers, often without users' knowledge. In its most benign form it just bombards users with pop-up adverts or hijacks web browser settings. The most malicious forms steal confidential information or log every keystroke that users make. Surveys have shown that most PCs are infested with spyware. Research by technology firms Earthlink and Webroot revealed that 90% of Windows machine have the malicious software on board and, on average, each one harbours 28 separate spyware programs. Before now Microsoft has left the market for PC security software to specialist firms such as Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and many others. It said that its virus cleaning program would not stop machines being infected nor remove the need for other anti-virus programs. On spyware freely available programs such as Ad-Aware and Spybot have become widely used by people keen to keep the latest variants at bay. Microsoft's two security tools have emerged as a result of acquisitions the company has made over the last two years. In 2003 it bought Romanian firm GeCAD Software to get hold of its anti-virus technology. In December 2004 it bought New York-based anti-spyware firm Giant Company Software. Last year Microsoft also released the SP2 upgrade for Windows XP that closed many security loopholes in the software and made it easier for people to manage their anti-virus and firewall programs. | tech |
File-swappers ready new network
Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down.
One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are "quality copies".
In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called "trackers" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to.
Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream.
Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. "Exeem cannot prevent pollution," he said. "The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings," he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. "The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa," he said. "There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity," he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. "It's hard to compete with free," he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development. | tech |
Games win for Blu-ray DVD format
The next-generation DVD format Blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival, according to its backers.
Blu-ray, backed by 100 firms including Sony, is competing against Toshiba and NEC-backed HD-DVD to be the format of choice for future films and games. The Blu-Ray Association said on Thursday that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound. This offers incredible 3D-like quality of pictures which major Hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. In a separate press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba announced that DVD players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005.
"As we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images, we have a much greater need for storage," Richard Doherty, from Panasonic's Hollywood Laboratories, one of the pioneers of Blu-ray, told the BBC news website. "So by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today's DVD." A Blu-ray disc will be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba's HD-DVD will hold 30GB. Mr Doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs, including the ability to record onto the DVDs and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. Both Toshiba and Blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging DVD format war, akin to the Betamax and VHS fight in the 1980s, can be resolved over the next year when next-generation DVD players start to come out. When players do come out, they will be able to play standard DVDs too, which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current DVDs.
But the support from Vivendi and Electronics Arts is a big boost to Blu-ray in the battle for supremacy.
Gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide, so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. "The technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies," said Michael Heilmann, chief technology officer for Vivendi Universal. "Blu-ray offers the capacity, performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming." EA, a leading games developer and publisher, added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and Blu-ray had the capacity, functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. Sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of PlayStations. Mr Doherty said gamers were "ravenous" for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. "Gamers, especially those working on PCs, are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures, deeper levels, for delivering higher-resolution playback."
He added: "The focus for games moving forward is on increased immersion.
"Gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3D models and textures and increasing the resolution, increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience." Fitting these models on current DVD technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. As games move to more photo-real capability, the current technology is limiting. "They are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments," said Mr Doherty. Currently, graphics-intensive PC games also require multiple discs for installation. High-definition DVDs will cut down on that need. Likewise, consoles rely on single discs, so DVDs that can hold six times more data mean much better, high-resolution games. Blu-ray has already won backing from major Hollywood studios, such as MGM Studios, Disney, and Buena Vista, as well as top technology firms like Dell, LG, Samsung and Phillips amongst others. While Toshiba's HD-DVD technology has won backing from Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. "The real world benefits (of HD-DVD) are apparent and obvious," said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video. Mr Cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with HD-DVD. Both formats are courting Microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation Xbox, but discussions are still on-going. Next generation DVDs will also be able to store images and other data. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, and runs from 6 to 9 January. | tech |
More power to the people says HP
The digital revolution is focused on letting people tell and share their own stories, according to Carly Fiorina, chief of technology giant Hewlett Packard.
The job of firms such as HP now, she said in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), was to ensure digital and physical worlds fully converged. She said the goal for 2005 was to make people the centre of technology. CES showcases 50,000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005. The tech-fest, the largest of its kind in the world, runs from 6 to 9 January. "The digital revolution is about the democratisation of technology and the experiences it makes possible," she told delegates. "Revolution has always been about giving power to the people." She added: "The real story of the digital revolution is not just new products, but the millions of experiences made possible and stories that millions can tell." Part of giving people more control has been about the freeing up of content, such as images, video and music. Crucial to this has been the effort to make devices that speak to each other better so that content can be more easily transferred from one device, such as a digital camera, to others, such as portable media players. A lot of work still needs to be done, however, to sort out compatibility issues and standards within the technology industry so that gadgets just work seamlessly, she said.
Ms Fiorina's talk also touted the way technology is being designed to focus on lifestyle, fashion and personalisation, something she sees as key to what people want.
Special guest, singer Gwen Stefani, joined her on-stage to promote her own range of HP digital cameras which Ms Stefani has helped design and which are heavily influenced by Japanese youth culture. The digital cameras, which are due to go on sale in the US by the summer, are based on the HP 607 model. The emphasis on personalisation and lifestyle is a big theme at this year's CES, with tiny, wearable MP3 players at every turn and rainbow hues giving colour to everything. Ms Fiorina also announced that HP was working with Nokia to launch a visual radio service for mobiles, which would launch in Europe early this year. The service will let people listen to radio on their mobiles and download relevant content, like a track's ringtone, simultaneously. The service is designed to make mobile radio more interactive.
Among the other new products she showcased was the Digital Media Hub, a big upgrade to HP's Digital Entertainment Centre. Coming out in the autumn in the US, the box is a networked, high-definition TV, cable set-top box, digital video recorder and DVD recorder. It has a removable hard drive cartridge, memory card slots, and Light Scribe labelling software which lets people design and print customised DVD labels and covers. It is designed to contain all a household's digital media, such as pre-recorded TV shows, pictures, videos and music so it can all be managed in one place. The hub reflects the increasing move to re-box the PC so that it can work as part of other key centres of entertainment. Research suggests that about 258 million images are saved and shared every day, equating to 94 billion a year. Eighty per cent of those remain on cameras. Media hubs are designed to encourage people to organise them on one box. Ms Fiorina was one of several keynote speakers, who also included Microsoft chief Bill Gates, to set out what major technology companies think people will be doing with technologies and gadgets in the next 12 months. In a separate announcement during the keynote speech, Ms Fiorina said that HP would be partnering MTV to replace this year's MTV Asia music award. MTV's Asia Aid will be held in Bangkok on 3 February, and is aimed at helping to raise money for the Asian tsunami disaster. | tech |
Gadget market 'to grow in 2005'
The explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005, delegates at the world's largest gadget show, in Las Vegas, have been told.
The number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11%, while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. "Everything is going digital," Kirsten Pfeifer from the Consumer Electronics Association, told the BBC News website. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured the pick of 2005's products. "Consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like HDTVs [high-definition TVs], digital radio, and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. "All the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry." Despite showing diversity, some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much "wow factor" as in previous years.
The portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of CES, which was the "time and place shifting" of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere, at any time. At the start of last year's CES, the CEA predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. That figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players, personal video recorders and digital cameras. It was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice, with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. Part of this has been the rise in spending power of the "generation X-ers" who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. More than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers, according to CEA research. Hybrid devices, which combine a number of multimedia functions, were also in evidence on the show floor. "A lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it," said Stephen Baker, a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm NPD Group. "Some of these functions cost next to nothing to add."
As well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable MP3 players to giant high-definition TVs, several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders, such as Microsoft chief Bill Gates. Despite several embarrassing technical glitches during Mr Gate's pre-show speech, he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the US market. He unveiled new ways of letting people take TV shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. He disappointed some, however, by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the Xbox games console. Another disappointment was the lack of exposure Sony's new portable games device, the PSP, had at the show. Sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in March for the US and Europe. It went on sale in Japan before Christmas. There were only two PSPs embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. A Sony representative told the BBC News website this was because Sony did not consider it to be part of their "consumer technology" offering.
Elsewhere at the show, there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens, including Samsung's 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. Industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005, with new formats for DVDs coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional DVDs. With so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage, like Seagate's 5GB pocket sized external hard drive, which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. More than 120,000 trade professionals attended CES in Las Vegas, which officially ran from 6 to 9 January. | tech |
Apple unveils low-cost 'Mac mini'
Apple has unveiled a new, low-cost Macintosh computer for the masses, billed as the Mac mini.
Chief executive Steve Jobs showed off the new machine at his annual MacWorld speech, in San Francisco. The $499 Macintosh, sold for £339 in the UK, was described by Jobs as the "most important Mac" made by Apple. Mr Jobs also unveiled the iPod shuffle, a new music player using cheaper flash memory rather than hard drives, which are used in more expensive iPods.
The new computer shifts the company into new territory - traditionally, the firm is known as a design and innovation-led firm rather than as a mass-market manufacturer. The Mac mini comes without a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and a second version with a larger hard drive will also be sold for $599.
The machine - which will be available from 22 January - was described by Jobs as "BYODKM... bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse". In an attempt to win over Windows PC customers, Mr Jobs said it would appeal to people thinking of changing operating systems. "People who are thinking of switching will have no more excuses," he said. "It's the newest and most affordable Mac ever." The new computer has been the subject of speculation for several weeks and while few people will be surprised by the announcement many analysts had already said it was a sensible move. In January, Apple sued a website after it published what it said were specifications for the new computer. Ian Harris, deputy editor of UK magazine Mac Format, said the machine would appeal to PC-owning consumers who had purchased an iPod.
"They want a further taste of Mac because they like what they have seen with iPod." Harris added: "Everybody thought that Apple was happy to remain a niche maker of luxury computers, and moving into a market dominated by low margin manufacturers like Dell is a bold move. "But it shows that Apple is keen to capitalise on the mass market success it's had with the iPod. The Mac mini will appeal to PC users looking for an attractive, 'no fuss' computer." The new iPod shuffle comes in two versions - one offering 512mb of storage for $99 (£69 in the Uk) and a second with one gigabyte of storage for $149 (£99) - and went on sale Tuesday. The music player has no display and will play songs either consecutively or shuffled. The smaller iPod will hold about 120 songs, said Mr Jobs. Mr Jobs told the delegates at MacWorld that iPod already had a 65% market share of all digital music players. | tech |
Napster offers rented music to go
Music downloading, for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services, can be a costly business.
The cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up, particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. Paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient, and ultimately cheaper way of owning music.
"Music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services," said Paul Myers, chief executive of Wippit, a UK-based music download service. While iTunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to iPod owners, others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. Napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed Napster to Go in the UK in the next few months. The service can be used on players that support Microsoft Windows latest Digital Rights Management technology known as Janus. This includes players made by Samsung, Rio and Creative.
Currently on offer in beta-version in the US, the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. The technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. Users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play.
This has outraged some digital music lovers, especially as Napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the PC. Napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers "greater value" for customers. Mr Myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. "We've been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. Format interoperability, excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from Wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose," he said. "Who wants to download a track that won't play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an iPod or the latest mobile phone?" Wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. It has a catalogue of around 60,000 songs. | tech |
Rings of steel combat net attacks
Gambling is hugely popular, especially with tech-savvy criminals.
Many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid. But now deep defences are being put in place by some of the UK's biggest net firms to stop these attacks. Increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the measures. "Net firms are realising that it's not just about anti-virus and firewalls," said Paul King, chief security architect at Cisco. "There are more things that can be done in the network to protect data centres." Mr King said the only way to properly combat these so-called Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks was with intelligent net-based systems. Many of the gambling sites suffering DDoS attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres, so any large scale data flood could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were targeting, said Mr King. This overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks grow in size and scale.
Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis, said the most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods of time. Bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely seen, he said. "It does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this traffic gradually growing," he said.
So far there have been no attacks involving gigabytes of data, said Mr Seagrave. However, he added that it was only a matter of time before such large attacks were mounted. Maria Capella, spokeswoman for net provider Pipex, said that when DDoS attacks were at their height, customers were getting hit every four to five days. The defences being put in place constantly monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic destined for target sites. "It's about understanding what's genuine traffic and keeping attack traffic from going to the site," she said. "We study the profile of their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that's when we start to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack," said Ms Capella. This traffic can be hard to spot because DDoS attacks typically use thousands of computers in many different countries, each participating machine only sends a small part of the entire data flood.
Typically these computers have been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off the virus. Hijacked computers are known as zombies or 'bots and collections of them are called 'bot nets. Many spammers rent out 'bot nets to help them anonymously send junk mail.
Most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the target site so getting the attacking PCs shut off can be difficult. Often Pipex and other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. "The serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail," said Ms Capella. "We ask, as part of the service we provide, that customers notify us of anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning." Once an attack is spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure that sites stay up. Energis took a similar approach, said Mr Seagrave. "We have technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let network engineers spend hours pulling the information together," said Mr Seagrave. Also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of DDoS attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. Information gathered on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. He said Energis also did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs plan to target. "We have people in places where they shouldn't be, monitoring tech sites," he said. Sometimes though, he said, spotting the next victim was easy. "You can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites, trying one after another," said Mr Seagrave. | tech |
Apple Mac mini gets warm welcome
The Mac mini has been welcomed by Apple fans, industry experts and PC users.
The release of the tiny, low-cost machine is seen as a good move for Apple which currently has a small share of the desktop computer market. Mac watchers and some analysts say the Mac mini will go a long way to help Apple appeal to the mass of consumers. They speculate that the Mac mini will be bought by iPod owners and those wanting an easy-to-use and administer second home computer.
"It's the bravest move they have made yet," said Jonny Evans, news editor at Macworld magazine. Mr Evans said the combination of low cost, small size and huge numbers of iPod users could make it a big success.
He thought that the machine would appeal to those that like Apple technology but who before now have balked at paying high prices for its hardware. "It's deeply affordable," he said. "Plus you know that you do not get viruses or all of the associated problems." Already, he said, PC owning friends had declared that they would be buying one. Interest in the new products launched at Macworld expo was so strong that websites for Apple's store and the show struggled to cope with demand. According to response statistics gathered by Netcraft many visiting the Apple store in the wake of Mr Jobs' speech suffered lengthy response times. The Macworld Expo site was completely overwhelmed and went offline.
"I think fundamentally it's a good idea because it's cheap even for a PC," said Nick Ross, deputy labs editor at PC Pro. Apple's work on making things easy to use would also help the Mac mini win fans, he said. "I think people expect it just to work now and really it should," hesaid. The Mac mini could find a role in homes that need a second computer that is easy to install and administer, he said. "For browsing the web, e-mail and all kinds of basic duties it's going to be absolutely adequate," said Mr Ross. Ian Fogg, broadband and personal technology analyst at Jupiter Research, agreed that the Mac mini could be very popular. "Apple has been hoping that sales of the iPod will have a halo effect on the sales of the Mac," he said.
Before now, he said, Apple has been seen as a premium brand. But, he said, the Mac mini changed that perception. "It's a particularly good price when you see that it's Apple that is doing it," he said. Apple expects the Mac mini to sell for £339 in the UK and $499 in the US. Adding extras such as a larger hard drive, more memory and networking options will increase the basic price. It will go on sale from 22 January. "For consumers interested in style, design and small size - which is what the majority of iPod customers are interested in - it's a natural next step," said Mr Fogg. Apple has traditionally done well in the market that the Mac mini is aimed at, said Mr Fogg, who also expected many PC makers to release copycat devices in reaction.
His only misgivings were over how easy other consumers, other than iPod owners, would find using the machine. He said anyone wanting to use the Mac mini with the peripherals from an old computer may find it odd to have something so small and sleek next to a hulking monitor. "They'd be much more likely to pair a Mac mini with a LCD or flat panel monitor which increases the upgrade cost," he said. Those with flat screens and LCD monitors are likely to have bought them recently and not be in the market for a new machine.
There are also questions over whether the Mac mini will work with very old peripherals, such as display, keyboard and mouse. The Mac mini also fell short of being a media server that can be a video recorder as well as a store for all the digital music, movies and images people accumulate, said Mr Fogg. "The Mac mini is not quite ready for that yet," he said. "It does not have the right connectors that fit a TV screen or enough storage." Said Mr Fogg: "It's very much a computer." One dissenting opinion came from Brian Gammage, vice-president of research at analysts Gartner. He said: "I don't think it changes the world." Although the Mac mini was very cheap for an Apple computer, it was still expensive compared to many PCs. Also, he said, it appealed in categories that few consumers care about when buying a home computer. "The PC world is a pile-em-high, sell-em-cheap market," he said, "and all of them are pretty interchangeable." "Since the days when Apple ruled the personal computing world its market share has been on a long, slow decline," he said. "Every few years it does something to give its market share a kick then it starts to go back down again," said Mr Gammage. The release of the Mac mini fit perfectly with this trend, he said. | tech |
Rivals of the £400 Apple...
The Mac mini is the cheapest Apple computer ever. But though it is cheap for a Mac how does it compare to PCs that cost about the same amount? Dot.life tries to find out if you can you get more for your money if you stick with the beige box.
An extremely small computer that is designed to bring the Macintosh to the masses.
Apple offer a less powerful Mac Mini for £339 but the £399 models has a 1.4ghz Power PC chip, 80 gigabyte hard drive, combined CD burner/DVD player. It comes equipped with USB and Firewire ports for peripheral connections, Ethernet port for broadband, a port for standard video output and an audio/headphone jack.The machine comes with Mac OS X, the Apple operating system, the software suite iLife, which includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand.
A monitor, keyboard or mouse. There is also no built-in support for wireless technology or any speakers. The lack of a DVD burner is an omission in the age of backing-up important software. Wireless and a dvd burner can be added at extra cost.
Apple are targeting people who already have a main computer and want to upgrade - especially PC users who have used an Apple iPod.
Compact and stylish, the Mac mini would not look out of place in any home. Apple computers are famously user friendly and offer much better network security, which means fewer viruses. The package of software that comes with the machine is the best money can buy.
The Mac mini is just a box. If you don't already have a monitor etc, adding them to the package sees the value for money begin to dwindle. Macs don't offer the upgrade flexibility of a PC and the machine's specifications lack the horse power for tasks such as high-end video editing or games.
"The Mac Mini puts the Macintosh within the reach of everyone," an Apple spokesman said. "It will bring more customers to the platform, especially PC users and owners."
An entry-level machine designed for basic home use.
A 2.6ghz Intel Celeron chip, 40 gigabyte hard drive, 256mb, combined CD burner/DVD player. It comes equipped with a 17 inch monitor, keyboard and mouse. The machine has 6 USB ports and an Ethernet port for broadband connection. There's also a port for standard video output. The machine comes with Windows XP home edition. It provides basic home tools such as a media player and word processor.
A DVD burner, or any wireless components built in. Wireless and a dvd burner can be added at extra cost.
Homes and small offices, including those looking to add a low cost second computer.
Cost is the clear advantage. The Dell provides enough power and software for basic gaming and internet surfing. It's easily upgradeable so a bigger hard drive, better sound and graphics cards can be added.
The Dell is hardly stylish and the hard drive is on the small size for anyone wanting to store photos or a decent sized digital music collection.
"This machine is for small businesses and for people who want a second computer for basic home use, perhaps in a kids bedroom," a spokesman for Dell said. "I think we offer better value once you realise all the extras needed for the Mac Mini."
A desktop computer that PC Pro magazine dubbed best performer in a group test of machines that cost only £399 (£469 including VAT).
A good basic PC that, according to PC Pro, has "superb upgrade potential". For your money you get a 1.8GHz AMD Sempron processor, 512MB of Ram, 120GB hard drive, DVD writer, 16-inch monitor, mouse, keyboard and Windows XP2
Much more than the basics. It cannot handle 3D graphics and has no Firewire slots.
Those on a limited budget who want a machine they can add to and improve as their cash allows.
It's cheap and has plenty of room to improve but that could end up making it expensive in the long run. It's a good basic workhorse.
It's not pretty and has a monitor rather than a flat-panel display. Some of the upgrades offered by JAL to the basic model are pricey. You might find that you want to chop and change quite quickly.
Nick Ross, deputy labs editor at PC Pro, said the important point about buying a cheap and cheerful PC is the upgrade path. Interest has switched from processor power to graphics and sound cards as that's what makes the difference in games. "Even manufacturers are not going to be marketing machines as faster," he said, "they'll emphasise the different features."
A computer built from bits you buy and put together yourself.
A surprisingly good PC sporting an AMD Athlon XP 2500 processor, 512 megabytes Ram, a graphics card with 128 Ram on board plus TV out, a 40 GB hard drive, CD-writer and DVD player, Windows XP Home.
Anything else. You're building it so you have to buy all the software you want to install and do your own trouble-shooting and tech support. Building your own machine is easier than it used to be but you need to read specifications carefully to make sure all parts work together.
Experienced and keen PC users. Building your own PC, or upgrading the one you have, is a great way to improve your understanding of how it all works.
It's cheap, you can specify exactly what you want and you get the thrill of putting it together yourself. And a bigger thrill if everything works as it should.
Once it's built you won't be able to do much with it until you start buying software for it. If it starts to go wrong it might take a lot of fixing. As Gavin Cox of the excellent buildyourown.org.uk website put it: "It will be tough to obtain/build a PC to ever be as compact and charming as the Mac mini."
