2010 – Page 4 – DigitalOutbox

DigitalOutbox Episode 50

DigitalOutbox Episode 50
In this episode the team discuss the iPad.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:50 – Facebook Privacy Updates
– Facebook is to revise its privacy settings within weeks to make it simpler for people to keep their information private, according to Mark Zuckerberg, its founder and chief executive of the giant social network
– Admits they missed the mark in trying to provide a lot of granularity
– But Zuckerberg insisted that concerns that Facebook is selling personal data to advertisers were misplaced. “We do not give advertisers access to your personal information,” he said. “We do not and never will sell any of your information to anyone.”
– May 26th – new features demo’d, goes live over the coming weeks
– Guide – http://lifehacker.com/5548375/a-guide-to-facebooks-new-simpler-privacy-controls
http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/
6:15 – Dell Streak
– Dell Streak to launch on the UK in June on O2
– 5in tablet device
– Android powered, 3G and wi-fi connectivity, 16GB of storage, GPS and two cameras; one on the front and one on the back.
– Unlike many other Android tablets, owners will be able to download applications from the Android Marketplace. Google has blocked some tablet makers from installing the marketplace app on many devices larger than a mobile phone.
– Hello Dell, hello competition
8:28 – Xbox In Trouble
– The two men primarily responsible for Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division are leaving the company.
– J Allard, a senior VP of design and development who worked on the Xbox and Zune, and Robbie Bach, the division’s president, will both be stepping aside as CEO Steve Ballmer takes more direct control of the department. Remaining execs in the division will report directly to Ballmer.
– Doesn’t sound good
– Surely hurts the Xbox platform
10:09 – iPlayer Beta Launches
– updated site is certainly much cleaner, with TV and radio separated. For new users, the site is divided into two categories: Featured and Most Popular.
– iPlayer will make recommendations, stored in local cookies or via BBC ID. If you use the latter option (BBC ID is currently used to make comments on the 606 message boards and has 1m+ users), you can access these recommendations from any of the 25 devices supported by iPlayer. So if you bookmark a programme at work, your iPlayer at home will remember to download it after broadcast.
– The BBC ID is key to a couple of other new features. Once you’re logged in, you can recommend content to your friends on Facebook and Twitter without leaving the site. The My Friends category that appears alongside Featured and Most Popular displays which programmes your friends are recommending
– integrated Windows Live Messenger function. This allows you to see what your friends are watching right now, jump in on their viewing experience and start a conversations, so you can OMG over The Apprentice in real time, together.
– TV Channels menu will soon include non-BBC offerings such as ITV Player and 4oD. Searching iPlayer for any programme, broadcast on any channel, will take you to the relevant site. Sky is noticeable by its omission; Huggers said that they would “welcome the participation of Sky” but that the BBC hadn’t heard back from the Murdoch-controlled broadcaster
– No dedicated iPhone or iPad app but anew mobile version will appear in a few weeks
– iPlayer will work on the iPad from Friday 28th – it does and it’s wonderful. Full screen, great quality – all from a web app
13:25 – Apple bigger than Microsoft
– (if measured by Market cap. – profits and revenues still less)
– But is it as evil?
15:58 – Cloud based Apple TV
– http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/28/new-apple-tv/
– The new architecture of the device will be based directly on the iPhone 4, meaning it will get the same internals, down to that A4 CPU and a limited amount of flash storage — 16GB to be exact — though it will be capable of full 1080p HD (!).
– The device is said to be quite small with a scarce amount of ports (only the power socket and video out), and has been described to some as “an iPhone without a screen.”
– the price-point for the device will be $99.
– Apple is moving away from the model of local storage, and will be focusing the new ATV on cloud-based storage (not unlike Amazon’s streaming scheme, though we’re talking instant-on 1080p, a la Microsoft)
– For those still interested in keeping their content close, there will be an option to utilize a Time Capsule as an external storage component, but the main course will be all about streaming
– Surely app store will feature too
21:41 – Bing on the iPhone
– Multiple sources at Google tell us that in informal discussions with Apple over the last few months Apple expressed dismay at the number of core iPhone apps that are powered by Google. Search, maps, YouTube, and other key popular apps are powered by Google. Other than the browser, Apple has little else to call its own other than the core phone, contacts and calendar features.
– Interesting – new sources are saying “It’s more complicated than this” and not to expect Google search to be removed from the iPhone next month. Also hearing that Google isn’t paying anything like $100 million/year to Apple for the search rights to the iPhone.
23:50 – Skype over 3G
– http://mashable.com/2010/05/29/skype-for-iphone-3g-calls
– Skype 2.0 launched yesterday and allows calls over 3G
– Finally
– The catch?
– After August 2010, Skype will start charging a “small monthly fee” for use of the 3G calling feature
25:41 – iPad UK Launch
– Hardware
– Software
– Frustrations – iTunes, workflow
– Verdict
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSDPKktbUk ipad and velcro match made in heaven
1:10:44 – Google Sued
– Lauren Rosenberg walked onto a highway because Google told her to and got hit by a car.
– Rosenberg, who apparently takes things very literally, was reading the directions on her Blackberry and thus wasn’t privy to the warning that shows up when you access walking directions on a computer:
– Deer Valley Drive, also known as Utah State Route 224, was one such route, and following Google’s instructions to brave it on foot, Rosenberg was hit by a car and is now suing the company for $100,000