"Performance-wise, it's not 'cutting edge' and is barely entry-level by today's market, but up against the Mac mini, I believe it will hold its own and even pull a few more tricks," says Gavin Cox. The good news is that the machine is eminently expandable. By contrast, says Mr Cox, the Mac mini is almost disposable. | tech |
Speak easy plan for media players
Music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them, under plans in development by two US firms.
ScanSoft and Gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. They want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car, or at home or on the move. Huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. "Voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections," said Ross Blanchard, vice president of business development for Gracenote. "These applications will radically change the car entertainment experience, allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel," he added.
Gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as Apple's iTunes. The new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection, just by saying its name. Users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion, or a film just by saying the actor's name. "Speech is a natural fit for today's consumer devices, particularly in mobile environments," said Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. "Pairing our voice technologies with Gracenote's vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they've never imagined." The two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than English. Users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: "What is this?" Portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with Apple to device interfaces to control the firm's iPod music player. But with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player, voice control would make finding that elusive track by Elvis Presley much easier. The firms gave no indication about whether the iPod, or any other media player, were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. The companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005. | tech |
US peer-to-peer pirates convicted
The first convictions for piracy over peer-to-peer networks have been handed down in the US.
New Yorker William Trowbridge and Texan Michael Chicoine have pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. The two men faced charges following raids in August on suspected pirates by the FBI. The pair face jail terms of up to five years and a $250,000 (£130,000) fine.
In a statement the US Department of Justice said the two men operated the central hubs in a piracy community organised across the Direct Connect peer-to-peer network. The piracy group called itself the Underground Network and membership of it demanded that users share between one and 100 gigabytes of files. Direct Connect allows users to set themselves up as central servers that act as co-ordinating spots for sharers. Users would swap files, such as films and music, by exchanging data over the network. During its investigation FBI agents reportedly downloaded 84 movies, 40 software programs, 13 games and 178 "sound recordings" from the five hubs that made up the larger piracy group. The raids were organised under the umbrella of Operation Digital Gridlock which was aimed at fighting "criminal copyright theft on peer-to-peer networks". In total, six raids were carried out in August. Five were on the homes of suspected copyright thieves and one on a net service firm. The Department of Justice said that both men pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement. They also pleaded guilty to acting for commercial advantage. The two men are due to be sentenced on 29 April. | tech |
Format wars could 'confuse users'
Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video.
The firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. The move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different, and conflicting, content control systems, experts warned. They say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy.
Currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. Systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as Digital Rights Management systems. By setting up the alliance to work on a common control system, the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. In a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy "appropriately licensed video and music on any device, independent of how they originally obtained that content". The firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music, movies and other digital content they have bought. Called the Marlin Joint Development Association, the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. Marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm Intertrust as well as an earlier DRM system developed by a group known as the Coral Consortium.
The move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by Apple and Microsoft. Confusingly for consumers, the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as Microsoft and Apple. "In many ways the different DRM systems are akin to the different physical formats, such as Betamax and VHS, that consumers have seen in the past," said Ian Fogg, personal technology and broadband analyst at Jupiter Research. "The difference is that it is very fragmented," he said. "It's not a two-horse race, it's a five, six, seven or even eight-horse race" Mr Fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. He said currently there were even incompatibilities within DRM families. Although initiatives such as Microsoft's "Plays for Sure" program could help remove some of the uncertainty, he said, life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come.
Shelley Taylor, analyst and author of a report about online music services, said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. Apple's iTunes service was a perfect example of this, she said. "Although iTunes has been hugely successful, Apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those iPods," she said.
She said rampant competition between online music services, of which there are now 230 according to recent figures, could drive more openness and freer file formats. "It always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run," she said, "and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest." Ms Taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. "People want portability," she said, "and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability." Cory Doctorow, European co-ordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues, expressed doubts that the Marlin system would achieve its aims. "Not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying," he said. He said many firms readily admit that their DRM systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. Instead, said Mr Doctorow, DRM systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. "The studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the iPod version, the auto version, the American and UK version, the ringtone version, and so on." | tech |
Mobiles get set for visual radio
The growth in the mobile phone market in the past decade has been nothing less than astonishing, but the ability to communicate on the go is not the only reason we are hooked. Games, cameras and music players have all been added to our handsets in the last few years, but 2005 could see another big innovation that won't just see a change in our mobile phone habits - it might alter the way we listen to the radio. Finnish handset giant Nokia has been working on a technology called Visual Radio, which takes an existing FM signal from a radio station and enables that station to add enhancements such as information and pictures. It is not the first time that such an idea has been suggested - the early days of DAB Digital Radio had similar intentions that never really saw the light of day.
One problem is that the name Visual Radio leads people to think of television but Reidar Wasenius, a senior project manager at Nokia, was adamant that Visual Radio should not be confused with the more traditional medium. He said: "I'm very happy to say it's not television, what we're talking about is an enhancement of radio as we know it today. "If you have a Visual Radio enabled handset, when you hear an artist you don't know, or there's a competition or vote that you'd like to participate in, you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you've just been listening to."
That visual channel is run from a computer within the radio station, and sends out different kinds of information to the handset depending on what you are listening to. As well as details on the track or artist of a particular song, there is also the ability to interact immediately with the radio station itself, in a similar way to digital television's "red button" content.
Possible interactive content includes competitions, votes and even the chance to rate the song that is playing. But the interactive aspect will make the service especially attractive to radio stations, who will be able to track the number of people taking part in such activities on a real-time basis. This in turn should lead to an additional source of revenue, as it is very likely that advertisers will be keen to exploit new opportunities to reach listeners.
As the Visual Radio content is transmitted by existing GPRS technology you would need to have that service enabled by your network. And there will be a cost for the service as well, although it may depend on your usage. "If you enjoy the visual channel occasionally and interact it'll be two or three pounds per month," said Mr Wasenius. "But typically what we see happening is the operator offering a package deal for an 'all you can eat' arrangement per month." The payment system could therefore be similar to the way that broadband internet works versus dial-up connections. One thing that is for sure - assuming that Nokia retains its market share in handsets, it is estimating that there will be 100 million Visual Radio-enabled mobile phones in circulation by the end of 2006. "Basically, Visual Radio is not really revolutionary, but rather an evolution where we are providing tools with which people can participate in radio much more easily than ever before."
The first Visual Radio service in the UK will begin in a few months time with Virgin Radio, who are positive about the impact it could have on their listeners. Station manager Steve Taylor commented: "Listeners can interact with the radio station in a new way. "Not only does this give listeners more information on the music we play but means they can instantly purchase things they like; mp3 music downloads and the latest gig tickets." Initially Visual Radio functionality will be limited to two Nokia handsets due out soon - the 3230 and 7710 - but if successful, it is very likely that other manufacturers will want to join them.
Listen again to the interview on the Radio Five Live website. | tech |
Gamers could drive high-definition
TV, films, and games have been gearing up for some time now for the next revolution to transform the quality of what is on our screens.
It is called high-definition - HD for short - and it is already hugely popular in Japan and the US. It is set, according to analysts, to do for images what CDs did for sound. Different equipment able to receive HD signals is needed though and is expensive. But Europe's gamers may be the early adopters to drive demand. Europeans will have to wait until at least 2006 until they see mainstream HDTV.
To view it, it needs to be transmitted in HD format, and people need special receivers and displays that can handle the high-quality resolution. The next generation of consoles, however, are expected to start appearing at the end of 2005, start of 2006. And most new computer displays and plasma sets are already capable of handling such high-resolution pictures. "In the next generation [of consoles] HD support is mandatory," Dr Mark Tuffy games systems director at digital content firm THX told the BBC News website. "Every game is going to be playable in HD. "So consumers who have gone out and spent all this money on HDTVs, and who have no content to watch, are going to be blown away by these really high-detail pictures. "It's going to change really the way they look at gaming."
At the end of last year, Chris Deering, Sony's European president, made a prediction that 20 million European households would have HDTV sets by 2008. A previous prediction from analysts Datamonitor put the figure at 4.6 million by 2008, an increase from an estimated 50,000 sets at the end of 2003. But those in Europe may see little point in buying what is quite an expensive bit of technology - about £2,000 - if there are few programmes or films to watch on them. Satellite broadcaster BSkyB is planning HDTV services in 2006 and the BBC intends to produce all of its content in HD by 2010.
Until broadcast rights, format standards - and the practicalities of updating equipment - are agreed, TV content will be limited. All TV images are made up of pixels which go across the screen, and scan lines which go down the screen. Most standard UK TV pictures are made up of 625 lines and about 700 pixels. HD offers up to 1,080 active lines, with each line made up of 1,920 pixels. This means the picture is up to six times as sharp as standard TV. "Probably, in the UK [gaming] is going to be the only thing you are going to really be able to show off, as in 'look what this TV can do', until HD is really adopted by broadcasters," explains Dr Tuffy. But gamers are also the ideal target audience for HD because they always crave better quality graphics, and more immersive gaming experiences. They are used to spending money on hardware to match a game's requirements. Demographics have changed too and the "sweet spot" for the games industry is the gamer in his or her late 20s. This means they are likely to have higher disposable incomes and can afford the price of big-screen, high-definition display technologies and HD projectors, earlier than others.
Higher capacity storage discs, such as HD-DVD and blue-ray , are set to be standard in the next round of games consoles - allowing developers more room for detailed graphics.
For console developers though, HD offers some production changes. It could make games production slightly more expensive, thinks Dr Tuffy. "But we may see the cross-platform development of games becoming more common because they will more easily be able to take a PC game and apply it to a console," he says. "You are literally going to get to the point, with a Lord of the Rings game for example, is going to be closer and closer to the actual film, especially the CGI stuff from the DVD. "And the transition when they move from a cut scene to the game, just now they have almost got it seamless." With HD, he says, the transition will be completely seamless and the same quality as the big-screen cinema release. This could herald an increasing convergence between the film and gaming industry. But it may not be until the generation after the next games consoles where the two industries really collide. At that point, says Dr Tuffy, games could become more or less interactive movies. | tech |
How to make a greener computer
The hi-tech industry is starting to get more environmentally aware. Bill Thompson thinks it's about time.
My first car ran on four star petrol and pumped vast quantities of lead into the atmosphere as I drove around Cambridge. Now you can't buy petrol with lead additives, and we're all better off as a result. Chip giant Intel recently began shipping computer circuit boards that are lead free too, reflecting a growing awareness on the part of the technology industry that products have to be designed and built in more environmentally friendly ways.
Apart from reducing the use of toxic materials like arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals in the products themselves, the manufacturing process is also being cleaned up, with fewer complex and potentially damaging organic chemicals used as solvents. And work is going into making power supplies that are more energy efficient, since current transformers are astonishingly wasteful as they charge our laptops, mobiles and music players.
One of the key aspects of the new approach is to design products that are easier to recycle. If you have got a phone or a computer with toxic chemicals or heavy metals in it then extracting them can be tricky and expensive. A well-designed electronic component is able to be recycled at low cost. This is going to be very important to hardware manufacturers in Europe since from August the new Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment directive will oblige them to accept returned products for recycling.
They will end up paying if they build things that are expensive or impossible to take apart and will find their profits hit, something which is likely to motivate them where appeals to the wider public interest might fall on deaf ears. It is, as they say, about time. We have a long and depressing history of developing new technologies with complete disregard for their potential impact on the environment, and waiting until there is a crisis looming before we try to redesign them to cause less damage. The car engine is a case in point: lead additives helped stop petrol vapour exploding too early in the cylinder, a phenomenon called 'knocking', so they were simply used without any real thought for the fact that the lead would end up in the atmosphere. Redesigning engines and making petrol slightly different was a lot more work, so it took decades before it was done. We're seeing the same thing in the technology industry and, as a result, there are billions of devices, from old mobile phones to antique handhelds, that will have to be recycled in years to come. If Apple gets its way then a lot of people are going to be buying a new Mac Mini and throwing away their old PC, keeping the monitor and other peripherals.
Even if Apple does not get its way, four or five-year-old computers are not good enough to run modern programs and it's not unreasonable to replace them. But what do we do with the old ones?
I've just looked around my office and I find two monitors, an old 386 PC, two old handhelds, three ancient laptops, four antique mobile phones, a collection of rechargeable batteries and even a Sun workstation that is no longer really much use. They are all old enough to be hazardous waste - the monitors alone will be full of arsenic and lead - but it's possible that some of the components could be useful. I could take them up the to the council recycling centre, but it's a 10-mile drive away across town, and like many other people my commitment to recycling is shallow at best. Here in Cambridge we have green bins for compostable waste, a box for glass, cans and paper that can be recycled, and a black bin for the rest. There are bottle banks and clothing banks scattered around town and in supermarket car parks. Would it be too much to ask for an electronics recycling box too? I'd probably remember to take my old mobile with me to the supermarket and drop it in a box - at least eventually.
Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital. | tech |
Microsoft makes anti-piracy move
Microsoft says it is clamping down on people running pirated versions of its Windows operating system by restricting their access to security features.
The Windows Genuine Advantage scheme means people will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. It will still allow those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic updates, but their options would be "limited". Microsoft releases regular security updates to its software to protect PCs. Either PCs detect updates automatically or users manually download fixes through Microsoft's site. Those running pirated Windows programs would not have access to other downloads and "add-ons" that the software giant offers.
People who try to manually download security patches will have to let Microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give an identification number.
Microsoft's regular patches which it releases for newly-found security flaws are important because they stop worms, viruses and other threats penetrating PCs. Some security experts are concerned that restricting access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats, with more PCs left unprotected. But Graham Cluley, senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC News website that it was a positive decision. "It sounds like their decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate and illegitimate users of Windows is good news for everyone who uses the net," he said. Windows Genuine Advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in September 2004 for English-language versions of Windows.
Microsoft's Windows operating system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. The company is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at the same time. Software piracy has cost the company billions, it says. The company announced earlier in January that it was releasing security tools to clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware, which 90% of PCs are infected with. The virus-fighting program, updated monthly, is a precursor to Microsoft's dedicated anti-virus software. Last year it introduced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project, a UK-based pilot scheme, which ran from November to December. The scheme meant that anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November could replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones for free. It is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in China, Norway and the Czech Republic, where pirated software is a huge problem, by offering discounts on legitimate software to users of pirated copies Windows. "China in particular is a problem, with piracy estimated at 92%," said Mr Cluley. | tech |
What's next for next-gen consoles?
The next generation of video games consoles are in development but what will the new machines mean for games firms and consumers? We may not know when they will be released, what they will be called or even what they will be able to do but one thing is certain - they are coming. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are all expected to release new machines in the next 18 months. The details of PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 (codename Xenon) and Nintendo's so-called Revolution are still to be finalised but developers are having to work on titles for the new machines regardless.
"We know maybe what the PS3 will do, but we can only guess," said Rory Armes, studio general manager for video game giant Electronic Arts in Europe. "It's a horrendous effort in the first year," he admitted. Microsoft had delivered development kits to EA, said Mr Armes, but he said the company was still waiting on Sony and Nintendo to send kits. Although the details may not be nailed down, Mr Armes said EA was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. "The rumours are that PlayStation 3 will have a little more under the hood [than Xbox 2]," he said.
"Microsoft is obviously a software company first and foremost, while Sony has more experience in hardware. I think Sony will be able to push more into a box at cost."
What is certain is that the new machines will provide great leaps in processing and graphical power. It is also likely that they will contain convergence technologies to make the machines more of an entertainment hub. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Microsoft boss Bill Gates said Xbox 2 would be part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. While short on detail, he painted a picture of a machine that would complement a PC and offer "great video gaming but video gaming for a broader set of people, more communications, more media, more connectivity". Sony is thought to have a similar vision for PS3 while Nintendo remain focused on a machine purely for games.
Until it is clear precisely what the new machines can do, developers are working on a first round of titles to harness the new horsepower. Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, said the company had a central technology group which was at the forefront of preparing for the next generation of consoles. "We are working on new libraries of effects. A lot of the major techniques are already out there and in use in PC gaming, such as pixel shaders and normal mapping."
Mr Dunn said he expected the introduction of real-world physics to be a major part of the new consoles. "We want to increase that level of immersion and realism in gaming to people can lose themselves in a game." In the first year at least, developers said gamers should not expect games which harness the full potential of the machines. Graphical spit and polish and better physics in line with the capabilities of current high-end graphics cards for PCs should be expected. Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action Studio, said: "It's definitely an exciting time. We want to give more freedom to the player. We want to give players an emotional connection to the characters they play. "The environments will be much more believable and dramatic, growing and changing as you play. "There will be a breadth of effects, more involving worlds to play in.
"It's a bit like being an artist and being given a bigger canvas and a smaller brush. We're being given more tools. "For the average consumer, we can get things of a more filmic quality." Gerhard Florin, head of EA in Europe, said gamers should expect titles that blur the line between films and video games. Many will be sceptical - gamers were given similar predictions during the last transition of console hardware - but this time it would seem to be more likely. "PS3 will provide graphics indistinguishable from movies," said Mr Florin. He said the distribution method for games would also change radically in the next round of consoles. "A gamer could buy a starter disc for 10 euros. When he goes home he goes online and he could buy AI and levels as you go.
"It's much smarter if you can get levels as you go." Mr Armes warned that developers still had to learn how to tell stories effectively in the medium. "In some ways we are trying to forget about the hardware, go in the opposite direction. We have been very bad at letting technology design our creativity. "What we have to do as a company is start ignoring the technology and learning our craft in telling stories." Mr Gardner agreed: "We can thrown more polygons around and have better AI but if it doesn't make for a better game then that's not very useful." Developers will certainly have the tools with the new machines, but how they employ them is still to be decided. | tech |
Latest Opera browser gets vocal
Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be "the most accessible browser on the market", according to its authors.
The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create "style sheets", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. "Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone," said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. "So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."
Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling.
The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. "Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural," said Ms Hanson. "People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience." Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be "trained" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms. | tech |
Mobile games come of age
The BBC News website takes a look at how games on mobile phones are maturing. A brief round-up follows but you can skip straight to the reviews by clicking on the links below. Part two will follow on Monday.
Reviews of Call of Duty, Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow, Lord of the Rings and Pocket Kingdom will follow on Monday If you think of Snake when some mentions "mobile games" then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. This is because mobile games have come a long way in a very short time. Even before Nokia's N-Gage game phone launched in late 2003, many mobile operators were realising that there was an audience looking for something to play on their handset.
And given that many more people own handsets than own portable game playing gadgets such as the GameBoy it could be a very lucrative market. That audience includes commuters wanting something to fill their time on the way home, game fans looking for a bit of variety and hard core gamers who like to play every moment they can. Life for all these types of player has got immeasurably better in the last year as the numbers of titles you can download to your phone has snowballed. Now sites such as Wireless Gaming Review list more than 200 different titles for some UK networks and the ranges suit every possible taste. There are ports of PC and arcade classics such as Space Invaders, Lunar Lander and Bejewelled. There are also versions of titles, such as Colin McRae Rally, that you typically find on PCs and consoles.
There are shoot-em-ups, adventure games, strategy titles and many novel games only found on handsets. Rarely now does an action movie launch without a mobile game tie-in. Increasingly such launches are all part of the promotional campaign for a film, understandable when you realise that a good game can rack up millions of downloads. The returns can be pretty good when you consider that some games cost £5. What has also helped games on mobiles thrive is the fact that it is easier than ever to get hold of them thanks to technology known as Wap push. By sending a text message to a game maker you can have the title downloaded to your handset. Far better than having to navigate through the menus of most mobile operator portals. The number of handsets that can play games has grown hugely too. Almost half of all phones now have Java onboard meaning that they can play the increasingly sophisticated games that are available - even the ones that use 3D graphics.
The minimum technology specifications that phones should adhere to are getting more sophisticated which means that games are too. Now double key presses are possible making familiar tactics such as moving and strafing a real option. The processing power on handsets means that physics on mobile games is getting more convincing and the graphics are improving too. Some game makers are also starting to take advantage of the extra capabilities in a mobile. Many titles, particularly racing games, let you upload your best time to see how you compare to others. Usually you can get hold of their best time and race against a "ghost" or "shadow" to see if you can beat them. A few games also let you take on people in real time via the network or, if you are sitting close to them, via Bluetooth short-range radio technology. With so much going on it is hard to do justice to the sheer diversity of what is happening. But these two features should help point you in the direction of the game makers and give you an idea of where to look and how to get playing.
TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS (DIGITAL BRIDGES)
As soon as I start playing this I remember why I never play driving games - because I'm rubbish at them. No matter if I drive the car via joystick or keypad I just cannot get the hang of braking for corners or timing a rush to pass other drivers. The game rewards replay because to advance you have to complete every section within a time limit. Winning gives you cash for upgrades. Graphically the rolling road is a convincing enough evocation of speed as the palm trees and cactus whip by and the city scrolls past in the background. The cars handle pretty well despite my uselessness but it was not clear if the different models of cars were appreciably different on the track. The only niggle was that the interface was a bit confusing especially when using a joystick rather than the keypad to play.
FATAL FORCE (MACROSPACE)
A futuristic shooter that lets you either play various deathmatch modes against your phone or run through a series of scenarios that involves killing aliens invading Earth. Graphics are a bit cartoon-like but only helps to make clear what is going on and levels are well laid out and encourage you to leap about exploring. Both background music and sounds effects work well. The scenarios are well scripted and you regularly get hints from the Fatal Force commanders. Weapons include flamethrowers, rocket launchers, grenades and at a couple of points you even get chance to use a mech for a short while. With the right power-up you can go into a Matrix-style bullet time to cope with the onslaught of aliens. The game lets you play via Bluetooth if others are in range. Online the game has quite a following with clans, player rankings and even new downloadable maps. | tech |
Web radio takes Spanish rap global
Spin the radio dial in the US and you are likely to find plenty of Spanish-language music. But what you will not find is much Spanish-language hip-hop.
Hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the Spanish-speaking world, but local artists are having trouble marketing their work abroad. But now, a US company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer users everywhere. Los Caballeros de Plan G are one of Mexico's hottest hip-hop acts. They have a devoted fan base in their native Monterrey. But most Mexican hip-hop fans, not to mention fans in most of the Spanish-speaking world, rarely get a chance to hear the group's tracks on the radio.
"You can't really just go on the radio and listen to hip-hop in Spanish... it's just not accessible," says Manuel Millan, a native of San Diego, California. "It's really hard for the Spanish hip-hop scene to get into mainstream radio. You usually have a very commercialised sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world." Millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like Los Caballeros de Plan G accessible to fans globally.
Mainstream radio stations were not going to play this kind of music, and starting their own broadcast station was economically impossible. So, Millan and his friends launched a website called latinohiphopradio.com. The name says it all: it is web-based radio, devoted to the hottest Spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. The site, which is in both in English and Spanish, is meant to be easy to navigate. All the user has to do is download a media player. There are no DJs. It is just music streamed over the net for free. Suddenly, with the help of the website, Los Caballeros de Plan G are producing "export quality" rap.
The web might be just the right medium for Spanish language hip-hop right now. The genre is in what Millan calls its "infant stage". But the production values are improving, and artists such as Argentina's Mustafa Yoda are pushing to make it better and better. Mustafa Yoda is currently one of the hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. "He's considered the Eminem of Argentina, and the Latin American hip-hop scene," Millan says. "He really hasn't had that much exposure as far as anywhere in the world, but he's definitely the one to look out for as far as becoming the next big thing in the Spanish-speaking world." Currently, the Chilean group Makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10, as is Cuban artist Papo Record. "Every country's got it's own cultural differences and they try to put those into their own songs," Millan says. Latinohiphopradio.com has been up and running for a couple of months now. The site has listeners from across the Spanish speaking world. Right now, Mexico leads the way, accounting for about 50% of listeners. But web surfers in Spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the web station's traffic comes from there. That is not surprising as many consider Spain to be the leader in Spanish-language rap and hip-hop. Millan says that Spain is actually just behind the United States and France in terms of overall rap and hip-hop production. That might be changing, though, as more and more Latin American artists are finding audiences.
But one Spaniard is still firmly in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10. His name is Tote King and Manuel Millan says that he is the hip-hop leader in Spain. On his track Uno Contra Veinte Emcees, or One Against 20 Emcees, Tote King shows he is well aware of that fact. "It's basically him bragging that he's one of the best emcees in Spain right now," Millan says. "And it's pretty much true. He has the tightest productions, and his rap flow is impeccable, it's amazing." Latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming year. Millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of Spanish language hip-hop and rap.
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production. | tech |
What high-definition will do to DVDs
First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition.
High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. "There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds," he told the BBC News website.
"The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. "The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master," he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. "As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master," he explains. "I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."
High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: "I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. "I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."
High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. "When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second," says Mr Dean. "Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. "That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard." Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. "If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required." And if studios do focus on delivering more "added value content", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean.
High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. "When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. "In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up," explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too.
"There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. "You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it." What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. "In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive," says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves. | tech |
Junk e-mails on relentless rise
Spam traffic is up by 40%, putting the total amount of e-mail that is junk up to an astonishing 90%.
The figures, from e-mail management firm Email Systems, will alarm firms attempting to cope with the amount of spam in their in-boxes. While virus traffic has slowed down, denial of service attacks are on the increase according to the firm. Virus mail accounts for just over 15% of all e-mail traffic analysis by the firm has found.
It is no longer just multi-nationals that are in danger of so-called denial of service attacks, in which websites are bombarded by requests for information and rendered inaccessible. Email Systems refers to a small UK-based engineering firm, which received a staggering 12 million e-mails in January. The type of spam currently being sent has subtlety altered in the last few months, according to Email Systems analysis. Half of spam received since Christmas has been health-related with gambling and porn also on the increase. Scam mails, offering ways to make a quick buck, have declined by 40%. "January is clearly a month when consumers are less motivated to purchase financial products or put money into dubious financial opportunities," said Neil Hammerton, managing director of Email Systems. "Spammers seem to have adapted their output to reflect this, focussing instead on medically motivated and pornographic offers, presumably intentionally intended to coincide with what is traditionally considered to be the bleakest month in the calendar," he said. | tech |
Warning over tsunami aid website
Net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims.
The site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official Disasters Emergency Committee webpage. However, DEC has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. The site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster.
The link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. The message's subject line reads "Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal" and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. The web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. Patricia Sanders, spokeswoman for the Disaster Emergency Committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard to help get it shut down. She said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. It is thought that the fake site is being run from Romania. Ms Sanders said DEC had contacted US net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web.
DEC was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. BT and DEC's hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down, she said.
Ms Sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not DEC's style and that it would never canvass support in this way. She said that DEC hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. All attempts by the BBC News website to contact the people behind the site have failed. None of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. This is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. One e-mail sent out in early January came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the Netherlands. The con was very similar to the familiar Nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. Other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. In a monthly report anti-virus firm Sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during January. Another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the Zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program. Anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to. | tech |
More women turn to net security
Older people and women are increasingly taking charge of protecting home computers against malicious net attacks, according to a two-year study.
The number of women buying programs to protect PCs from virus, spam and spyware attacks rose by 11.2% each year between 2002 and 2004. The study, for net security firm Preventon, shows that security messages are reaching a diversity of surfers. It is thought that 40% of those buying home net security programs are retired. For the last three years, that has gone up by an average of 13.2%. But more retired women (53%) were buying security software than retired men. The research reflects the changing stereotype and demographics of web users, as well as growing awareness of the greater risks that high-speed broadband net connections can pose to surfers.
The study predicts that 40% of all home PC net security buyers will be women in 2005. They could even overtake men as the main buyers by 2007, if current rates persist, according to the research. "I think older people have become more vigilant about protecting their PCs as we tend to be more cautious and want an insurance policy in case something does go wrong", said one over-60 woman who took part in the research.
"You started off with young male stereotype computer users for last 10 years," Paul Goosens, head of Preventon told the BBC News website. "Now we are seeing real people - both sexes and very often it is women who have more access at home." But net service providers still need to take more responsibility in making sure people are educated about net threats before they go online, particuarly if they are new to broadband, he said.
Programs also need to be tailored so that they can be installed by dial-up users with a slower connection too, said Mr Goosens. Security software should be easy to use, with simple interfaces and instructions written in non-technical language, he added. The nature of the security threats are also becoming more than just about e-mail viruses. High-profile complaints about rogue diallers, and spyware or other programs that surreptitiously install themselves on computers, have also raised awareness about the need to have a combination of anti-virus, firewall and spyware-removal programs too. Without protection, these kinds of programs can be picked up just through surfing the web normally.
More than 30,000 PCs a day globally are being recruited into networks that spread spam and viruses, a study from security from Symantec showed last year. Viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are also getting rarer, according to net security experts. Programs are being unleashed to directly profit criminal gangs, many based in Eastern Europe, over those which are designed to show off technical skills or cause nuisance. The research shows that more people are taking these criminal net threats more seriously because, said Mr Goosens, they are reported in the press much more. "You are seeing older users being educated by the media and are seeing them picking up on this threat. They are asking the right questions," he explained. "It is more likely the younger users who naively assume that because they are using a reputable service provider, that they are safe to connect to the net." An unprotected computer on a broadband connection can be breached and infected with viruses or spyware within minutes. By the end of the year it is thought that more than 30% of UK homes will have broadband net access. In July last year, the number of UK households accessing the net via broadband surpassed those using dial-up for the first time, according to the Office of National Statistics. | tech |
Sony PSP console hits US in March
US gamers will be able to buy Sony's PlayStation Portable from 24 March, but there is no news of a Europe debut.
The handheld console will go on sale for $250 (£132) and the first million sold will come with Spider-Man 2 on UMD, the disc format for the machine. Sony has billed the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan. The console (12cm by 7.4cm) will play games, movies and music and also offers support for wireless gaming. Sony is entering a market which has been dominated by Nintendo for many years.
It launched its DS handheld in Japan and the US last year and has sold 2.8 million units. Sony has said it wanted to launch the PSP in Europe at roughly the same time as the US, but gamers will now fear that the launch has been put back. Nintendo has said it will release the DS in Europe from 11 March. "It has gaming at its core, but it's not a gaming device. It's an entertainment device," said Kaz Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America. | tech |
Ask Jeeves joins web log market
Ask Jeeves has bought the Bloglines website to improve the way it handles content from web journals or blogs.
The Bloglines site has become hugely popular as it gives users one place in which to read, search and share all the blogs they are interested in. Ask Jeeves said it was not planning to change Bloglines but would use the 300 million articles it has archived to round out its index of the web. How much Ask Jeeves paid for Bloglines was not revealed.
Bloglines has become popular because it lets users build a list of the blogs they want to follow without having to visit each journal site individually. To do this it makes use of a technology known as Really Simple Syndication (RSS) that many blogs have adopted to let other sites know when new entries are made on their journals. The acquisition follows similar moves by other search sites. Google acquired Pyra Labs, makers of the Blogger software, in 2003. In 2004 MSN introduced its own blog system and Yahoo has tweaked its technology to do a better job of handling blog entries. Jim Lanzone, vice president of search properties at Ask Jeeves in the US, said it did not acquire Bloglines just to get a foothold in the blog publishing world. He said Ask Jeeves was much more interested in helping people find information they were looking for rather than helping them write it.
"The universe of readers is vastly larger than the universe of writers," he said. Mr Lanzone said the acquisition would sit well with Ask's My Jeeves service which lets people customise their own web experience and build up a personal collection of useful links. "Search engines are about discovering information for the first time and RSS is the ideal way to keep track of and monitor those sites," he said. It would also help drive information and entries from blogs to the portals that Ask Jeeves operates. There would be no instant sweeping changes to Bloglines, said Mr Lanzone. "Our intent is to take our time to figure out the right business model not to try to monetise it right away," he said. Though Mr Lanzone added that Ask Jeeves would be helping organise the database of 300m blog entries Bloglines holds with its own net indexing technology. "Being able to search the blogosphere as one corpus of information will be very useful in its own right," said Mr Lanzone. Rumours about the acquisition were broken by the Napsterization weblog which said it got the hint from Ask Jeeves insiders. | tech |
Why Cell will get the hard sell
The world is casting its gaze on the Cell processor for the first time, but what is so important about it, and why is it so different?
The backers of the processor are big names in the computer industry. IBM is one of the largest and most respected chip-makers in the world, providing cutting edge technology to large businesses. Sony will be using the chip inside its PlayStation 3 console, and its dominance of the games market means that it now has a lot of power to dictate the future of computer and gaming platforms. The technology inside the Cell is being heralded as revolutionary, from a technical standpoint. Traditional computers - whether they are household PCs or PlayStation 2s - use a single processor to carry out the calculations that run the computer. The Cell technology, on the other hand, uses multiple Cell processors linked together to run lots of calculations simultaneously.
This gives it processing power an order of magnitude above its competitors. Whilst its rivals are working on similar technology, it is Sony's which is the most advanced. The speed of computer memory has been slowly increasing over the last few years, but the memory technology that accompanies the Cell is a huge leap in performance.
Using a technology called XDR, created by American firm Rambus, memory can run up to eight times faster than the current standard being promoted by Intel. Perhaps more important than any of the technology is the Cell's role in the imminent "war on living rooms". The big trend predicted for this year is the convergence of computers with home entertainment devices such as DVD players and hi-fis. Companies like Microsoft and Sony believe that there is a lot of money to be made by putting a computer underneath the TV of every household and then offering services such as music and video downloads, as well as giving an individual access to all the media they already own in one place.
Microsoft has already made its first tactical move into this area with its Windows Media Center software, which has been adopted by many PC makers. Sony had a stab at something similar with the PSX - a variation on the PlayStation - last year in Japan, although this attempt was generally seen as a failure. Both companies believe that increasing the capabilities of games consoles, to make them as powerful as PCs, will make the technology accessible enough to persuade buyers to give them pride of place on the video rack.
Sony and IBM want to make sure that the dominance of the PC market enjoyed by Microsoft and Intel is not allowed to extend to this market. By creating a radically new architecture, and using that architecture in a games console that is sure to be a huge seller, they hope that the Cell processor can become the dominant technology in the living room, shutting out their rivals. Once they have established themselves under the TV, there is no doubt that they hope to use this as a base camp to extend their might into our traditional PCs and instigate a regime change on the desktop. Cell is, in fact, specifically designed to be deployed throughout the house. The links between the multiple processors can also be extended to reach Cell processors in entirely different systems.
Sony hopes to put Cells in televisions, kitchen appliances and anywhere that could use any sort of computer chip. Each Cell will be linked to the others, creating a vast home network of computing power. Resources of the Cells across the house can be pooled to provide more power, and the links can also be used to enable devices to talk to each other, so that you can programme your microwave from your TV, for example. This digital home of the future depends on the widespread adoption of the Cell processor and there are, as with all things, a number of reasons it could fail. Because the processor is so different, it requires programmers to learn a different way of writing software, and it may be that the changeover is simply too difficult for them to master. You can also guarantee that Microsoft and Intel are not going to sit around and let Cell take over home computing without a fight. Microsoft is going to be pushing its Xbox 2 as hard as possible to make sure that its technology, not Sony's, will be under your tree next Christmas. Intel will be furiously working on new designs that address the problems of its current chips to create a rival technology to Cell, so that it doesn't lose its desktop PC dominance. If Cell succeeds in becoming the living room technology of choice, however, it could provide the jump-start to the fully digital home of the future. The revolution might not be televised, but it could well be played with a videogame controller. | tech |
PlayStation 3 processor unveiled
The Cell processor, which will drive Sony's PlayStation 3, will run 10-times faster than current PC chips, its designers have said.
Sony, IBM and Toshiba, who have been working on the Cell processor for three years, unveiled the chip on Monday. It is being designed for use in graphics workstations, the new PlayStation console, and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. The chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 GHz, the firms said. By comparison, rival chip maker Intel's fastest processor runs at 3.8 GHz. Details of the chip were released at the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between Intel and the Cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products. The PlayStation 3 is expected in 2006, while Toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. IBM has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year.
Cell is comprised of several computing engines, or cores. A core based on IBM's Power architecture controls eight "synergistic" processing centres. In all, they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences, compared with two for current Intel chips.
Later this year, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices plan to release their own "multicore" chips, which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. The Cell's specifications suggest the PlayStation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems. "Any new technology like this has two components," said Steve Kleynhans, an analyst with Meta Group. He said: "It has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. "Then there's the reality of how it's really going to be used, which generally is several levels down the chain from there."
While the PlayStation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use Cell, the chip's designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications, from servers to mobile phones. Initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console, however, because the first version of the Cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan. And while marketing speak describes the chip as a "supercomputer" - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world's top 500 supercomputers. IBM said Cell was "OS neutral" and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if Microsoft's Windows was among those tested with the chip. If Cell is to challenge Intel's range of chips in the marketplace, it will need to find itself inside PCs, which predominantly run using Windows. | tech |
Consumer concern over RFID tags
Consumers are very concerned about the use of radio frequency ID (RFID) tags in shops, a survey says.
More than half of 2,000 people surveyed said they had privacy worries about the tags, which can be used to monitor stock on shelves or in warehouses. Some consumer groups have expressed concern that the tags could be used to monitor shoppers once they had left shops with their purchases. The survey showed that awareness of tags among consumers in Europe was low. The survey of consumers in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands was carried out by consultancy group Capgemini. The firm works on behalf of more than 30 firms who are seeking to promote the growth of RFID technology. The tags are a combination of computer chip and antenna which can be read by a scanner - each item contains a unique identification number.
More than half (55%) of the respondents said they were either concerned or very concerned that RFID tags would allow businesses to track consumers via product purchases. Fifty nine percent of people said they were worried that RFID tags would allow data to be used more freely by third parties. Ard Jan Vetham, Capgemini's principal consultant on RFID, said the survey showed that retailers needed to inform and educate people about RFID before it would become accepted technology. "Acceptance of new technologies always has a tipping point at which consumers believe that benefits outweigh concerns. "With the right RFID approach and ongoing communication with consumers, the industry can reach this point." He said that the survey also showed people would accept RFID if they felt that the technology could mean a reduction in car theft or faster recovery of stolen items. The tags are currently being used at one Tesco distribution centre in the UK - the tags allow the rapid inventory of bulk items. They are also in use as a passcard for the M6 Toll in the Midlands, in the UK. Mr Vetham said the majority of people surveyed (52%) believed that RFID tags could be read from a distance. He said that was a misconception based on a lack of awareness of the technology. At least once consumer group - Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian) - has claimed that RFID chips could be used to secretly identify people and the things they are carrying or wearing. All kinds of personal belongings, including clothes, could constantly broadcast messages about their whereabouts and their owners, it warned. | tech |
Mobiles 'not media players yet'
Mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing, all-dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players, say two reports.
Despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles, people do not want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life, said Jupiter. A separate study by Gartner has also said real-time TV broadcasts to mobiles is "unlikely" in Europe until 2007. Technical issues and standards must be resolved first, said the report. Batteries already have to cope with other services that operators offer, like video playback, video messaging, megapixel cameras and games amongst others. Bringing music download services based on the success of computer-based download services will put more demands on battery life.
Fifty percent of Europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to choosing their phone, but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. "Mobile phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the PC music experience as the handsets are not yet ready," said Thomas Husson, mobile analyst at Jupiter research. "Mobile music services should be new and different, and enable operators to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches." Other problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones, compared to portable players which can hold up to 40GB of music. The mobile industry is keen to get into music downloading, after the success of Apple's iTunes, Napster and other net music download services.
With phones getting smarter and more powerful, there are also demands to be able to watch TV on the move. In the US, services like TiVo To Go let people transfer pre-recorded TV content onto their phones. But, the Gartner report on mobile TV broadcasting in Europe suggests direct broadcasting will have to wait. Currently, TV-like services, where clips are downloaded, are offered by several European operators, like Italy's TIM and 3. Mobile TV will have to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though, said the report.
Various standards and ways of getting TV signals to mobiles are being worked on globally. In Europe, trials in Berlin and Helsinki are making use of terrestrial TV masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. A service from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation lets people watch TV programmes on their mobiles 24 hours a day. The service uses 3GP technology, one of the standards for mobile TV. But at the end of 2004, the European Telecommunications Institute (Etsi) formally adopted Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H) as the mobile TV broadcasting standard for Europe. Operators will be working on the standard as a way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles, as well as trying to overcome several other barriers. The cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need to be addressed. Handsets also need to be able to work with the DVB-H standard. TV services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital TV generation too, which expects good quality images at low prices, according to analysts. People are also likely to be put off watching TV on such small screens, said Gartner. Digital video recorders, like Europe's Sky+ box, and video-on-demand services mean people have much more control over what TV they watch. As a result, people may see broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. More powerful smartphones like the XDA II, Nokia 6600, SonyEricsson P900 and the Orange E200, offering web access, text and multimedia messaging, e-mail, calendar and gaming are becoming increasingly common. A report by analysts InStat/MDR has predicted that smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. It says that smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009. | tech |
Blind student 'hears in colour'
A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps.
Victor Wong, a graduate student from Hong Kong studying at Cornell University in New York State, had to read coloured maps of the upper atmosphere as part of his research. To study "space weather" Mr Wong needed to explore minute fluctuations in order to create mathematical models. A number of solutions were tried, including having a colleague describe the maps and attempting to print them in Braille. Mr Wong eventually hit upon the idea of translating individual colours into music, and enlisted the help of a computer graphics specialist and another student to do the programming work.
"The images have three dimensions and I had to find a way of reading them myself," Mr Wong told the BBC News website. "For the sake of my own study - and for the sake of blind scientists generally - I felt it would be good to develop software that could help us to read colour images." He tried a prototype version of the software to explore a photograph of a parrot. In order to have an exact reference to the screen, a pen and tablet device is used. The software then assigns one of 88 piano notes to individually coloured pixels - ranging from blue at the lower end of this scale to red at the upper end. Mr Wong says the application is still very much in its infancy and is only useful for reading images that have been created digitally. "If I took a random picture and scanned it and then used my software to recognise it, it wouldn't work that well."
Mr Wong has been blind from the age of seven and he thinks that having a "colour memory" makes the software more useful than it would be to a scientist who had never had any vision. "As the notes increase in pitch I know the colour's getting redder and redder, and in my mind's eye a patch of red appears." The colour to music software has not yet been made available commercially, and Mr Wong believes that several people would have to work together to make it viable. But he hopes that one day it can be developed to give blind people access to photographs and other images. | tech |
Apple attacked over sources row
Civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has joined a legal fight between three US online journalists and Apple.
Apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which leaked information about forthcoming products, including the Mac Mini. The EFF, representing the reporters, has asked California's Superior court to stop Apple pursuing the sources. It argues that the journalists are protected by the American constitution. The EFF says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press.
Apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased product code-named Asteroid and has asked the journalists' e-mail providers to hand over communications relevant to that. "Rather than confronting the issue of reporter's privilege head-on, Apple is going to the journalist's ISPs for his e-mails," said EFF lawyer Kurt Opsahl. "This undermines a fundamental First Amendment right that protects all reporters. "If the court lets Apple get away with this, and exposes the confidences gained by these reporters, potential confidential sources will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a vital outlet for independent news, analysis and commentary," he said. The case began in December 2004 when Apple asked a local Californian court to get the journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites AppleInsider.com and PowerPage.org.
Apple also sent requested information from the Nfox.com, the internet service provider of PowerPage's publisher Jason O-Grady. As well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being published, the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. The EFF has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with Apple, including Professor Tom Goldstein, former dean of the Journalism School at the University of California and Dan Gillmor, a well-known Silicon Valley journalist. Apple was not immediately available for comment. | tech |
Mobile audio enters new dimension
As mobile phones move closer to being a ubiquitous, all-in-one media player, audio is becoming ever more important. But how good can that sound be from such a small device?
The sound of a buzzing bee jumps from left to right before disappearing around the back of my head. The surround sound demo is unremarkable when heard on a multi-speaker home cinema system but startling when emerging from a small mobile phone. British firm Sonaptic is one of a number of companies to have developed 3D audio technology that emerges from stereo speakers. Firms AM3D and SRS both offer stereo-widening technology for mobile phones. But Sonaptic's managing director David Monteith says his firm is the only company to offer positional 3D audio on a mobile.
"There are quite a few basic technologies out there, making the sound seem a bit bigger, headphones a bit nicer.
"No-one has really tried before to make proper 3D positional audio - where an individual channel can be moved around." Sonaptic has been working with Japanese mobile network NTT DoCoMo to set standards for 3D audio on mobile phones. In the last few months handsets from NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi have been released on to the Japanese marker which have chips produced by Yamaha and Rohm with Sonaptic's technology. "The technology has been around on PCs and games consoles for some time but what we are doing is making it more efficient so it can go on a small consumer device like a mobile phone," said Mr Monteith.
The technology works through applying the science of psychoacoustics and grew out of medical research done by the company's research director Dr Alastair Sibbald. "We are basically trying to fool your ears into thinking sound is coming from areas it actually isn't. "Your brain uses certain bits of information which we are effectively synthesising on a mobile phone handset." The structure of the ear works as a 3D encoder for sound - helping the brain understand from where sound is emanating. Sonaptic's audio processing algorithms mimic that 3D encoding, giving the impression that sound is coming from the left, right, and behind a listener when in fact it is coming from a single source. Mr Montieth says: "If the sound is off to one side it will get to one ear before the other - if it is on the right it has to bend around your head to get to your left ear.
"The shape of your ear causes differences in sound from one ear to the other. We are synthesising those differences." Sonaptic hopes the technology will have a big impact in the growing market of mobile gaming and music downloading. "Handhelds often have limitations - screens will be small by definition. "If you want to get impact from media you are running - either a movie, a game or watching TV - if you want it to be more immersive then our technology can help." A fishing game is the first title to use the technology, creating a 3D sound field while the gamer plays. Driving games and shoot 'em ups using the technology are in development. The technology can also be used for music - giving songs a much more expansive and immersive feel. Sonaptic offers its technology on a chip or in software and is about to release a new version which significantly improves the efficiency of the audio processing. "It's important we only use 10 or 15% of the processor otherwise you won't be able to play a game on the handset," explained Mr Montieth. The company is now looking to the US and European markets, where it has been working with network Vodafone. "We have focused first on Japan because it has a very advanced mobile phone market. "We knew Japan would be the first place to have the handsets that could use our technology. "There should be handsets out in the UK in the next six months." | tech |
DVD copy protection strengthened
DVDs will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm Macrovision.
The pirated DVD market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. Macrovision says its new RipGuard technology will thwart most, but not all, of the current DVD ripping (copying) programs used to pirate DVDs. "RipGuard is designed to... reduce DVD ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer," said the firm. Macrovision said the new technology will work in "nearly all" current DVD players when applied to the discs, but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with RipGuard. Some BBC News website users have expressed concerns that the new technology will mean that DVDs will not work on PCs running the operating system Linux. The new technology will be welcomed by Hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from DVD sales.
The film industry has stepped up efforts to fight DVD piracy in the last 12 months, taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of DVD movies for download.
"Ultimately, we see RipGuard DVD... evolving beyond anti-piracy, and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions, interoperability in tomorrow's digital home, and the upcoming high-definition formats," said Steve Weinstein, executive vice president and general manager of Macrovision's Entertainment Technologies Group. Macrovision said RipGuard would also prevent against "rent, rip and return" - where people would rent a DVD, copy it and then return the original. RipGuard is expected to be rolled out on DVDs from the middle of 2005, the company said. The new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used, those programs will now most likely crash, the company said. Macrovision has said that Rip Guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures. | tech |
Millions buy MP3 players in US
One in 10 adult Americans - equivalent to 22 million people - owns an MP3 player, according to a survey.
A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that MP3 players are the gadget of choice among affluent young Americans. The survey did not interview teenagers but it is likely that millions of under-18s also have MP3 players. The American love affair with digital music players has been made possible as more and more homes get broadband.
Of the 22 million Americans who own MP3 players, 59% are men compared to 41% of women. Those on high income - judged to be $75,000 (£39,000) or above - are four times more likely to have players than those earning less than $30, 000 ( £15,000). Broadband access plays a big part in ownership too. Almost a quarter of those with broadband at home have players, compared to 9% of those who have dial-up access. MP3 players are still the gadget of choice for younger adults. Almost one in five US citizens aged under 30 have one. This compares to 14% of those aged 30-39 and 14% of those aged 40-48. The influence of children also plays a part. Sixteen percent of parents living with children under 18 have digital players compared to 9% of those who don't. The ease of use and growth of music available on the net are the main factors for the upsurge in ownership, the survey found. People are beginning to use them as instruments of social activity - sharing songs and taking part in podcasting - the survey found. "IPods and MP3 players are becoming a mainstream technology for consumers" said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "More growth in the market is inevitable as new devices become available, as new players enter the market, and as new social uses for iPods/MP3 players become popular," he added. | tech |
Britons fed up with net service
A survey conducted by PC Pro Magazine has revealed that many Britons are unhappy with their internet service.
They are fed up with slow speeds, high prices and the level of customer service they receive. 17% of readers have switched suppliers and a further 16% are considering changing in the near future. It is particularly bad news for BT, the UK's biggest internet supplier, with almost three times as many people trying to leave as joining.
A third of the 2,000 broadband users interviewed were fed up with their current providers but this could be just the tip of the iceberg thinks Tim Danton, editor of PC Pro Magazine. "We expect these figures to leap in 2005. Every month the prices drop, and more and more people are trying to switch," he said. The survey found that BT and Tiscali have been actively dissuading customers from leaving by offering them a lower price when they phone up to cancel their subscription. Some readers were offered a price drop just 25p more expensive than that offered by an alternative operator, making it hardly worth while swapping.
Other found themselves tied into 12-month contracts. Broadband has become hugely competitive and providers are desperate to hold on to customers. 12% of those surveyed found themselves unable to swap at all. "We discovered a huge variety of problems, but one of the biggest issues is the current supplier withholding the information that people need to give to their new supplier," said Tim Danton, editor of PC Pro. "This breaks the code of practice, but because that code is voluntary there's nothing we or Ofcom can do to help," he said. There is a vast choice of internet service providers in the UK now and an often bewildering array of broadband packages. With prices set to drop even further in coming months Mr Danton advises everyone to shop around carefully. "If you just stick with your current connection then there's every chance you're being ripped off," he warned. | tech |
Intel unveils laser breakthrough
Intel has said it has found a way to put a silicon-based laser on a chip, raising hopes of much faster networks.
Scientists at Intel have overcome a fundamental problem that before now has prevented silicon being used to generate and amplify laser light. The breakthrough should make it easier to interconnect data networks with the chips that process the information. The Intel researchers said products exploiting the breakthrough should appear by the end of the decade.
"We've overcome a fundamental limit," said Dr Mario Paniccia, director of Intel's photonics technology lab. Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Paniccia - and colleagues Haisheng Rong, Richard Jones, Ansheng Liu, Oded Cohen, Dani Hak and Alexander Fang - show how they have made a continuous laser from the same material used to make computer processors. Currently, says Dr Paniccia, telecommunications equipment that amplifies the laser light that travels down fibre optic cables is very expensive because of the exotic materials, such as gallium arsenide, used to make it.
Telecommunications firms and chip makers would prefer to use silicon for these light-moving elements because it is cheap and many of the problems of using it in high-volume manufacturing have been solved. "We're trying to take our silicon competency in manufacturing and apply it to new areas," said Dr Paniccia. While work has been done to make some of the components that can move light around, before now silicon has not successfully been used to generate or amplify the laser light pulses used to send data over long distances. This is despite the fact that silicon is a much better amplifier of light pulses than the form of the material used in fibre optic cables. This improved amplification is due to the crystalline structure of the silicon used to make computer chips. Dr Paniccia said that the structure of silicon meant that when laser light passed through it, some colliding photons rip electrons off the atoms within the material. "It creates a cloud of electrons sitting in the silicon and that absorbs all the light," he said. But the Intel researchers have found a way to suck away these errant electrons and turn silicon into a material that can both generate and amplify laser light. Even better, the laser light produced in this way can, with the help of easy-to-make filters, be tuned across a very wide range of frequencies. Semi-conductor lasers made before now have only produced light in a narrow frequency ranges. The result could be the close integration of the fibre optic cables that carry data as light with the computer chips that process it. Dr Paniccia said the work was the one of several steps needed if silicon was to be used to make components that could carry and process light in the form of data pulses. "It's a technical validation that it can work," he said. | tech |
EU software patent law faces axe
The European Parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented.
Politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. During consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. The bill was backed by some hi-tech firms, saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile.
Hugo Lueders, European director for public policy at CompTIA, an umbrella organization for technology companies, said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would European inventors prosper. He said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. Other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the American system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. But opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation, be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. The proposed law had a troubled passage through the European parliament. Its progress was delayed twice when Polish MEPs rejected plans to adopt it. Also earlier this month the influential European Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of MEPs. To become law both the European Parliament and a qualified majority of EU states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. The latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the EU for re-consideration. | tech |
IBM puts cash behind Linux push
IBM is spending $100m (£52m) over the next three years beefing up its commitment to Linux software.
The cash injection will be used to help its customers use Linux on every type of device from handheld computers and phones right up to powerful servers. IBM said the money will fund a variety of technical, research and marketing initiatives to boost Linux use. IBM said it had taken the step in response to greater customer demand for the open source software.
In 2004 IBM said it had seen double digit growth in the number of customers using Linux to help staff work together more closely. The money will be used to help this push towards greater collaboration and will add Linux-based elements to IBM's Workplace software. Workplace is a suite of programs and tools that allow workers to get at core business applications no matter what device they use to connect to corporate networks. One of the main focuses of the initiative will be to make it easier to use Linux-based desktop computers and mobile devices with Workplace. Even before IBM announced this latest spending boost it was one of the biggest advocates of the open source way of working. In 2001 it put $300m into a three-year Linux program and has produced Linux versions of many of its programs. Linux and the open source software movement are based on the premise that developers should be free to tinker with the core components of software programs. They reason that more open scrutiny of software produces better programs and fuels innovation. | tech |
Apple iPod family expands market
Apple has expanded its iPod family with the release of its next generation of the digital music players.
Its latest challenges to the growing digital music gadget market include an iPod mini model which can hold 6GB compared to a previous 4GB. The company, which hopes to keep its dominant place in the digital music market, also said the gold coloured version of the mini would be dropped. A 30GB version has also been added to the iPod Photo family. The latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an average of £40. The original iPod took an early lead in the digital music player market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design.
During 2004 about 25 million portable players were sold, 10 million of which were Apple iPods. But analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the iTunes online store, which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music market. Mike McGuire, a research director at analyst Gartner, told the BBC News website that Apple had done a good job in "sealing off the market from competition" so far. "They have created a very seamless package which I think is the idea of the product - the design, function and the software are very impressive," he said. He added that the threat from others was always present, however. "Creative, other Microsoft-partnered devices, Real, Sony and so on, are ratcheting up the marketing message and advertising," he said. Creative was very upbeat about how many of its Creative Zen players it had shipped by the end of last year, he said. Its second-generation models, like the Creative Zen Micro Photo, is due out in the summer. It will have 5GB of memory on board.
Digital music players are now the gadget of choice among young Americans, according to recent research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. One in 10 US adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital music player of some sort. Sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than tenfold in 2004, according to the record industry, with 200 million tracks bought online in the US and Europe in 12 months. The IFPI industry body said that the popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. Analysts say that the ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to drive the trend towards portable music players.
People are also starting to use them in novel ways. Some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them have with other net functions to automatically distribute DIY radio shows, called podcasts. But 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated handsets. According to Mr McGuire, research suggests that people like the idea of building up huge libraries of music, which they can do with high-capacity storage devices, like iPods and Creative Zens. Mobiles do not yet have this capacity though, and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. Mr McGuire said Apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal with Motorola to produce a version of iTunes for Motorola phones. | tech |
US woman sues over ink cartridges
A US woman is suing Hewlett Packard (HP), saying its printer ink cartridges are secretly programmed to expire on a certain date.
The unnamed woman from Georgia says that a chip inside the cartridge tells the printer that it needs re-filling even when it does not. The lawsuit seeks to represent anyone in the US who has purchased an HP inkjet printer since February 2001. HP, the world's biggest printer firm, declined to comment on the lawsuit. HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change.
But the suit claims the chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty. "The smart chip is dually engineered to prematurely register ink depletion and to render a cartridge unusable through the use of a built-in expiration date that is not revealed to the consumer," the suit said. The lawsuit is asking for restitution, damages and other compensation. The cost of printer cartridges has been a contentious issue in Europe for the last 18 months. The price of inkjet printers has come down to as little as £34 but it could cost up to £1,700 in running costs over an 18-month period due to cartridge, a study by Computeractive Magazine revealed last year. The inkjet printer market has been the subject of an investigation by the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT), which concluded in a 2002 report that retailers and manufacturers needed to make pricing more transparent for consumers. | tech |
Security warning over 'FBI virus'
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the FBI.
The e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. The messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center. An attachment in the e-mail contains the virus, the FBI said. The message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. But rather than being a questionnaire, the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient's computer, according to the agency. It is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. Users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know.
"Recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the FBI does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner," the FBI said in a statement. The bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. The agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts, used to communicate with the public, because of a security breach. A spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated. | tech |
Mobile networks seek turbo boost
Third-generation mobile (3G) networks need to get faster if they are to deliver fast internet surfing on the move and exciting new services.
That was one of the messages from the mobile industry at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes last week. Fast 3G networks are here but the focus has shifted to their evolution into a higher bandwidth service, says the Global Mobile Suppliers Association. At 3GSM, Siemens showed off a system that transmits faster mobile data. The German company said data could be transmitted at one gigabit a second - up to 20 times faster than current 3G networks. The system is not available commercially yet, but Motorola, the US mobile handset and infrastructure maker, held a clinic for mobile operators on HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a high-speed, high bandwidth technology available now. Early HSDPA systems typically offer around two megabits per second (Mbps) compared with less than 384 kilobits per second (Kbps) on standard 3G networks.
"High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) - sometimes called Super 3G - will be vital for profitable services like mobile internet browsing and mobile video clips," according to a report published by UK-based research consultancy Analysys. A number of companies are developing the technology. Nokia and Canada-based wireless communication products company Sierra Wireless recently agreed to work together on High Speed Downlink Packet Access. The two companies aim to jointly market the HSDPA solution to global network operator customers.
"While HSDPA theoretically enables data rates up to a maximum of 14Mbps, practical throughputs will be lower than this in wide-area networks," said Dr Alastair Brydon, author of the Analysys report: Pushing Beyond the Limits of 3G with HSDPA and Other Enhancements. "The typical average user rate in a real implementation is likely to be in the region of one megabit per second which, even at this lower rate, will more than double the capacity... when compared to basic WCDMA [3G]," he added. Motorola has conducted five trials of its technology and says speeds of 2.9Mbps have been recorded at the edge of an outdoor 3G cell using a single HSDPA device. But some mobile operators are opting for a technology called Evolution, Data Optimised (EV-DO).
US operator Sprint ordered a broadband data upgrade to its 3G network at the end of last year. We are "expanding our network and deploying EV-DO technology to meet customer demand for faster wireless speeds," said Oliver Valente, Sprint's vice president for technology development, when the contract was announced. As part of $3bn in multi-year contracts announced late last year, Sprint will spend around $1bn on EV-DO technology from Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola that provides average data speeds of 0.3-0.5 megabits a second, and peak download rates of 2.4Mbps. MMO2, the UK-based operator with services in the UK, Ireland and Germany, has opted for technology based on HSDPA. Using technology from Lucent, it will offer data speeds of 3.6Mbps from next summer on its Isle of Man 3G network, and will eventually support speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. US operator Cingular Wireless is also adopting HSDPA, using technology from Lucent alongside equipment from Siemens and Ericsson.
Siemens' plans for a one gigabit network may be more than a user needs today, but Christoph Caselitz, president of the mobile networks division at the firm says that: "By the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts in 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10." Siemens - in collaboration with the Fraunhofer German-Sino Lab for Mobile Communications and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology - has souped up mobile communications by using three transmitting and four receiving antennae, instead of the usual one. This enables a data transmission, such as sending a big file or video, to be broken up into different flows of data that can be sent simultaneously over one radio frequency band. The speeds offered by 3G mobile seemed fast at the time mobile operators were paying huge sums for 3G licences. But today, instead of connecting to the internet by slow, dial-up phone connection, many people are used to broadband networks that offer speeds of 0.5 megabits a second - much faster than 3G. This means users are likely to find 3G disappointing unless the networks are souped up. If they aren't, those lucrative "power users", such as computer geeks and busy business people will avoid them for all but the most urgent tasks, reducing the potential revenues available to mobile operators. But one gigabit a second systems will not be available immediately. Siemens says that though the system works in the laboratory, it still has to assess the mobility of multiple-antennae devices and conduct field trials. A commercial system could be as far away as 2012, though Siemens did not rule out an earlier date. | tech |
Mac Mini heralds mini revolution
The Mac Mini was launched amid much fanfare by Apple and great excitement by Apple watchers last month. But does the latest Macintosh justify the hype? Let us get a few things dealt with at the outset - yes, the Mac Mini is really, really small, and yes, it is another piece of inspired Apple design. There is more to be said on the computer's size and design but it is worth highlighting that the Mac Mini is a just a computer. Inside that small box there is a G4 processor, a CD/DVD player, a hard drive, some other technical bits and bobs and an operating system. A DVD burner, wireless and bluetooth technologies can be bought at extra cost. And if you do not have a monitor, keyboard or mouse then you will need to purchase those also.
It is not the fastest computer for the money but for under £400 you are getting something more interesting than mere technical specifications - Apple software. The Mac Mini comes bundled with Mac OS X, the operating system, as well as iLife 05, a suite of software which includes iTunes, web browser Safari, iPhoto, Garage Band and iDVD. I doubt many PC lovers would seriously argue that Windows XP comes with a better suite of programs than Mac OS X.
Of course, users of open source operating system Linux draw up their own menu of programs. For people who want to do interesting things with their music, photos and home movies then a Mac Mini is an ideal first computer or companion to a main computer. "It's a good little machine with a reasonable amount of power and just perfect for the average computer user who wants to leave the tyranny of Window and viruses," said Mark Sparrow, technical and reviews editor at Mac Format magazine. He added: "In essence, it's a laptop in a biscuit tin, minus the screen and the keyboard. "The software bundle that comes with the mini makes your average budget PC look a bit sick." The relatively low price of the machine has also encouraged the more technically-savvy to experiment with their Macs. One user has already created a "dock" to enable him to plug in and out his Mac Mini in his car.
The small size of the machine makes it a practical solution for in-car entertainment - playing movies and music - as well as navigation. Another user has mounted his Mac Mini to the back of his large plasma screen and then controls the computer via a wireless keyboard and mouse. When it was first announced some pundits thought the Mini was designed as a sort of stealth media centre - ie the machine would be used to serve TV programmes, music, films and photos - partly due to its small, living room friendly design. But there are obvious reasons why this is not the case - at least not in the here and now The hard drive - at 80GB for the larger model - is too small to be realistically used as media centre.
While commercial Personal Video Recorders are on the market with smaller than 80GB hard drives it is worth remembering that they only store TV content. A media centre computer has to store music, files and photos and as such 80GB just seems too small. Most PCs running Windows Media Center have at least 120GB hard disks. Coupled with the lack of a TV tuner card, a digital audio out and any kind of media centre software bundled with the machine then the Mac Mini should be judged on what it is, not what it is not. But that has not stopped more enterprising users from adapting the Mac Mini to media centre uses. So - is the Mac Mini just another computer or a revolution in computing? Graham Barlow, editor of Mac Format, understandably has a rather partisan viewpoint. "It's just a Mac, but we should be very excited - it's revolutionary in its size (smaller than PCs), looks (looks better than PCs), and the fact that it's the first Mac designed to really go for the low-cost PC market." The design of the Mac Mini is further evidence of a future when PCs are more than just bland, bulky boxes. There are a number of companies who already produce miniature PCs based on mini-ITX motherboards. But at the moment these PCs tend to be either for the home-build enthusiast or expensive pre-built options based around Microsoft's Media Center software. But for the value the Mac Mini offers, bringing some of the best software packages within reach of more consumers than ever before, Apple is to be congratulated. Let us say then that if the Mac Mini is not a fully fledged revolution - it is a mini revolution. | tech |
Can Yahoo dominate next decade?