Picks
Shakeel
iPad

Ian
FT Mobile Edition
– FT on the go
– Looks fantastic on the iPad

Henry
Rework
– “Rework- Change the way you work forever”
– A book by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson- creators of 37signals (Basecamp – online project management software).
– Short pithy chapters. Interesting read.

This Is It

Friday May 28th. This was the day of the iPad launching internationally. Initially I wasn’t sure about picking up an iPad. Shakeel was even more doubtful. We’d seen the reviews but how useful would it be? Is it really that fast and usable? Then a couple of weeks ago at our talk at Glasgow MUG we finally saw an iPad in the flesh. That cemented it for me that the iPad was a buy I wanted to make. My MacBook Pro also broke which meant I had no portable device for the essential surfing and tweeting in front of the TV. So for the last few days we debated what size and whether it should be wifi only or 3G. Size was easily settled when I started downloading app’s on Wednesday evening – some were huge!

So it was a cold morning in Glasgow when we joined the queue at the Apple store. There looked to be around 50 odd people and this was around 06:30 which was more than I expected. It wasn’t long after that the Apple staff started walking around letting us know the first 50 would go into the store and they would be assigned a personal shopper who would help us to buy the iPad, accessories and sims. Say what you will about Apple but they definitely know how to launch a product.

With the help of a Starbucks or two the time passed quite quickly. With five minutes to go the Apple staff did a run around the block whooping and a cheering. Fair play – it did help to build a bit of excitement but rather them than me. Then at 08:00 the doors were opened and we trooped in. Thankfully we were in the first 50 so got some heat. I was surprised how quickly people were served and we were both out of the store by 08:30 with our 64GB 3G iPads. I should note that the buying experience was pretty unique. We were brought into the store and each customer got an individual personal shopper who introduced themselves, asked what we were looking for, ran around (literally) to pick up any accessories we may have wanted and them completed the purchase. No hard sell of insurances, add-ons etc. A big well done the the team at Glasgow Apple store as it looked to go incredibly smoothly.

Thinking back to the queue, one aspect that stood out was variety. If you’d ask me who’d be there on a crisp May morning I would have guessed male 20-30 year olds, not all wearing black turtlenecks, but not far off. The age range was massive and demonstrates why Apple is so successful. A computer and eco-system oft criticised as being closed and restrictive but to the majority of end users that doesn’t matter – the Apple platform is easy to use and the hardware is some of the best designed in the industry. Not only that, everyone knows someone that has an iPod. One chap that stood out was an elderly gent wearing a cap not disimilar to one that Shak frequently wears. We saw him pass by but it was only when we were inside the store that we realised he was queuing for an iPad. Maybe for a relative or grandchild?