Yahoo has reached the grand old age of 10 and, in internet years, that is a long time.
For many, Yahoo remains synonymous with the internet - a veteran that managed to ride the dot-com wave and the subsequent crash and maintain itself as one of the web's top brands. But for others there is another, newer net icon threatening to overshadow Yahoo in the post dot-com world - Google.
The veteran and the upstart have plenty in common - Yahoo was the first internet firm to offer initial public shares and Google was arguably the most watched IPO (Initial Public Offering) of the post-dot-com era. Both began life as search engines although in 2000, when Yahoo chose Google to power its search facility while it concentrated on its web portal business, it was very much Yahoo that commanded press attention. In recent years, the column inches have stacked up in Google's favour as the search engine also diversifies with the launch of services such as Gmail, its shopping channel Froogle and Google News.
For Jupiter analyst Olivier Beauvillain, Yahoo's initial decision to put its investment on search on hold was an error. "Yahoo was busy building a portal and while it was good to diversify they made a big mistake in outsourcing search to Google," he said "They thought Google would just be a technology provider but it has become a portal in its own right and a direct competitor," he added. He believes Yahoo failed to see how crucial search would become to internet users, something it has rediscovered in recent years. "It is interesting that in these last few years, it has refocused on search following the success of Google," he said. But for Allen Weiner, a research director at analyst firm Gartner and someone who has followed Yahoo's progress since the early years, the future of search is not going to be purely about the technology powering it. "Search technology is valuable but the next generation of search is going to be about premium content and the interface that users have to that content," he said. He believes the rivalry between Google and Yahoo is overblown and instead thinks the real battle is going to be between Yahoo and MSN. It is a battle that Yahoo is currently winning, he believes. "Microsoft has amazing assets including software capability and a global name but it has yet to show me it can create a rival product to Yahoo," he said.
He is convinced Yahoo remains the single most important brand on the world wide web.
"I believe Yahoo is the seminal brand on the web. If you are looking for a text book definition of web portal then Yahoo is it," he said. It has achieved this dominance, Mr Weiner believes, by a canny combination of acquisitions such as that of Inktomi and Overture, and by avoiding direct involvement in either content creation or internet access. That is not to say that Yahoo hasn't had its dark days. When the dot-com bubble burst, it lost one-third of its revenue in a single year, bore a succession of losses and saw its market value fall from a peak of $120bn to $4.6bn at one point. Crucial to its survival was the decision to replace chief executive Tim Koogle with Terry Semel in May 2001, thinks Mr Weiner. His business savvy, coupled with the technical genius of founder Jerry Yang has proved a winning combination, he says.
So as the internet giant emerges from its first decade as a survivor, how will it fare as it enters its teenage years? "The game is theirs to lose and MSN is the only one that stands in the way of Yahoo's domination," predicted Mr Weiner. Nick Hazel, Yahoo's head of consumer services in the UK, thinks the fact that Yahoo has grown up with the first wave of the internet generation will stand it in good stead. Search will be a key focus as will making Yahoo Messenger available on mobiles, forging new broadband partnerships such as that with BT in the UK and continuing to provide a range of services beyond the desktop, he says. Mr Weiner thinks Yahoo's vision of becoming the ultimate gateway to the web will move increasing towards movies and television as more and more people get broadband access. "It will spread its portal wings to expand into rich media," he predicts. | tech |
Looks and music to drive mobiles
Mobile phones are still enjoying a boom time in sales, according to research from technology analysts Gartner.
More than 674 million mobiles were sold last year globally, said the report, the highest total sold to date. The figure was 30% more than in 2003 and surpassed even the most optimistic predictions, Gartner said. Good design and the look of a mobile, as well as new services such as music downloads, could go some way to pushing up sales in 2005, said analysts. Although people were still looking for better replacement phones, there was evidence, according to Gartner, that some markets were seeing a slow-down in replacement sales.
"All the markets grew apart from Japan which shows that replacement sales are continuing in western Europe," mobile analyst Carolina Milanesi told the BBC News website. "Japan is where north America and western European markets can be in a couple of years' time. "They already have TV, music, ringtones, cameras, and all that we can think of on mobiles, so people have stopped buying replacement phones."
But there could be a slight slowdown in sales in European and US markets too, according to Gartner, as people wait to see what comes next in mobile technology. This means mobile companies have to think carefully about what they are offering in new models so that people see a compelling reason to upgrade, said Gartner. Third generation mobiles (3G) with the ability to handle large amounts of data transfer, like video, could drive people into upgrading their phones, but Ms Milanesi said it was difficult to say how quickly that would happen. "At the end of the day, people have cameras and colour screens on mobiles and for the majority of people out there who don't really care about technology the speed of data to a phone is not critical." Nor would the rush to produce two or three megapixel camera phones be a reason for mobile owners to upgrade on its own. The majority of camera phone models are not at the stage where they can compete with digital cameras which also have flashes and zooms.
More likely to drive sales in 2005 would be the attention to design and aesthetics, as well as music services. The Motorola Razr V3 phone was typical of the attention to design that would be more commonplace in 2005, she added. This was not a "women's thing", she said, but a desire from men and women to have a gadget that is a form of self-expression too. It was not just about how the phone functioned, but about what it said about its owner. "Western Europe has always been a market which is quite attentive to design," said Ms Milanesi.
"People are after something that is nice-looking, and together with that, there is the entertainment side. "This year music will have a part to play in this." The market for full-track music downloads was worth just $20 million (£10.5 million) in 2004, but is set to be worth $1.8 billion (£94 million) by 2009, according to Juniper Research. Sony Ericsson just released its Walkman branded mobile phone, the W800, which combines a digital music player with up to 30 hours' battery life, and a two megapixel camera. In July last year, Motorola and Apple announced a version of iTunes online music downloading service would be released which would be compatible with Motorola mobile phones. Apple said the new iTunes music player would become Motorola's standard music application for its music phones. But the challenge will be balancing storage capacity with battery life if mobile music hopes to compete with digital music players like the iPod. Ms Milanesi said more models would likely be released in the coming year with hard drives. But they would be more likely to compete with the smaller capacity music players that have around four gigabyte storage capacity, which would not put too much strain on battery life. | tech |
Hotspot users gain free net calls
People using wireless net hotspots will soon be able to make free phone calls as well as surf the net.
Wireless provider Broadreach and net telephony firm Skype are rolling out a service at 350 hotspots around the UK this week. Users will need a Skype account - downloadable for free - and they will then be able to make net calls via wi-fi without paying for net access. Skype allows people to make free PC-based calls to other Skype users.
Users of the system can also make calls to landlines and mobiles for a fee. The system is gaining in popularity and now has 28 million users around the world. Its paid service - dubbed Skype Out - has so far attracted 940,000 users. It plans to add more paid services with forthcoming launches of video conferencing, voice mail and Skype In, a service which would allow users to receive phone calls from landlines and mobiles. London-based software developer Connectotel has unveiled software that will expand the SMS functions of Skype, allowing users to send text messages to mobile phones from the service. Broadreach Networks has around two million users and hotspots in places such as Virgin Megastores, the Travelodge chain of hotels and all London's major rail terminals. The company is due to launch wi-fi on Virgin Trains later in the year. "Skype's success at spreading the world about internet telephony is well-known and we are delighted to be offering free access to Skype users in our hotspots," commented Broadreach chief executive Magnus McEwen-King. | tech |
Domain system opens door to scams
A system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like Cyrillic could open a back door for scammers, a trade body has warned.
The Internationalised Domain Names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force. But the UK Internet Forum (UKIF) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. The problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language.
Registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers, says Stephen Dyer, director of UKIF. Domain names are the "real language" addresses of websites, rather than their internet protocol address, which is a series of numbers. They are used so people can more easily navigate the web. So-called ASCII codes are used to represent European languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called Unicode is used. So, for example, website PayPal could now be coded using a mixture of the Latin alphabet and the Russian alphabet. The resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a Russian 'a' look just like an English 'a'. But the computer code would be different, and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. This is more than just a theory. A fake Paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant Verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the Internationalised Domain Name (IDN) system, said Mr Dyer. As the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to Paypal but it sets a worrying precedent, Mr Dyer said. "Although the IDN problem is well known in technical circles, the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked," said Mr Dyer.
"It is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site," he added. There are solutions. For instance, browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. Mr Dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world's browsers. Another solution, to introduce IDN-disabled browsers could be a case of "throwing out the baby with the bath water," he said. CENTR, the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, agrees. "A rush to introduce IDN-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in IDNs - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-English speaking world," the organisation said in a statement. | tech |
Sony PSP tipped as a 'must-have'
Sony's Playstation Portable is the top UK gadget for 2005, according to a round-up of ultimate gizmos compiled by Stuff Magazine.
It beats the iPod into second place in the Top Ten Essentials list which predicts what gadget-lovers are likely to covet this year. Owning all 10 gadgets will set the gadget lover back £7,455. That is £1,000 cheaper than last year's list due to falling manufacturing costs making gadgets more affordable.
Portable gadgets dominate the list, including Sharp's 902 3G mobile phone, the Pentax Optio SV digital camera and Samsung's Yepp YH-999 video jukebox.
"What this year's Essentials shows is that gadgets are now cheaper, sexier and more indispensable than ever. We've got to the point where we can't live our lives without certain technology," said Adam Vaughan, editor of Stuff Essentials. The proliferation of gadgets in our homes is inexorably altering the role of the high street in our lives thinks Mr Vaughan. "Take digital cameras, who would now pay to develop an entire film of photos? Or legitimate downloads, who would travel miles to a record shop when they could download the song in minutes for 70p?" he asks. Next year will see a new set of technologies capturing the imaginations of gadget lovers, Stuff predicts. The Xbox 2, high-definition TV and MP3 mobiles will be among the list of must-haves that will dominate 2006, it says. The spring launch of the PSP in the UK is eagerly awaited by gaming fans. | tech |
'No re-draft' for EU patent law
A proposed European law on software patents will not be re-drafted by the European Commission (EC) despite requests by MEPs.
The law is proving controversial and has been in limbo for a year. Some major tech firms say it is needed to protect inventions, while others fear it will hurt smaller tech firms. The EC says the Council of Ministers will adopt a draft version that was agreed upon last May but said it would review "all aspects of the directive". The directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect, in other words, "computer implemented invention".
In a letter, EC President José Manuel Barroso told the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, that the Commission "did not intend to refer a new proposal to the Parliament and the Council (of ministers)" as it had supported the agreement reached by ministers in May 2004.
If the European Council agrees on the draft directive it will then return for a second reading at the European Parliament. But that will not guarantee that the directive will become law - instead it will probably mean further delays and controversy over the directive. Most EU legislation now needs the approval of both parliament and the Council of Ministers before it becomes law. French Green MEP Alain Lipietz warned two weeks ago that if the Commission ignored the Parliament's request it would be an "insult" to the assembly. He said that the parliament would then reject the Council's version of the legislation as part of the final or conciliation stage of the decision procedure. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted.
This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its "one-click shopping" service, for example. Critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in Europe. This, they fear, could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. Supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing EU laws in line with the US. | tech |
Ultra fast wi-fi nears completion
Ultra high speed wi-fi connections moved closer to reality on Thursday when Intel said it would list standards for the technology later this year.
Intel is developing ultra-wideband technology (UWB) which would allow fast data transfer but with low power needs. UWB is tipped to be used for wireless transfer of video in the home or office and for use in wireless USB devices which need low power consumption. A rival UWB standard is being developed by Motorola and chip firm Freescale. At the mobile phone conference 3GSM in Cannes last month Samsung demonstrated a phone using UWB technology from Freescale.
At a press conference on Thursday Intel announced that two UWB groups, WiMedia Alliance and Multi-band OFDM alliance had merged to support the technology. UWB makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. One of the more likely uses of UWB is to make it possible to send DVD quality video images wirelessly to TV screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home.
The technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. "Consumer electronics companies want UWB to replace cables and simplify set-up," Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist at Intel and chairman of the Wireless USB Promoter Group, told technology site ZDNet. "Thirty percent of consumer electronics returns are because the consumer couldn't set up the equipment." The first products using UWB technology from Intel are due to hit the market later this year. Initially they will be products using wireless USB 2.0 connections. UWB could also be used to create so-called Personal Area Networks that let a person's gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. The technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. Intel says the benefit of UWB is that it does not interfere with other wi-fi technologies already in use such as wi-fi, wimax and mobile phone networks. | tech |
Virgin Radio offers 3G broadcast
UK broadcaster Virgin Radio says it will become the first station in the world to offer radio via 3G mobiles.
The radio station, in partnership with technology firm Sydus, will broadcast on selected 2G and high-speed 3G networks. Later this year listeners will be able to download software from the Virgin website which enables the service. James Cridland, head of new media at Virgin Radio, said: "It places radio at the heart of the 3G revolution." Virgin Radio will be the first station made available followed by two digital stations, Virgin Radio Classic Rock and Virgin Radio Groove.
Mr Cridland said: "This application will enable anyone, anywhere to listen to Virgin Radio simply with the phone in their pocket. "This allows us to tap into a huge new audience and keep radio relevant for a new generation of listeners." Saumil Nanavati, president of Sydus, said, "This radio player is what the 3G network was built for, giving consumers high-quality and high-data products through a handset in their pocket." Virgin says an hour's listening to the station via mobile would involve about 7.2MB of data, which could prove expensive for people using pay as you download GPRS or 3G services. Some networks, such as Orange, charge up to £1 for every one megabyte of data downloaded. Virgin says radio via 2G or 3G mobiles is therefore going to appeal to people with unlimited download deals. There are 30 compatible handsets available from major manufacturers including Nokia and Samsung while Virgin said more than 14.9 million consumers across the globe can use the service currently. | tech |
More movies head to Sony's PSP
Movies Open Water and Saw are among those to be made available for Sony's PSP games console.
Film studio Lions Gate entertainment has announced an initial list of 12 movies that will be on the UMD format used by the handheld. "The typical buyer of the machine [is] the core demographic to whom our films generally appeal," said Steve Beeks, president of Lions Gate. Already available in Japan, the PSP is released in the US on 24 March. Spider-Man 2 on UMD will be given to the first million customers in the US.
The Punisher and House of the Dead along with older titles such as Total Recall and Rambo: First Blood, will be in the UMD format, with disks costing between $20 (£10.40) to $30 (£15.60) for new titles and $10 (£5.20) to $20 for older films.
"When we first saw the machine and started talking to Sony, we immediately decided it was going to be a winner, both from the gaming perspective and from the perspective of people watching movies on the go," Mr Beeks said. The disks, which are smaller than DVDs, only work in Sony's PSP and can hold up to 1.8GB of data. "We actually believe people who buy the UMD would not have bought it on DVD," he said. "There are people who will want UMD because of the portability. Maybe they're already taking the games with them out of the house, and they're bigger gamers than they are movie watchers." Four movies have already been announced for PSP. They are: XXX, Hellboy, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. | tech |
Warnings on woeful wi-fi security
Companies are getting worse at keeping their wireless data networks secure.
A survey of wi-fi networks in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco by RSA Security found more than a third had basic security features turned off. By contrast last year's survey found that 15% of firms had failed to take basic steps to improve security. RSA warned that wi-fi's growing popularity made it much more likely that insecure networks would be found and exploited.
Wireless or wi-fi networks have become hugely popular over the last few years in offices because they are easy to set up and make going online much more convenient. This popularity shows no sign of slowing reveals the annual RSA Security and NetSurity survey which found an annual 66% growth rate in the number of wireless nets being installed in London and Frankfurt. Although most firms do take steps to turn on the security functions built in to the wi-fi standard and protect themselves from attack, the survey found that a significant proportion were taking unnecessary risks. On average 33% of the wireless networks found by RSA and NetSurity researchers in London, Frankfurt, New York and San Francisco had not used basic security systems. Many firms were simply turning on their wireless net access points and use default settings that anyone familiar with wi-fi could easily find out. RSA said that 26% of wi-fi networks found London used default settings compared to 30% in Frankfurt, 31% in New York and 28% in San Francisco. Many users of wi-fi nets did not even turn on the encryption that scrambles data traffic between users and the access point helping them go online. This is despite a series of stories warning firms about the dangers of "drive-by hacking" in which computer criminals walk or drive around city centres using easy to use tools to spot wi-fi nets. "These figures are another stark warning to unsecured businesses to get their act together," said Phil Cracknell, chief technology officer at NetSurity. As more public wi-fi hotspots appear and people become more familiar with using them, it was getting more likely that insecure would be found, warned Mr Cracknell. "Accidental or intentional connection to a corporate network can bring with it a series of security issues including loss of confidential data and installation of malicious code," he said. | tech |
Cebit opens to mobile music tune
Cebit, the world's largest hi-tech fair, has opened its doors in Hanover for a look at the latest technologies for homes and businesses.
There are more than 6,000 exhibitors registered and about 500,000 visitors are expected to pass through the doors. Third generation mobiles, the digital home and broadband are key themes at the show. Camera phones will get better resolutions as vendors set out to prove that bigger is definitely better. Samsung is set to steal some initial limelight with the launch of a 7-megapixel phone on the opening day.
The SCH-V770 has some of the features of high-end digital single lens reflex cameras such as manual focus and the ability to attach a telephoto or wide-angle lens. Camera phones are likely to prove an interesting battle ground at the show, said Ben Wood, principal analyst at research firm Gartner. "It is firmly established that cameras are an integral part of phones and now the technology arms race is on in terms of megapixels. There will be a certain amount of 'look how big mine is'," he said. There will also be increasing focus on music-enabled mobiles. "At 3GSM in Cannes everyone went music mad and music is going to be a big theme for all the vendors at Cebit," said Mr Wood. Sony Ericsson will use the fair to show off the W800 - its recently unveiled Walkman branded phone - and there is speculation that Motorola may unveil its ROKR handset, widely tipped as the first to carry Apple's iTunes music software. Apple and Motorola announced they were getting together at the end of last year as a result of a long-standing friendship between Motorola's chief executive Ed Zander and Steve Jobs.
Some analysts think Motorola may save the launch for CTIA, a wireless show in America the following week, which could be a telling sign about how operators are coming to view the German tech fair.
"One of the interesting things is that CeBIT is clearly a show in decline," said Mr Wood. "A lot of the big players, such as Nokia, are pulling back saying it is hard to justify a big presence at all of the shows. It could be the last big year for Cebit," he said. Other themes include TV-enabled mobiles which are bound to create a buzz in the halls as Vodafone unveils a prototype handset that can show live digital television. There has been a glut of recent headlines about mobile TV - French operators are teaming up, O2 is trialling a system in Oxford, UK, and Nokia begins trialling a system in Finland with the Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE TV and commercial TV channels. Cebit could become the battleground for the two competing methods for getting TV on to mobiles, and is also likely to provide a stage for a technology slated to compete with 3G. HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) has been described as "3G on steroids" and could offer consumers much faster download times. For instance, a song which currently takes one and a half minutes to download to a phone could be done in 10 seconds. Korean giants LG Electronics and Samsung will show off HSDPA handsets at the show and the technology is set to be rolled out in the US, Europe and Korea next year. Broadband will continue to be a key theme at the show with internet telephony proving this year's killer application.
Germany's largest online service provider, T-Online, is tipped to reveal software for low-cost net telephony which would see it competing with its parent company Deutsche Telekom. Cebit is used by many to unveil cutting edge products and in the mobile sphere this is likely to mean a lot of bright, colourful handsets as fashion continues to compete with technology when it comes to the device everyone has in their pockets. Rainbow-coloured phones, influenced by handsets from Japan, are just one example of how Asian companies will stamp their mark on this year's show, at which they will have their biggest ever presence. Cebit organisers have created a digital home in Hall 25 of the 27 hangar-like buildings that will house the show. "The digital home will be a hyped theme at the show. The house will be totally wired and full of things that can be used for home entertainment," said Cebit organiser Gabriele Dorries. | tech |
Game makers get Xbox 2 sneak peek
Microsoft has given game makers a glimpse of the new Xbox 2 console.
Some details of the Xbox's performance and what gaming will be like with the device were given at the annual Game Developers Conference in the US. Xbox frontman J. Allard said the console looked set to be capable of one trillion calculations per second. Also all titles for the new Xbox will have the same interface to make it easy to play online and buy extras for characters or other add-ons for games.
Microsoft is saving the official unveiling of the Xbox 2, codenamed Xenon, for the E3 show in May and the device could be on shop shelves by November. However, during his keynote speech at GDC Mr Allard, who heads development of game-making tools for the console, gave a glimpse into how some of its core software will work. He said gaming was entering a "high-definition" era that demanded detailed and convincing graphics that could adequately compete with the HDTV people were starting to watch as well as the HD DVDs that will soon start to appear.
Industry watchers took this to mean that the Xbox 2 will push for HDTV quality graphics as standard as well as multi-channel audio to give gamers an authentic experience. Mr Allard said Microsoft had to work hard to ensure that it was easy for game makers to produce titles for the Xbox 2 and for players to get playing. To this end Microsoft was building in to Xbox hardware systems to support headset chat, buddy list controls and custom soundtracks so developers were free to concentrate on the games. The Xbox would also support well-known industry specifications, such as DirectX, to make it simple for game studios to make titles for the console. For gamers this emphasis on ease of use would mean every Xbox title uses the same interface to set up online play and get at music stored on the hardware. This interface will hold details of a player's statistics and skill level on a "gamer card" as well as give access to a store where people can spend small amounts of cash to buy extras for their avatars or add-ons, such as new maps or vehicles, for games they possess. This ability to personalise games and in-game characters would be key in the future, said Mr Allard. Only with such consistency would the Xbox be able to support the 10-20 million subscribers that it was aiming for, said Mr Allard. During his speech Mr Allard took several swipes at the Playstation and said processors for consoles had to be made with developers, not just engineers, in mind. "Our approach is Bruce Lee, not brute force," he said. | tech |
Broadband set to revolutionise TV
BT is starting its push into television with plans to offer TV over broadband.
As a telecoms company, BT is moving to a content distribution strategy, Andrew Burke, chief of BT's new Entertainment unit told the IPTV World Forum. "We want to be an entertainment facilitator," he said on the opening day of the London conference. The BBC is also trialling a service to play programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers overseas. The corporation's Interactive Media Player (iMP) is its first foray into broadband TV - known as IPTV (Internet Protocol TV).
"We see several opportunities for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to get to viewers," said BT's Andrew Burke.
With more people on broadband, and connection speeds increasing, telcos around the world are looking for new ways to make money from it. Increased competition between net service providers, encouraged by Ofcom, has eroded BT's position in the market. It is looking for a good return on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over ADSL a reality. It also sees delivering TV over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (HD) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional, regular broadcasts. The BBC's iMP has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. Before it officially launches, the BBC must show the government how it offers value for money. Delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value, says the BBC, because it gives people more control, and more choice.
IPTV is a similar idea to VoIP services, like Skype. Both use broadband net connections to carry information, like video and voice, in packets of data instead of conventional means. Since it uses internet technology, IPTV could mean more choice of programmes, more, more interactivity, tailored programming, and more localised content outside of conventional satellite, digital cable, and terrestrial broadcasts.
It is all part of the larger changing TV technology landscape and, like personal digital video recorders (PVRs), gives people much more control over TV. Broadcasters see IPTV and PVRs as both as a threat and an opportunity. The BBC recognises that TV over broadband is a reality and aims to innovate with it, said Rahul Chakkara, controller of BBCi's 24/7 interactive TV services. The iMP is based on peer-to-peer technology, and lets people download programmes the BBC owns the rights to for up to seven days after broadcast. "IPTV enables us to take back that programme to our audience at different times," said Mr Chakkara.
"So we can tell our audience that that programme they paid for [via the licence fee], they can access it any time they want." It helps, said Mr Burke, that people are more au fait with terms like "digital", "interactive", now that digital TV reaches more than 56% of UK homes. According to Benoit Joly from broadband telecoms firm Thales, 30% of Europe cannot get satellite TV or digital TV. They could get IPTV though. Analysts say that IPTV will account for 10% of the digital TV market in Europe alone by the end of the decade. What needs to happen now, agree analysts, is for connection speeds to be bumped up to handle the service; 20Mbps connections would be ideal. BT does not see itself as a broadcaster of IPTV services, rather as an "enabler", said Mr Burke. Its strategy is a "hybrid" approach, he explained, where over-the-air conventional broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband.
Initially appealing to niche markets, like sports fans, it will widen out. But IPTV could be used for home-monitoring, "pet cams", localised news services, and local authority TV, too says BT. It even suggests that it could target those households in the UK that do not own a computer, 40% of the country.
Broadband to them would not be about data and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more choice of TV programmes. Home Choice already offers 10,000 hours of shows and channels, delivered over broadband to homes in London. With a broadband net subscription, you can also get your TV and phone service. Through content deals and partnerships, it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels, and bespoke channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. It aims to expand nationally, but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15,000 subscribers now, and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. Although still at a very early stage, IPTV is another application for broadband that underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like electricity. | tech |
Chip maker backs net phone calls
Rich Templeton, the head of giant chip maker Texas Instruments, has given his backing to the growing sector of Voice over Internet Telephony (Voip)
Voip allows PC users, and in some cases those with just a broadband connection, to make telephone calls via the net. Mr Templeton said Voip would be the next major application to drive broadband connections into homes. Internet service provider Wanadoo has announced it is launching its own broadband telephony service in the UK.
Subscribers to Wanadoo's broadband service will be able to use the service to make free evening and weekend calls to any UK landline, and free calls at any time to other Wanadoo users. The service will cost an extra £4 a month and will come with a free Livebox, the broadband hub which Wanadoo plans will be used in future to provide video-on-demand and home security services. The secondary phone line will mean customers can have an extra home phone number and will also provide wireless internet access around the home. Eventually the service will replace existing landline services as Wanadoo goes head to head with BT. "Voice-over broadband is a key trend across Europe and is set to have a dramatic impact on the telecommunications industry, " Eric Abensur, Wanadoo's chief executive told the BBC News website. Mr Templeton said he agreed. "Voice-over-packet is going to be the second killer application after broadband internet access," he said. The world's largest maker of chips for mobile phones believes the technology will grow rapidly from the relatively small user base it has currently.
Almost 83 million people have downloaded the software that powers the Skype Voip service, according to the net telephony firm's website. Skype lets people make free calls to other Skype users and also make low-cost calls to ordinary phone numbers. US firm Vonage also offers a Voip service, but one which lets people plug an ordinary phone into a broadband router to make calls. Bill Simmelink, general manager of TI's Voip business, said the technology would only take off when people were making net calls with the ease of making a normal call. "It's not about the pipe, if you will, or the silicon per se, it's about the application," he said.
"We want to communicate freely, effortlessly and economically wherever we are." In a sign that Voip is seeping into the mainstream, giant ISP AOL announced on Tuesday that it had plans to launch a net-based phone service for some of its members within the month. Customers will continue to use their traditional phones, but they will plug them into adapters connected to their broadband source rather than the jack provided by the telephone company. Calls are received and placed just like on the old telephone network. "We can help mass-market adoption of Voip," said AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller. "We can utilise our national footprint. We can help the entire industry become well known." | tech |
Nintendo DS makes its Euro debut
Nintendo's DS handheld game console has officially gone on sale in Europe.
Many stores around the UK opened at midnight to let keen gamers get their hands on the device. The two-screen clamshell gadget costs £99 (149 euros) and 15 games are available for it at launch, some featuring well-known characters such as Super Mario and Rayman. The DS spearheads Nintendo's attempt to continue its dominance of the handheld gaming market.
Since going on sale in Japan and the US at the end of 2004, Nintendo has sold almost 4m DS consoles.
Part of this popularity may be due to the fact that the DS can run any of the catalogue of 700 games produced for Nintendo's GameBoy Advance handheld. Games for the DS are expected to cost between £19 and £29. About 130 games for the DS are in development.
As well as having two screens, one of which is controlled by touch, the DS also lets players take on up to 16 other people via wireless. A "download play" option means DS owners can take each other on even if only one of them owns a copy of a particular game. Other DS owners can also be sent text messages and drawings. Nintendo is also planning to release a media adapter for the handheld so it can play music and video. Five Virgin megastores and 150 Game shops were expected to open early on Friday morning to let people buy a DS. "We know that customers want it as soon as it's released - and that means the minute, not the day," said Robert Quinn, Game's UK sales director.
But Nintendo will only have sole control of Europe's handheld gaming market for a few weeks because soon Sony is expected to release its PSP console. Although Nintendo is aiming for younger players and the PSP is more for older gamers, it is likely that the two firms will be competing for many of the same customers. Sony's PSP represents a real threat to Nintendo because of the huge number of PlayStation owners around the world and the greater flexibility of the sleek black gadget. The PSP uses small discs for games, can play music and movies without the need for add-ons and also supports short-range wireless play. When it goes on sale the PSP is likely to cost between £130 and £200. | tech |
Slow start to speedy net services
Faster broadband in the UK is becoming a reality as more internet providers offer super-fast services.
Some lucky Britons can already take advantage of UK Online's 8 megabits per second service, which was launched in November 2004. BT Retail has announced that it will trial the same speed service, with a national rollout by year end. Other service providers are expected to follow suit and a glut of new voice and video services will follow.
"If the bandwidth is there then ISPs will buy it," said Jill Finger, a research director at analyst firm IDC. Others will be watching BT Retail's trials, which is initially for employees and later in the summer for customers, with interest. For BT Retail, she said, the super-fast service could be a way of differentiating it from other players. "It has been losing market share and this could be one way of gaining some of that back," said Ms Finger. Wanadoo is set to trial an 8Mbps service in the summer and also plans to roll out unbundled services - which means it takes over the network from BT - which will provide speeds of up to 15Mbps. There is no timetable for this at the moment. Cable firms ntl and Telewest are also bound to increase bandwidth at some time in the future and, according to an ntl spokesman, are in a better position than BT in the long term. "BT's network is limited compared to that of cable. With all the other services coming on stream such as video on demand, the question is will 8Mbps be enough?" he asked. | tech |
Anti-tremor mouse stops PC shakes
A special adaptor that helps people with hand tremors control a computer mouse more easily has been developed.
The device uses similar "steady cam" technology found in camcorders to filter out shaking hand movements. People with hand tremors find it hard to use conventional mice for simple computer tasks because of the erratic movements of the cursor on the screen. About three million Britons have some sort of hand tremor condition, said the UK National Tremor Foundation. "Using a computer mouse is well known for being extremely hard for people with tremors so we're delighted to hear that a technology has been developed to address this problem," said Karen Walsh, from the UK National Tremor Foundation. Most commonly associated with tremors is Parkinson's disease, but they can also be caused by other conditions like Essential Tremor (ET). Tremors more often affect older people, but can hit all ages. ET, for example, is genetic and can afflict people throughout their lives.
The Assistive Mouse Adapter (AMA) is the brainchild of IBM researcher Jim Levine who developed the prototype after seeing his uncle, who has Parkinson's disease, struggle with mouse control. "I knew that there must be way to improve the situation for him and the millions of other tremor sufferers around the world, including the elderly.
"The number of elderly computer users will increase as the population ages, and at the same time, the need for computer access grows," he said. Computer users plug the device into a PC, and it can be adjusted depending on how severe the tremor is. It is also able to recognise multiple clicking on a mouse button caused by shaky digits. IBM said it would partner up with a small UK-based electronics firm, Montrose Secam, to produce the devices which will cost about £70. James Cosgrave, one of the company's directors, said it would make a big difference to those with tremors. "I'm a pilot and my tremor condition has not limited my ability to fly a plane," he said. "But using a PC has proven almost impossible simply because everything revolves around using the mouse to accurately manipulate the tiny cursor on the screen." He said a prototype of the gadget had transformed his life.
The device could help open up computing to millions more people who have found shaking to be a barrier. Last year, the Office for National Statistics reported that for the first time, more than half of all households in Britain had a home computer. With prices getting cheaper to get online too, computer ownership is increasing. But although 62% of British people have tried the internet, only 15% of Britons aged 65 or over have been online. More than six million UK households now have a broadband net. By the middle of 2005, it is estimated that 50% of all UK net users will be on broadband. There are still millions using the net through dial-up connections too. | tech |
The pirates with no profit motive
Two men who were part of a huge network of internet software pirates, known as Drink Or Die, have been convicted at the Old Bailey. BBC News investigates how the network worked and what motivated those involved.
They called themselves Drink Or Die (DOD). They were a network of computer buffs who derived pleasure from cracking codes protecting copyrighted software such as Windows 95. They would then share it with each other. There is no suggestion any of them profited financially. But the authorities in both Britain and the United States considered it software piracy and took a dim view of networks such as DOD, one of a number of so-called warez organisations operating on the internet. In October 2000 the US Customs Service began an investigation into DOD and other networks, such as Razor 1911, Risciso, Myth and Popz.
Fourteen months later US Customs co-ordinated a series of raids across the globe as part of Operation Buccaneer. Seventy search warrants were executed in the US, Britain, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Finland. At least 60 people were arrested worldwide - 45 of them in the US. Among the leaders of the network were Americans John Sankus - known by his internet nickname Eriflleh (Hellfire spelt backwards) - Richard Berry, Kent Kartadinata and Christopher Tresco, who used a server based at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The longest jail sentence - 46 months - was handed down to Sankus, a 28-year-old from Philadelphia. US Attorney Paul McNulty said at the time: "John Sankus and his techno-gang operated in the faceless world of the internet and thought they would never be caught. "They were wrong. These sentences, and those to follow, should send a message to others entertaining similar beliefs of invincibility." But one man still in legal limbo is British-born Australian Hew Raymond Griffiths, who is still fighting against extradition to the US.
US Customs claimed Mr Griffiths was one of DOD's leaders but his lawyer, Antony Townsden, told the BBC News website it was a laughable suggestion and added: "He was living on welfare and had such an old computer that he couldn't even download software. "The allegation that he was the group's co-leader is illusory. He had the least technical skills of anyone, he couldn't crack any codes and he has only been called a leader because he was a loudmouth who wrote a lot on their messageboard." Mr Townsden said if he had committed any crimes he should be prosecuted in Australia, not the US. He claimed the Australian government's decision to accept the extradition request was typical of their current "acquiescent" attitude to the US.
Mr Griffiths is expecting to hear this week the outcome of his appeal against the decision to extradite him. Those involved would give themselves internet aliases which would act in the same way as tags used by graffiti artists. They could then brag about their code-cracking abilities without giving away their real identities. Alex Bell, whose trial at the Old Bailey ended on Friday, was known as Mr 2940 - after a computer device - while his co-defendant Steven Dowd's nickname, curiously, was Tim.
A spokesman for US Immigration, Customs and Enforcement, Dean Boyd, said DOD did not appear to be motivated by money. Their motivation was the kudos which surrounded being able to crack sophisticated software. He told the BBC News website: "Primarily they were just interested in how fast they could crack the code. It was all about underground notoriety." But Mr Boyd pointed out that once the software had been distributed on the internet it fell into the hands of organised criminals who were able to mass produce pirated software at zero cost.
"It cost US industries a lot of money, billions of dollars," he said. Mr Boyd said: "It was truly global in scope. We raided a number of universities, including Duke (in North Carolina) and MIT, and found that several of the people involved were employed by major computer corporations. "They would go home from work in the evenings and get involved in this warez culture." Warez groups, which began to surface in the early 1990s, operate according to a strict code of honour.
For example if one group cracked the software first its rivals would respect that achievement and not seek to claim it themselves. Mr Boyd said the destruction of DOD was a great coup but he added: "I'm not going to sit here and say we have sorted the problem. There are still hackers and people who do this for fun. "Internet piracy of computer software remains a gigantic problem." A spokesman for the Business Software Alliance said: "DOD members claim they did not profit at all. But they did profit by getting access to very expensive servers." He said DOD and other warez groups were fostering a "culture of piracy" on the internet. He said 29% of computer software in Britain was believed to have been pirated and this cost £1bn in revenue for software companies, their suppliers and distributors. "It may seem like a victimless crime but it touches more people than you might care to believe." | tech |
Apple makes blogs reveal sources
Apple has won its legal fight to make three bloggers reveal who told them about unreleased products.
The bid to unmask the employees leaking information was launched in December 2004 following online articles about Apple's Asteroid product. Now Apple has won the right to see e-mail records from the three bloggers to root out the culprit. A lawyer for the three bloggers said the ruling set a dangerous precedent that could harm all news reporters.
Apple's lawsuit accused anonymous people of stealing trade secrets about the Asteroid music product and leaking them to the PowerPage, Apple Insider and Think Secret websites. All three are Apple fan sites that obsessively watch the iconic firm for information about future products. Apple is notoriously secretive about upcoming products which gives any snippets of information about what it is working on all the more value. The lawsuit to reveal the names of the leakers was filed against the Power Page and Apple Insider sites.
The separate legal fight with Think Secret has yet to be resolved. In the ruling handed down this week by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg, Apple can now get its hands on e-mail records from the bloggers' net providers. In making his ruling, Judge Kleinberg said that laws covering the divulging of trade secrets outweighed considerations of public interest. California has so-called "shield" laws which protect journalists from prosecution if what they are writing about can be shown to be in the public interest. The Judge wrote: "...it is not surprising that hundreds of thousands of 'hits' on a website about Apple have and will happen. But an interested public is not the same as the public interest". Judge Kleinberg said the question of whether the bloggers were journalists or not did not apply because laws governing the right to keep trade secrets confidential covered journalists, too. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is acting as legal counsel for Power Page and Apple Insider, said the ruling had potentially wide implications. "Anyone who reports on companies or the trade press should be concerned about this ruling," said EFF lawyer Kurt Opsahl. Mr Opsahl said the EFF was planning to appeal against the ruling because the bloggers were journalists and US federal laws stop net firms handing over copies of e-mail messages if the owner of that account does not give their consent. | tech |
Hitachi unveils 'fastest robot'
Japanese electronics firm Hitachi has unveiled its first humanoid robot, called Emiew, to challenge Honda's Asimo and Sony's Qrio robots.
Hitachi said the 1.3m (4.2ft) Emiew was the world's quickest-moving robot yet. Two wheel-based Emiews, Pal and Chum, introduced themselves to reporters at a press conference in Japan. The robots will be guests at the World Expo later this month. Sony and Honda have both built sophisticated robots to show off developments in electronics. Explaining why Hitachi's Emiew used wheels instead of feet, Toshihiko Horiuchi, from Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, said: "We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people." "We want to make the robots useful for people ... If the robots moved slower than people, users would be frustrated." Emiew - Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate - can move at 3.7m/h. Its "wheel feet" resemble the bottom half of a Segway scooter. With sensors on the head, waist, and near the wheels, Pal and Chum demonstrated how they could react to commands. "I want to be able to walk about in places like Shinjuku and Shibuya [shopping districts] in the future without bumping into people and cars," Pal told reporters. Hitachi said Pal and Chum, which have a vocabulary of about 100 words, could be "trained" for practical office and factory use in as little as five to six years.
Robotics researchers have long been challenged by developing robots that walk in the gait of a human. At the recent AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) annual meeting in Washington DC, researchers showed off bipedal designs. The three designs, each built by a different research group, use the same principle to achieve a human-like gait.
Sony and Honda have both used humanoid robots, which are not commercially available, as a way of showing off computing power and engineering expertise. Honda's Asimo was "born" five years ago. Since then, Honda and Sony's Qrio have tried to trump each other with what the robots can do at various technology events. Asimo, has visited the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, France and Ireland as part of a world tour. Sony's Qrio has been singing, jogging and dancing in formation around the world too and was, until last year, the fastest robot on two legs. But its record was beaten by Asimo. It is capable of 3km/h, which its makers claim is almost four times as fast as Qrio. Last year, car maker Toyota also stepped into the ring and unveiled its trumpet-playing humanoid robot. By 2007, it is predicted that there will be almost 2.5 million "entertainment and leisure" robots in homes, compared to about 137,000 currently, according to the United Nations (UN). By the end of that year, 4.1 million robots will be doing jobs in homes, said the report by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics. Hitachi is one of the companies with home cleaning robot machines on the market. | tech |
Have hackers recruited your PC?
More than one million computers on the net have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses.
The huge number was revealed by security researchers who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely-controlled machines. The largest network of so-called zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 hijacked home computers. Data was gathered using machines that looked innocent but which logged everything hackers did to them.
The detailed look at zombie or 'bot nets of hijacked computers was done by the Honeynet Project - a group of security researchers that gather information using networks of computers that act as "honey pots" to attract hackers and gather information about how they work. While 'bot nets have been known about for some time, estimates of how widespread they are from security firms have varied widely.
To gather its information the German arm of the Honeynet Project created software tools to log what happened to the machines they put on the web. Getting the machines hijacked was worryingly easy. The longest time a Honeynet machine survived without being found by an automatic attack tool was only a few minutes. The shortest compromise time was only a few seconds. The research found that, once compromised machines tend to report in to chat channels on IRC servers and wait instructions from the malicious hacker behind the tools used to recruit the machine. Many well-known vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system were exploited by 'bot net controllers to find and take over target machines. Especially coveted were home PCs sitting on broadband connections that are never turned off.
The months of surveillance revealed that the different 'bot nets - which involve a few hundred to tens of thousands of machines - are used for a variety of purposes. Many are used as relays for spam, to route unwanted adverts to PC users or as launch platforms for viruses. But the research team found that many are put to very different uses. During the monitoring period, the team saw 'bot nets used to launch 226 distributed denial-of-service attacks on 99 separate targets. These attacks bombard websites with data in an attempt to overwhelm the target. Using a 'bot net of machines spread around different networks and nations makes such attacks hard to defend against. One DDoS attack was used by one firm to knock its competitors offline. Other 'bot nets were used to abuse the Google Adsense program that rewards websites for displaying adverts from the search engine. Some networks were used to abuse or manipulate online polls and games. Criminals also seem to be starting to use 'bot nets for mass identity theft, to host websites that look like those of banks so confidential information can be gathered and to peep into online traffic to steal sensitive data. "Leveraging the power of several thousand bots, it is viable to take down almost any website or network instantly," said the researchers. "Even in unskilled hands, it should be obvious that 'bot nets are a loaded and powerful weapon." | tech |
What price for 'trusted PC security'?