No. It turns out the chap, William Boyd, was buying his first computer – an iPad. At the grand old age of 78 he wanted an iPad for internet, e-mails and things like that. Main reason for choosing the iPad – simplicity. Great story and one that sums up Apple’s popularity. There’s products aren’t for everyone but they appeal to a broader base than any other tech company.

Another aspect of the shopping experience – Apple store employees were more than happy to pass you on to an expert who would take you through the setup of your iPad, how to use it and how to get the best out of it. You don’t get that at PC World (although you could also buy the iPad on launch day from there if you wanted). I declined as I wouldn’t get to play with the iPad for another 12 hours or so due to a works outing. Thankfully we did take a holiday on Friday as our photo appeared in many papers on Friday and Saturday. Geek fame. By all accounts sales were pretty brisk in the UK which I didn’t really expect. Also surprised that 3G models seem to be most popular.

So after the queuing and waiting the big question – how good is the iPad? In the last 48 hours I’ve tried to do as much on it as possible, including crafting this blog post. It’s a remarkable device and those that say “it’s a big iPod touch” either haven’t used one or don’t get it. Speed, battery life and portability coupled with a great screen and a fantastic line up of app’s at launch make for a superb experience. There are many cons which we’ll cover in the next post but there are two thoughts that I have today which I didn’t expect. One is that the iPad and a desktop computer are a combination that works really well for me – no laptop required. Second – the next iPhone isn’t the guaranteed purchase that I’d originally budgeted for.