You can now buy "trusted computers", but can we really trust the PC vendors, asks technology analyst Bill Thompson.
If you have recently bought an IBM ThinkVantage computer, a Dell Optiplex, or one of a whole range of laptops from Toshiba, HP/Compaq or Samsung then you may have got more for your money than you realised. Inside your shiny new PC is an extra chip called the trusted platform module (TPM) that can be used for a range of hardware-based security features. Eventually the TPM will be built into the main processor itself, and if the trusted computing group has its way then you will find one in every piece of hardware you own, from mobile phones to TV set top boxes to children's toys. But for the moment it is a separate piece of hardware, providing enhanced security features to programs that know how to use them. And as part of a well-designed network system, it can provide a lot more security than we enjoy today. A big advantage of the TPM is that it is hardware-based.
At the moment most of us rely on software to keep our information safe and secure. It might be password-protected user accounts, data encryption programs or a firewall, but it all relies on program code running on an inherently insecure processor.
Hardware security is less common, even if it is a lot safer. This is partly because it is more expensive to give someone a smartcard than a password, but also because its more work for users, systems administrators and managers. As a result we settle for second best. So when it comes to computer security, trusted systems could be a major step forward. After all, if you have a laptop that will only run programs that have been digitally signed then it will be a lot harder for virus writers to get their malicious code to run. And if all your files are locked automatically then even if you get your computer stolen your personal data will be safeguarded. At the moment support for trusted hardware is not built into major operating systems. Instead you have to use special software, like HP's ProtectTools or Wave Systems' Embassy. This provides file encryption, password management and identity protection, usually for business users who connect to company networks. Full support for the trusted computing specification will not be available from Microsoft until the next release of Windows, "Longhorn". This will include what Microsoft, in a typical act of obscurantism, calls the "Next Generation Secure Computing Base", and it will give user-level programs access to the trusted computing hardware. When that happens we can expect to see a lot of publicity around the new capabilities, and no doubt the Windows security centre will encourage users to turn on their trusted computing capability just as they turn on their firewall. However there is a downside to the increased security from viruses, spyware and data theft that this will provide.
Because the trusted computing base is also used to make digital rights management (DRM) systems more secure, this will give content providers a lot more control over what we can do with music, movies and books that we have bought from them. We have seen recently how allowing digital rights management services into our lives can lead to unwelcome consequences. Users of Apple's iTunes used to be able to stream the music they had brought to up to five other iTunes users, a great way of letting your mates discover your music collection.
But the latest version of iTunes limits this capability, just as an earlier upgrade reduced the number of times you could burn a selected playlist of purchased songs to a CD. Another took away the ability to play songs downloaded from Real's Harmony service on your iPod. Apple can do this because they wrote the software and they control the rights management. Once it is embedded in trusted hardware it will be even harder for dedicated programmers to find their way around these restrictions and give us back the fair use rights that should be guaranteed under copyright law. Similarly, users of TiVo digital video recorders have found that they cannot record some shows, and other programmes that they have recorded are automatically deleted after a day. This happens because of changes that TiVo have made to their software, and the users cannot control it. One wonders whether hardware-based DRM will work for those who believe that locking-down digital content is a bad idea, and that the flexibility of copyright law is something that should be embraced and not taken away. It will not work because of the fundamental flaw at the heart of the system: in order for the purchaser to view the content it has to be unlocked. Once it is unlocked then someone, somewhere, will figure out a way to make a copy of the unlocked version. And once an unlocked version leaks onto the network it will be uncontrollable. The efforts going into DRM would be much better spent building efficient distribution services, finding business models that are based on trusting your customers, and offering high quality downloads at fair prices. What we want is not so much a trusted computing platform as a trusted customer platform. The record companies and the film industry need to recognise that most of us, most of the time, will pay a reasonable amount for good quality material. They will benefit more by building a market in which I can share songs with my friends, record shows I want to watch later, and burn CDs for my kids; a market which respects the spirit of copyright law and does not seek to replace it by restrictive contracts or end user agreements. We need to ensure that trusted computing remains under the control of the users and is not used to take away the freedoms we enjoy today.
Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital. | tech |
Gizmondo gadget hits the shelves
The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget goes on sale on Saturday.
Priced at £229, the handheld device is debuting in the UK and goes on sale in the US and mainland Europe in the next few weeks. A catalogue of about 20 games is being prepared for the gadget including The Great Escape and Conflict Vietnam. The British-backed gadget faces stiff competition from handheld gaming devices made by Nintendo and Sony.
The Gizmondo device packs a lot of functions inside its black cover and is aimed at gamers and those that want more from their game-playing gadgets.
It can be used to play games, music tracks and movies. It can take and store digital photos and be used like a mobile phone to send text, multimedia and e-mail messages. The phone service to enable people to send messages is being provided by pre-pay Vodafone accounts bundled in with the device. It also works with GPS (Global Position System) so can also be used as a navigation aid or to support a variety of location-based services. The GPRS and Bluetooth wireless data systems onboard mean that it can be used for multi-player gaming. The gadget will be available from the Gizmondo store on London's Regent Street and from several other retail partners. Although the device rolls together an impressive list of functions, it will face serious competition from three established names in mobile gaming: Nintendo, Nokia and Sony.
The main competition is likely to come from Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo's DS handheld went on sale on 11 March and priced at £99 costs far less than the Gizmondo. It also has a ready pool of fans of earlier Nintendo handhelds to draw on. In the first two days it was on sale in Europe the 87,000 DS handhelds were sold - a better debut than the GameCube enjoyed. Sony's PSP was due to make its European debut in March but now this is likely to be delayed by a few months. The PSP is due to go on sale in the US later this month and a bundle including the player, accessories and a copy of Spiderman 2 is expected to cost about $250 (£129). The PSP can also play music and movies and supports wireless multiplayer gaming. Nokia's N-Gage could also be a competitor on the telecommunications side. This too crams a fully functional phone into a gadget that also plays games. | tech |
Confusion over high-definition TV
Now that a critical mass of people have embraced digital TV, DVDs, and digital video recorders, the next revolution for TV is being prepared for our sets.
In most corners of TV and technology industries, high-definition (HDTV) is being heralded as the biggest thing to happen to the television since colour. HD essentially makes TV picture quality at least four times better than now. But there is real concern that people are not getting the right information about HD on the High Street. Thousands of flat panel screens - LCDs (liquid crystal displays), plasma screens, and DLP rear-projection TV sets - have already been sold as "HD", but are in fact not able to display HD.
"The UK is the largest display market in Europe," according to John Binks, director of GfK, which monitors global consumer markets.
But, he added: "Of all the flat panel screens sold, just 1.3% in the UK are capable of getting high-definition." There are 74 different devices that are being sold as HD but are not HD-ready, according to Alexander Oudendijk, senior vice president of marketing for satellite giant Astra. They may be fantastic quality TVs, but many do not have adaptors in them - called DVI or HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connectors - which let the set handle the higher resolution digital images. Part of this is down to lack of understanding and training on the High Street, say industry experts, who gathered at Bafta in London for the 2nd European HDTV Summit last week. "We have to be careful about consumer confusion. There is a massive education process to go through," said Mr Binks. The industry already recognised that it would be a challenge to get the right information about it across to those of us who will be watching it. Eventually, that will be everyone. The BBC is currently developing plans to produce all its TV output to meet HDTV standards by 2010.
Preparations for the analogue switch-off are already underway in some areas, and programmes are being filmed with HD cameras. BSkyB plans to ship its first generation set-top boxes, to receive HDTV broadcasts, in time for Christmas. Like its Sky+ boxes, they will also be personal video recorders (PVRs). The company will start broadcasts of HDTV programmes, offering them as "premium channel packages", concentrating, to start with, on sports, big events, and films, in early 2006. But the set-top box which receives HDTV broadcasts has to plug into a display - TV set - that can show the images at the much higher resolution that HD demands, if HDTV is to be "real". By 2010, 20% of homes in the UK will have some sort of TV set or display that can show HD in its full glory.
But it is all getting rather confusing for people who have only just taken to "being digital". As a result, all the key players, those who make flat panel displays, as well as the satellite companies and broadcasters, formed a HD forum in 2004 to make sure they were all talking to each other. Part of the forum has been concerned with issues like industry standards and content protection. But it has also been preoccupied with how to help the paying public know exactly what they are paying for.
From next month, all devices that have the right connectors and resolution required will carry a "HD-Ready" sticker. This also means they are equipped to cope with both analogue and HDTV signals, and so comply with the minimum specification set out by the industry. "The logo is absolutely the way forward," said David Mercer, analysts with Strategy Analytics. "But it is still not appearing on many retail products." The industry is upbeat that the sticker will help, but it is only a start. "We can only do so much with the position we are in today with manufacturers," said Mr Oudendijk. "There may well be a number of dissatisfied customers in the next few months." The European Broadcast Union (EBU) is testing different flavours of HD formats to prepare for even better HDTV further down the line. It is similarly concerned that people get the right information on HDTV formats, as well as which devices will support the formats. "We believe consumers buying expensive displays need to ensure their investment is worthwhile," said Phil Laven, technical director for the EBU. The TV display manufacturers want us to watch HD on screens that are at least 42in (106cm), to get the "true impact" of HD, they say, although smaller displays suffice. What may convince people to spend money on HD-ready devices is the falling prices, which continue to tumble across Europe. The prices are dropping an average of 20% every year, according to analysts. LCD prices dropped by 43% in Europe as a whole last year, according to Mr Oudendijk. | tech |
Digital UK driven by net and TV
The UK's adoption of digital TV and broadband has helped make it the fourth most digitally-savvy nation in Europe, according a report by Jupiter Research.
But the UK still lags in terms of broadband speeds compared to others. The most digitally sophisticated Europeans, in terms of use of digital goods such as mobiles, TV, net and cameras, are the Scandinavians. About 14 million households in the UK, 60%, have digital TV, according to the communications regulator Ofcom. The least digital of the European nations was Greece, in 17th position, according to the Digital Life Index.
Scandinavian countries Sweden, Denmark and Norway came out top in the report, but there were some differences in technology trends. "The European Digital Life Index demonstrates that digital lifestyles are common today, but across Europe there is no single digital lifestyle," said Nate Elliott, Jupiter analyst. "Consumers adopt different digital products and services in different countries."
Although there are differences between different European nations, the gap between them is closing, the report concluded. The trend for gadgets and technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVR), broadband, and video-on-demand will continue across Europe, he added. More than six million UK households now have broadband net. By the middle of 2005, it is estimated that 50% of all UK net users will be on broadband. Cable company NTL is trialling faster ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband technology using ADSL2+ which can give speeds of 18Mbps compared to current speeds which are usually around 1Mbps or 2Mbps. BT is set to trial the technology later in the year. Super-fast broadband will be necessary to the delivery of services such as high-definition TV (HDTV) and video-on-demand, already very popular in France and other European countries.
A separate survey by GMIPoll last week found that, globally, people's appetite for technology and gadgets continues unabated. The poll of 20,000 people in 20 countries found that 59% wanted more technology.
The computer was the "must-have" gadget for most people (75%). The TV took second place (67%), while the mobile was ranked in third position with 54%. Digital cameras were the most popular choice of gadget for 2005, said the survey, with nearly 40% choosing this over wireless, home printing and DVR technologies. However, only 25% of Britons said a digital camera would be their top gadget purchase of the year. Almost a quarter, 22%, said they would be buying some sort of wireless device. Forty-four percent said they would be buying something "other". This might include digital music players, or gaming devices. The Nintendo DS, Sony's PSP and Gizmondo all hit the shops in 2005, and the first of the next generation of games consoles, Xbox 2, is set to launch later this year. Jupiter Research's index is calculated using 40 different variables across net users, digital TV adoption, wireless and mobile, online activity, and digital devices. | tech |
Bad e-mail habits sustains spam
The 'bad behaviour' of e-mail users is helping to sustain the spam industry, a new study has found.
According to a survey conducted by security firm Mirapoint and market research company the Radicati Group, nearly a third of e-mail users have clicked on links in spam messages. One in ten users have bought products advertised in junk mail. Clicking on a link in a spam message can expose people to viruses and alert spammers to live e-mail accounts.
The fact that one in ten e-mail users are buying things advertised in spam continues to make it an attractive business, especially given that sending out huge amounts of spam costs very little, the report concludes. "This preliminary data is surprising and somewhat shocking to us," said Marcel Nienhuis, market analyst at the Radicati Group. "It explains why e-mail security threats including spam, viruses and phishing scams continue to proliferate," he said, accusing users of "bad e-mail behaviour". Spammers are increasingly hooking into whatever happens to be flavour of the month, according to security firm Clearswift. It has recently seen a rise in the number of spam messages offering phoney Sony PSP giveaways. And, in perhaps a nod to the popularity of the American drama series Desperate Housewives, it has also seen a dramatic rise in junk mails purporting to give details of women looking for casual sex. But rather than finding a companion, users who click on such mail will find themselves redirected to porn sites, where they run the risk of downloading spyware on to their PC. Clearswift has seen a 180% rise in sex-related spam over the course of the last month. "Without casting aspersions, those likely to respond to these kind of adverts will be invariably hoping that 'one thing leads to another' but aside from the fact that these mails are bogus, clicking on any link within a spam mail can lead to a whole host of unwanted problems," said Alyn Hockey, Clearswift's director of research.
Sexually explicit terms make up 14% of security firm Sophos' top 50 word that spammers most commonly try to disguise in order to beat anti-spam filters. Spammers will deliberately misspell a word or use digits instead of letters in an attempt to by-pass anti-spam software, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos. "The list of words most commonly hidden by the spammers from anti-spam software reveals that most spam is about the old favourites: money, drugs and sex," said Mr Cluley. But anti-spam filters can only be part of the solution to the menace of junk e-mail. "People must resist their basic instincts to buy from spam mails. Spammers are criminals, plain and simple. If no-one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way, then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs," he said. | tech |
Sony PSP handheld console hits US
The latest handheld gaming gadget, Sony's PlayStation Portable, goes on sale in the US on Thursday.
The entertainment device, which also stores images, music and video, is intended to compete with Nintendo's DS, released earlier this month in the UK. Gamers have been queuing outside shops across the US to get their hands on the gadget, which costs $250 (about £132). The first million sold will come with the Spider-Man 2 film on UMD, Sony's own disc format for the device. The PSP can be linked up with others for multiplayer gaming, via a wireless connection. Sony has touted the machine as the Walkman of the 21st Century and has sold more than 800,000 units in Japan since its launch there last year.
But it faces stiff competition from the Nintendo DS, which sold more than the GameCube in its first few days on release in Europe. It too allows for multiplayer gaming over the air. Nintendo dominates the handheld market, with more than a 90% share of the market in the US alone. The Gizmondo combined media player, phone and gaming gadget also went on sale in the UK last week. It hopes to take a share of the handheld gaming market too.
"The story of the PSP is it's not a gaming device as much as it is a portable entertainment device," said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. He told the Reuters news agency that he expected Sony to sell about 10 million PSPs in enough time to rival Apple's iPod. There is no date for the PSP's release in Europe yet. Sony has promised to have a million units ready for its US launch, but there are fears demand may not be met. It also said it expected to ship three million PSPs worldwide by the end of its fiscal year ending 31 March.
The machine's European launch was put back "a few months" last week in order to make sure enough of the devices were ready for its US launch, as well as satisfying the Japanese market. The PSP has almost as much processing power in it as the PlayStation 2 console. Hundreds of gamers gathered at US shops, some waiting for more than 36 hours, to be the first to get their hands on the gadget. A spokesman for one US shop said it expected the device to sell out on its first day. The 24 games for the mini console include Ape Academy, Formula One, Wipeout Pure and Fired Up. Movie studios, including Lions Gate Entertainment and Disney, have also announced forthcoming film titles that will be made available on the UMD format. | tech |
'Podcasters' look to net money
Nasa is doing it, 14-year-old boys in bedrooms are doing it, couples are doing it, gadget lovers - male and female - are definitely doing it.
It is podcasting - DIY radio in the form of downloadable MP3 audio files. They can done by anyone who has a microphone, simple software, the net, and something to say. Some liken them to talking "audioblogs" because many complement text-based weblogs - diary-like sites where people share their thoughts. They are essentially amateur radio shows on the net, on demand, and the "movement" is at very early stages. "It's about real people saying real things and communicating," says Adam Curry, former MTV VJ and the Pied Piper of podcasting. He was one of a community of people who created iPodder, a small computer program, known as an "aggregator".
It collects and automatically sends MP3 files to any digital music-playing device that can play WMP formats. Those with digital music players can select which podcasts they like, and subscribe - for free - to that show's "feed". When a new podcast is available, it is automatically sent to the device when connected to a computer. "It is totally going to kill the business model of radio," thinks Curry. "I just did a tour of Madison Avenue where all the big brands and advertising agencies of the world are," he says. "And they are scared to death of the next generation - like my daughter who is 14 - who don't listen to radio. "They are on MSN, they've got their iPod, their MP3 player, they've got their Xbox - they are not listening to radio. "So how are they going to reach these audiences? "It is the distribution that is changing and the barriers are being brought down so everyone can be part of it."
It is a fledgling movement, but it is gaining momentum now that people have started thinking about how to make a business from it. Ian Fogg, Jupiter Research analyst, thinks there could be potential for business, but it could take an interesting turn if big companies, like Apple and Microsoft, get involved. "It is a nascent area but quite exciting. It is yet another area that demonstrates the move to a digital lifestyle and digital home is not over," he says.
"Podcasting is one of those interesting areas that bridges what you do at home and what you do out and about - a classic hybrid. It is another aspect of the "time-shifting" of content - the latest industry buzzword for being able to listen to what you want, when, and wherever you want. Audiences are in the 10s, 100s, and 1,000s rather than millions. More than 4,300 podcasts are currently listed. Curry's Daily Source Code - which he committed to doing daily to inspire the community - has 10s of thousands of listeners.
But Dave Winer is doubtful. He designed the format called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which gives web users an easy way to keep updated automatically on sites they like. Podcasts rely on his technology because it is the way they are distributed. He is also writer of the longest-running weblog on the net, Scripting News. He thinks its power lies in its democratising potential, not in its "over-hyped" business promise.
"We're the sources, the people doing stuff, and podcasting is a way to tell people who care what we're doing. "No matter how you look at it, commercialising this medium isn't going to make very much money," he says. "Podcasting is going to be a medium of niches, with 'audiences' measured in the single digits, like e-mail or blogs. "Maybe in a few years, maybe six or seven digits. But it will have to sustain interest beyond the hype balloon." Curry and associate Ron Bloom's new venture, called PodShow, is to help ordinary people produce, post, distribute and market their podcasts. Because of the way podcasts work, based on RSS, the latest podcasts which people can select mean that they are ready-made targets. "When you look at podcasting - wow this is a pretty interesting audience. The audience is pre-selected. They have decided to subscribe to your program," explains Curry. Advertising, in his eyes, can be tailored to podcasts, to make it more imaginative and unobtrusive. "How I believe this will work, is to create a network that, in aggregation, will have enough numbers to support a return on investment for the advertisers and for the podcasters. "I have 50, 60, 70,000 listeners. I could make a couple of bucks off that, but not much. If you are talking a million podcasters, and then you can kind of divide that amongst ourselves, then that is kind of interesting." Essentially, he says, if you are doing a bass fishing podcast, someone who is selling bait and tackle will probably want to advertise on your show. He is clear the ads will not be the traditional "in-your-face" type familiar to commercial radio now. "We are really going to see these microcosms and commerce will be all over the place."
It is happening already. Coffee-loving Curry has sold $4,000 worth of coffee machines through a referral link to Amazon from his site.
Others use in-show promotions, like The Dawn and Drew Show. One, Eric Rice, has won sponsorship from Warner Bros. He can now legally play the music of a band Warner Bros wants to push. Some commentators on the net say it has a similar feel to the dotcom days. Others say it is just another element of setting media free from big companies and letting people be creative. One thing is for sure; they are not about to disappear in a hurry. The creative forces behind radio are elated, says Curry. For now, he tunes out the negative comments within the podcasting community. "I should be knighted for this," he adds, with a wry chuckle, "People are going to be so happy to sit at home, make their podcast, and make a little money." | tech |
Local net TV takes off in Austria
An Austrian village is testing technology that could represent the future of television.
The people of Engerwitzdorf are filming, editing and producing their own regional news channel. The channel covers local politics, sports, events and anything that residents want to film and are prepared to upload for others to watch on PCs. The pilot has been so successful that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other projects elsewhere.
"It's growing unbelievably fast," said Rudolf Fischer, head of Telekom Austria's fixed line division. The trial of Buntes Fernsehen (Multi-Coloured TV) was started in late 2004 and creates a net-based TV station run by the 8,000 residents of Engerwitzdorf. The hardware and software to turn video footage into edited programmes has been provided by Telekom Austria but this equipment, following training, has been turned over to the villagers. Any video programme created by the villagers is uploaded to a Buntes Fernsehen portal that lets people browse and download what they want to watch. Most people watch the TV on their home PC and a broadband connection is needed to get broadcast quality programmes. In the first four months of the project villagers have created 60 films and put together regular reports on local news items. "They have adopted it very quickly," said Mr Fischer. "They like the possibility to create their own content and see what's going on in the area." "It's kind of the democratisation of local TV," he said, "because none of the bigger broadcasters would ever do anything like this for that region." The Buntes Fernsehen project has been such a success that Telekom Austria is now considering setting up other schemes in similarly rural areas. Mr Fischer said it was taking the roll-out to other areas slowly because of the work involved in setting up the scheme, getting backers from local government and educating people how to make programmes. The Engerwitzdorf scheme is an outgrowth of Telekom Austria's online TV channel Aon which lets people watch programmes on their PC. Aon streams a couple of live channels, plus sports, news and music programmes on to the net and has a pay-for-download section that lets people watch what they want when they want to watch it. In October a larger TV-on-demand project is due to launch in Vienna that will let people download many programmes from the net. | tech |
Rolling out next generation's net
The body that oversees how the net works, grows and evolves says it has coped well with its growth in the last 10 years, but it is just the start.
"In a sense, we have hardly started in reaching the whole population," the new chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Brian Carpenter, says. The IETF ensures the smooth running and organisation of the net's architecture. With broadband take-up growing, services like voice and TV will open up interesting challenges for the net. "I think VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol, allowing phone calls to be made over the Net) is very important - it challenges all the old cost models of telecoms," says Dr Carpenter. "Second, it challenges more deeply the business model that you have to be a service provider with a lot of infrastructure. With VoIP, you need very little infrastructure."
A distinguished IBM engineer, Dr Carpenter spent 20 years at Cern, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. As the new chair of the IETF, his next big challenge is overseeing IPv6, the next generation standard for information transfer and routing across the web. At Cern, Dr Carpenter helped pioneer advanced net applications during the development of the world wide web, so he is well-placed to take on such a task. The net's growth and evolution depend on standards and protocols, and ensuring the architecture works and talks to other standards is a crucial job of the IETF. The top priority is to ensure that the standards that make the net work, are open and free for anyone to use and work with.
The net is built on a protocol called TCP/IP, which means transmission control protocol, and internet protocol. When computers communicate with the net, a unique IP address is used to send and receive information. The IETF is a large international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers working on the evolution of the net's architecture and the way this information is sent and received. They make sure it all knits together leaving no gaps. "We've seen some interesting effects over last few years," explains Dr Carpenter. "The net was growing at a fantastic rate at the end of the 90s. Then there was a bit of a glitch in 2000. "We are now seeing a very clear phase of consolidation and renewed growth."
That renewed growth is also being buoyed by emerging economies, like China, which are showing fast uptake of broadband net and other technologies. The number of broadband subscribers via DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) doubled in a year to 13 million, according to figures released at the end of 2004. "The challenges we face are about continuing to produce standards to allow for that growth rate," explained Dr Carpenter. "Given it [the net] was designed for the whole community, it has done well to reach millions. If you want to reach the whole population, you have to make sure it can scale up." IPv6, the standard that will replace the existing IPv4, will allow for billions more addresses on the net, and it is gradually being worked into network infrastructure across the world. "The actual number of addresses with IPv4 is limited to four billion IP addresses. "That clearly is not enough when you have 10 billion people to serve, so there is technical solution, the new version of IP - IPv6. "It has much larger address space possibilities with no practical limits," said Dr Carpenter. Standards are vital to something as complex as the net, and making sure standards are open and can work with across networks is a big task. The difference this next generation standard, IPv6, will make to the average net user is almost invisible. "Our first goal is that it [IPv6] should make no difference - people should not notice a difference. "It is like when the London telephone numbers got longer. A lot of the process will be invisible. "People are usually given an IP address without knowing it." Technically deployment has started and the standards for are just about settled, said Dr Carpenter.
The one problem with the net that may never disappear completely is security. To Dr Carpenter, the solution comes out of technological and human behaviour. People have to be educated about "sensible behaviour" he says, such as ignoring e-mails that claim you have won something.
"I don't think it is going to get worse. People will remain concerned about security and they probably should do - just as you would be concerned walking along a dark street. "We have to do work to make sure there are better security internet standards. It is a never-ending battle in a sense." But, he adds: "Even if security has improved, you still worry a bit. Unfortunately, it is just part of life. We have a duty to do what we can." | tech |
Long life promised for laptop PCs
Scientists are working on ways to ensure laptops can stay powered for an entire working day.
Building batteries from new chemical mixes could boost power significantly, say industry experts. The changes include everything from the way chips for laptops are made, to tricks that reduce the power consumption of displays. Ever since laptops appeared the amount of time they last between recharges has been a frustration for users.
A survey carried out in 2000 by Forrester Research found that the shortness of battery life was the most complained about feature of laptops. "The focus back then was more on performance and features," said Mike Trainor, chief mobile technology evangelist for chip giant Intel.
"For most of the 90s battery life was stuck on two to 2.5 hours." But now, he said, laptops can last much longer. It was not just a case of improving battery life by squeezing more out of the lithium ion power packs, he explained. Other changes are needed to get to the holy grail of a laptop running for about eight hours before needing a recharge. "Lithium ion is never going to get there by itself," he said. "The industry has done a great job of wringing all possible energy storage out of that technology that they can." Some new battery chemistries promise to cram more power into the same space, said Mr Trainor, though work still needed to be done to get them successfully from the lab to manufacturing. He was sceptical that fuel cells would develop quick enough to take over from solid batteries even though they have the potential to produce several times more energy than lithium ion power packs. "In fuel cells you need to have pumps and separators and evaporation chambers," he said. "It's a mini energy plant that needs to be shrunk and shrunk and shrunk."
Intel has been working with component makers to test energy consumption on all the parts inside a laptop and find ways to make them less power hungry.
This work has led to the creation of the Mobile PC Extended Battery Life (EBL) Working Group that shares information about building notebooks that are more parsimonious with power. Some of the improvements in power use come simply because components on chips are shrinking, said Mr Trainor. Intel has also changed the way it creates transistors on silicon to reduce the power they need. On a larger scale, said Mr Trainor, improvements in the way that voltage regulators are made can reduce the amount of power lost as heat and make a notebook more energy efficient. Also, said Mr Trainor, research is being done on ways to cut energy consumption on displays - currently the biggest power guzzler on a laptop. Many laptop makers have committed to creating 14 and 15 inch screens that draw only three watts of power. This is far below the power consumption levels of screens in current notebooks. "If we can get close to eight hours that's a place that people see as extraordinarily valuable that's what the industry has to deliver," Mr Trainor said. | tech |
Net fingerprints combat attacks
Eighty large net service firms have switched on software to spot and stop net attacks automatically.
The system creates digital fingerprints of ongoing incidents that are sent to every network affected. Firms involved in the smart sensing system believe it will help trace attacks back to their source. Data gathered will be passed to police to help build up intelligence about who is behind worm outbreaks and denial of service attacks.
Firms signing up for the sensing system include MCI, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Energis, NTT, Bell Canada and many others. The creation of the fingerprinting system has been brokered by US firm Arbor Networks and signatures of attacks will be passed to anyone suffering under the weight of an attack. Increasingly computer criminals are using swarms of remotely controlled computers to carry out denial of service attacks on websites, launch worms and relay spam around the net. "We have seen attacks involving five and ten gigabytes of traffic," said Rob Pollard, sales director for Arbor Networks which is behind the fingerprinting system. "Attacks of that size cause collateral damage as they cross the internet before they get to their destination," he said. Once an attack is spotted and its signature defined the information will be passed back down the chain of networks affected to help every unwitting player tackle the problem.
Mr Pollard said Arbor was not charging for the service and it would pass on fingerprint data to every network affected. "What we want to do is help net service firms communicate with each other and then push the attacks further and further back around the world to their source," said Mr Pollard. Arbor Network's technology works by building up a detailed history of traffic on a network. It spots which computers or groups of users regularly talk to each other and what types of traffic passes between machines or workgroups. Any anomaly to this usual pattern is spotted and flagged to network administrators who can take action if the traffic is due to a net-based attack of some kind. This type of close analysis has become very useful as net attacks are increasingly launched using several hundred or thousand different machines. Anyone looking at the traffic on a machine by machine basis would be unlikely to spot that they were all part of a concerted attack. "Attacks are getting more diffuse and more sophisticated," said Malcolm Seagrave, security expert at Energis. "In the last 12 months it started getting noticeable that criminals were taking to it and we've seen massive growth." He said that although informal systems exist to pass on information about attacks, often commercial confidentiality got in the way of sharing enough information to properly combat attacks. | tech |
Microsoft plans 'safer ID' system
Microsoft is planning to make Windows and Internet Explorer more secure by including software to give people more control over personal information.
"Info cards" will help people manage personal details on their PCs to make online services safer, said Microsoft. Microsoft's two previous programs, Passport and Hailstorm, aimed to protect users but were criticised. ID fraud is one of the UK's fastest-growing crimes, with criminals netting an estimated £1.3bn last year. A quarter of UK adults has either had their ID stolen, via hi-tech or other means, or knows someone who has, a recent report by Which? magazine found.
Microsoft is developing a new version of Internet Explorer browser and its operating system, Windows, which has been code-named Longhorn. Michael Stephenson, director in Microsoft's Windows Server division, would not confirm however whether the new info cards ID system will be built into the current Windows XP version or Longhorn.
"We're trying to make the end-user experience as simple as possible," Mr Stephenson said. The system would differ from its previous attempts to make online transactions more secure, said Microsoft. While Passport and Hailstorm stored user information centrally on the net, the latest system will store data on a user's PC. "It's going to put control of digital IDs into the hands of an end-user, the end-user will be in full control," said Mr Stephenson.
Hailstorm was criticised by privacy campaigners for putting too much sensitive information into the hands of a single company. Passport provides a single log-in for more than one website and stores basic personal information. But its popularity suffered after security scares. Up to 200 million Passport accounts were left vulnerable to online theft and malicious hackers after a flaw in the system was exploited in 2003. Online auction site, eBay, stopped supporting it in January 2005. Although the flaw was fixed, Microsoft has come under regular criticism for the number of security loopholes in Internet Explorer. Last year, it released a major security update for Windows, Service Pack 2, to combat some of the security concerns. Longhorn is due to be released commercially in late 2006, but an updated version of Internet Explorer is due for release later this year. | tech |
Court mulls file-sharing future
Judges at the US Supreme Court have been hearing evidence for and against file-sharing networks.
The court will decide whether producers of file-sharing software can ultimately be held responsible for copyright infringement. They questioned if opening the way for the entertainment industry to sue file-sharers could deter innovation. They also said that file-trading firms had some responsibility for inducing people to piracy.
The lawsuit, brought by 28 of the world's largest entertainment firms, has raged for several years. Legal experts agree that if the Supreme Court finds in favour of the music and movie industry they would be able to sue file-trading firms into bankruptcy. But if the judge rules that Grokster and Morpheus - the file-sharers at the centre of the case - are merely providers of technology that can have legitimate as well as illegitimate uses, then the music and movie industry would be forced to abandon its pursuit of file-sharing providers. Instead, they would have to pursue individuals who use peer-to-peer networks to get their hands on free music and movies. The hi-tech and entertainment industries have been divided on the issue. Intel filed a document with the Supreme Court earlier this month in defence of Grokster and others, despite misgivings about some aspects of the file-sharing community. It summed up the attitude of many tech firms in its submission which states that its products "are essentially tools, that like any other tools, capable of being used by consumers and businesses for unlawful purposes".
Asking firms to second-guess the uses that its technologies would be put to, and to build in ways of preventing illegitimate use, would stifle innovation, it said. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil rights watchdog, is also defending StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus file-sharing software. The case raises a question of critical importance at the border between copyright and innovation, it said. It cites, as do many, the landmark ruling in 1984 which found that Sony should not be held responsible for the fact that its Betamax video recorder could be used for piracy. Defenders remain optimistic that the judges will rule in favour of the peer-to-peer networks, upholding the precedent set by the Sony Betamax case. A small band of supporters were outside the court as the lawyers entered, wearing "Save Betamax" t-shirts. "The Betamax principles stand as the Magna Carta for the technology industry and are responsible for the explosion in innovation that has occurred in the US over the past 20 years," said Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said that inventions from printing to Apple's iPod could be used to illegally duplicate copyrighted materials but had, on balance, been beneficial to society. He said that while file-trading software can be used to illegally trade movies and music, conceptually the technology had "some really excellent uses".
Based on Tuesday's hearing it seems unlikely that the Betamax ruling will be overturned but file-sharing firms might still be held responsible for encouraging or inducing piracy. Grokster's lawyer argued that the company should be judged by its current behaviour rather than what it did when it first set up. But this argument was dismissed as "ridiculous" by Justice David Souter. CEA boss Mr Shapiro thinks the case is the most important that the Supreme Court will hear this year. "It's about preserving America's proud history of technological innovation and protecting the ability of consumers to access and utilise technology," he said. The case has already been heard by two lower courts and both found in favour of the peer-to-peer networks. They ruled that despite being used to distribute millions of illegal songs, file-sharing could also be used to cheaply distribute software, government documents and promotional copies of music. | tech |
France starts digital terrestrial
France has become the last big European country to launch a digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service.
Initially, more than a third of the population will be able to receive 14 free-to-air channels. Despite the long wait for a French DTT roll-out, the new platform's backers hope to emulate the success of its UK free-to-air counterpart, Freeview. Recent figures from the UK's regulator Ofcom showed Freeview was more popular than the Sky digital satellite service. In the three months to September 2004, almost five times as many people signed up to the UK's free-to-air DTT service compared with Sky. Almost 60% of UK households have gone digital on at least one television set through cable, satellite or Freeview.
The French DTT platform is known as TNT, which stands for TV numerique terrestre or digital terrestrial television. But it is being branded as Television Numerique pour Tous, or "digital television for all". TNT is a joint venture between public broadcaster France Televisions and a handful of cable and satellite operators. Digital terrestrial TV will launch as a free-to-air platform to start with, adding pay-TV channels later. Thirty-five contenders have bid for an additional eight frequencies on top of the 14 already allocated. "A couple of years ago, DTT had a bad image," said Olivier Gerolami, chief operating officer of TNT.
"But everyone's impressed with DTT in the UK, Italy and Germany, and they realise it is a very good idea. "France is the poorest market in Europe in terms of free-to-air national channels, so it has the potential to be one of the biggest DTT markets," Mr Gerolami added in remarks quoted by the US entertainment industry paper Variety. TNT aims to reach 35% of France's population at launch, from 17 transmission sites. The transmission area will initially include Paris, Lille, Lyon and Toulouse. Eventually there will be 115 sites reaching over 80% of homes. Digital terrestrial set-top boxes are available from as little as 70 euros (£50). A recent survey by Mediametrie found that 70% of people interviewed were aware of DTT, and 25% were planning to buy a digital receiver. Consumer electronics companies such as Nokia, Sagem, Sony and Thomson are gearing up for production. The Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), the French broadcasting regulator, said: "Following the recent success of Freeview in the UK, some manufacturers are optimistic about sales prospects". Media analysts believe that initially the majority of viewers will buy inexpensive set-top boxes that are unable to support interactive services. The CSA said the current aim of reaching 85% of the population by 2007 was achievable, but the future of the remaining TV viewers required action by the public sector. For the most part, they are people living in mountainous or border areas, which will remain beyond the reach of digital terrestrial TV for years.
Up to 15 pay-TV channels will launch on DTT between September 2005 and March 2006. Leading pay-TV operators Canal Plus and TPS have submitted bids to market bouquets of channels. Free-to-air services will be broadcast in MPEG-2 format. But pay-TV operators will be allowed to broadcast in MPEG-4 - a much better compression technology - which will potentially allow for high-definition (HD) subscription services in the future. TNT expects between 700,000 and one million DTT set-top boxes to be sold in 2005. "It is difficult to tell how quickly it will take off," said Mr Gerolami, "but we're optimistic that it will revolutionise television in France." Other analysts were less optimistic, predicting consumers would now be less likely to sign up for pay-TV subscriptions. "We think free DTT could put brakes on the underlying growth of pay-TV in France," said Henri de Bodinat, vice-president of the Arthur D. Little consultancy. | tech |
Text message record smashed again
UK mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging, with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004.
The figures collected by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in December alone, the highest monthly total ever. That was 26% more than in December 2003. The records even surpassed the MDA's own predictions, it said. Every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. Before December's bumper text record, the previous highest monthly total was in October 2004, when 2.3 billion were sent. Text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too, said the MDA, with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year.
Even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications, texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. People are using SMS to do much more too. Booking cinema tickets, text voting, and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. Mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) Asian Tsunami fund by texting "Donate" to a simple short code number. Looking further ahead in the year, the MDA's chairman Mike Short, has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles, estimating 15 billion WAP page impressions. Handsets with GPRS capability - an "always on" net connection - will rise to 75%, while 3G mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. These third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. Globally, mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004, according to a recent report from analysts Gartner. That was 26% more than the previous year. It is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005. | tech |
Software watching while you work
Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled.
Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software.
The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time.
The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. "That is not the case," said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. "It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof," he said. "People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data," he added. | tech |
Commodore finds new lease of life
The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor.
New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a "worldwide entertainment concept" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s.
In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers.
The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames.
Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m. | tech |
Cabs collect mountain of mobiles
Gadgets are cheaper, smaller and more common than ever. But that just means we are more likely to lose them.
In London alone over the past six months more than 63,000 mobile phones have been left in the back of black cabs, according to a survey. That works out at about three phones per cab. Over the same period almost 5,000 laptops and 5,800 PDAs such as Palms and Pocket PCs were left in licensed cabs. Even the great and good are not immune to losing their beloved gadgets. Jemima Khan reportedly left her iPod, phone and purse in a cab and asked for them to be returned to her friend who turned out to be Hugh Grant. As the popularity of portable gadgets has grown, and we trust more of our lives to them, we seem to be forgetting them in ever larger numbers. The numbers of lost laptops has leapt by 71% in the last three years.
This has left Londoners, or those travelling by cab in the capital, as the world's best at losing laptops, according to the research by the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and Pointsec, a mobile-data backup firm. More than twice as many laptops were left in the back of black cabs in London as in any of the nine other cities (Helsinki, Oslo, Munich, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Chicago and Sydney) where the research into lost and found gadgets was carried out. By contrast Danes were most adept at losing mobile phones being seven times more likely to leave it behind in a cab than travellers in Germans, Norwegians and Swedes. Top of the range phones can carry enormous amounts of data - enough to hold hundreds of pictures or thousands of contact details. Given that few people back up the data on their PC it is a fair bet that even fewer do so with the phone they carry around. You could be losing a fair chunk of your life in the back of that cab not least because many people collect numbers on their phone that they do not have anywhere else.
Equally, phones let you navigate through contacts by name so many people have completely forgotten their friends' numbers and could not reconstruct them if they had to. This growing habit of losing gadgets explains the rise of firms such as Retrofone which lets people buy a cheap old-fashioned phone to replace the tiny, shiny expensive one they have just lost. Briton's growing love of phones has also led to the creation of the Mobile Equipment National Database that lets you register the unique ID number of your phone so it can be returned to you in the event of it being lost or stolen. According to statistics 50% of all muggings and snatch theft offences involve mobiles. Millions of gadgets are now logged in the database and organisations such as Transport For London regularly consult it when trying to re-unite folk with their phones and other gadgets. For the drivers, finding a mobile in the back of their cab is one of the more pleasant things many have found. The survey of what else has been left behind included a harp, a dog, a hamster and a baby. | tech |
T-Mobile bets on 'pocket office'
T-Mobile has launched its latest "pocket office" third-generation (3G) device which also has built-in wi-fi - high-speed wireless net access.
Unlike other devices where the user has to check which high-speed network is available to transfer data, the device selects the fastest one itself. The MDA IV, released in the summer, is an upgrade to the company's existing smartphone, the 2.5G/wi-fi MDA III. It reflects the push by mobile firms for devices that are like mini laptops. The device has a display that can be swivelled and angled so it can be used like a small computer, or as a conventional clamshell phone. The Microsoft Mobile phone, with two cameras and a Qwerty keyboard, reflects the design of similar all-in-one models released this year, such as Motorola's MPx. "One in five European workers are already mobile - meaning they spend significant time travelling and out of the office," Rene Obermann, T-Mobile's chief executive, told a press conference at the 3GSM trade show in Cannes. He added: "What they need is their office when they are out of the office." T-Mobile said it was seeing increasing take up for what it calls "Office in a Pocket" devices, with 100,000 MDAs sold in Europe already.
In response to demand, T-Mobile also said it would be adding the latest phone-shaped Blackberry to its mobile range. Reflecting the growing need to be connected outside the office, it announced it would introduce a flat-fee £20 ($38) a month wi-fi tariff for people in the UK using its wi-fi hotspots. It said it would nearly double the number of its hotspots - places where wi-fi access is available - globally from 12,300 to 20,000.
It also announced it was installing high-speed wi-fi on certain train services, such as the UK's London to Brighton service, to provide commuters a fast net connection too. The service, which has been developed with Southern trains, Nomad Digital (who provide the technology), begins with a free trial on 16 trains on the route from early March to the end of April. A full service is set to follow in the summer. Wi-fi access points will be connected to a Wimax wireless network - faster than wi-fi - running alongside the train tracks. Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile in the UK, said: "We see a growing trend for business users needing to access e-mail securely on the move.
"We are able to offer this by maintaining a constant data session for the entire journey." He said this was something other similar in-train wi-fi services, such as that offered on GNER trains, did not offer yet. Mr Obermann added that the mobile industry in general was still growing, with many more opportunities for more services which would bear fruit for mobile companies in future. Thousands of mobile industry experts are gathered in Cannes, France, for the 3GSM which runs from 14 to 17 February. | tech |