DigitalOutbox Episode 49

DigitalOutbox Episode 49
In this episode the team discuss Google IO.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:47 – British Net Use Increases
– British web users are spending 65% more time online than three years ago, according to research of net habits.
– average surfer spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the net each month
– Social networking gains, IM drops, e-mail rising
2:16 – Newzbin Gone
– owe the MPA £230,000 just in interim costs
– owe a software development house over £500k
– Newzbin closed May 19th
– The original site owners have confirmed that, based on source code fragments examined by them, and supplied by a third party, the site source code does appear to have been stolen and is in the hands of unknown parties.
5:36 – Google IO Day 1
– WebM Project
– http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/webm-google-h-264
– open, royalty-free codec that can run in HTML5 browsers without the need for Flash
– Google is donating a much better codec, called VP8, which it acquired with its purchase of On2 Techchnolgies. The WebM Project is a new container file format for Web video. It includes the VP8 video codec, the open Vorbis audio codec, file extensions and a new mime type.
– Any video player can adopt it, including Flash. And, in fact, Flash is one of the 40 launch technology partners supporting WebM.
– Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers will all support WebM, and Google will give it a big push by making YouTube videos support it as well. IE9 will support it too
– Google Wave Now Open
– Mmm, ok then
– Tech looking for a purpose?
– 1 million active users
– Can add to Google Apps for Domain
– Google Buzz API
– Now available and open to devs
– Tweetdeck, Seismic quick to support
– Will this save buzz or at least increase it’s usage?
– Chrome Web Store
– it’s a new store for finding and buying applications for use online
– Plants vs Zombies available for example
– HTML5 being pushed heavily
– Sports Illustrated demo HTML5 mag
– Chrome Web Store provides developers a window to over 70 million people, according to Google. It’s available in Chrome and Chrome OS and will be available in the Chrome Dev Center soon. For now, Chrome only.
– App’s will update automatically if bought via store
– Google Font Directory
– http://mashable.com/2010/05/19/google-font-api
– http://code.google.com/webfonts
– Google’s cross-browser solution is similar to what companies like Typekit and Fontdeck are doing, that is, providing users with a library of available fonts that they can easily embed into their sites.
– Google’s solution is unique in that it is comprised of open source fonts. Google’s Font API can be integrated into websites using either HTML or using a JavaScript WebFont Loader co-developed with Typekit.
– While Google’s font library isn’t as robust as some competing solutions, it is open source. In fact, the fonts in the library can even be downloaded and used in other ways including print.
22:17 – Google IO Day 2
– Android Stats
– http://mashable.com/2010/05/20/google-reveals-android-2-2-and-more-live
– More than 60 compatible devices.
– 21 OEMs, 48 countries, 59 carriers.
– Announcement: 100,000 daily activations of Android devices every day.
– Shot across the bow of Apple: Android is growing faster than every other smartphone maker except RIM, makers of the BlackBerry.
– Announcement: 50,000 applications in the Android marketplace.
– Froyo
– Better support for Microsoft Exchange, as well as new device admin APIs.
– Application data backup API.
– Cloud-to-Device messaging API. You can send a message to Google’s servers and can trigger an Android intent.
– If you send directions to your phone, it automatically opens up maps. No need to launch applications.
– Tethering and portable hotspot. We knew this would be coming, but it’s very cool. Demo’d iPad tethered to Android phone
– 2x-3x Javascript performance improvement. In addition, the V8 codec (announced yesterday) is coming to Android
– Google Maps tilts in the Android browser based on compass.
– Voice triggers: Saying “call” and a contact triggers the call.
– The microphone is in the browser. They’re showing it off in Google Translate, where “Can you help me find the nearest hospital,” is not only translated, but it’s repeated via voice to others
– Gundotra is railing againts Apple for not playing Flash, telling a story about how his daughter couldn’t go to her favorite website (Nickelodeon) on an iPad and asked for an Android phone.
– Android apps finally support installation on SD Card. If there is no space on your phone, it’ll automatically place the app onto your SD card.
– One-step updating of apps announced. Much easier to update.
– Marketplace is much improved
– Buy an app from marketplace – sent to your phone – no need to desktop sync
– Also allows buying of music – web competitor to iTunes?
– Android Froyo can bring your entire home music library to your phone as a stream. So yes, all of your iTunes songs can be streamed onto your Android phone, so long as you have an Internet connection. They’ve bought Simplify Media – wowsers.
– Android – It plays nicely with Flash and HTML 5. It does native and web apps. It makes devices run faster than the iPad. It streams music from iTunes or any other desktop music library. It does painless, wireless tethering. It makes transferring apps from the desktop to mobile completely automatic.
– 2-5x performance increase for Android users…demo showed it outperforming iPad
– Ads
– Google’s railing against Apple iAds for costing way too much. They don’t mention Apple during the entire keynote, but there are so many subtle blows that you can’t help but notice.
– AdSense for Mobile Apps — AFMA. Serving contextually relevant ads in the web browser. The ads can take you to the Android marketplace, to another website, etc. It works within applications or web apps.
– They’re showing off banner ads. And now a new format: expandable ads by tapping the ad.
– There is now a click-to-call option for Google mobile ads, starting today.
– Yet another: expandable ad with Google Maps and directions and click-to-call.
– HTC Evo
– .3-inch display, 1 GHz processor, 4G network, 8MP camera, HD video recording and has an integrated kickstand. Front facing camera too. Looks amazing.
– Everyone at Google IO got one.
– Watched the keynote – two hours of Apple attack 🙂
– Never again will someone tell me only Apple keynotes are smug. Google out Appled Apple on that front.
42:35 – Google TV
– Key elements of Google TV: “Less time finding, more time watching,” “Control and personalize what you watch,” “Make your TV content more interesting” and “more than just a TV”
– Google TV lets you search TV shows just like you would Google Search. It provides results from the web and from TV. You can tune in directly to your show.
– Google TV lets you search through the entire web.
– The demo is getting hurt by bad Wi-fi and connectivity. They’re trying to show off search and navigation.
– They searched for House — as in the FOX TV show. In search, it shows full episodes not only from TV (FOX, USA, Bravo, etc), but also from Fox.com, Hulu.com, and Amazon
– Transition from TV to web is seamless. No changing inputs, no different remote controls.
– With one button, you can flip right back to TV.
– Google TV allows for PIP mode (Picture in Picture), allowing you to browse the web while still watching the game. You can track what’s happening in the game (say via Yahoo Fantasy Sports) while watching it. It’s also easy to switch so that the web is the PIP.
– Google is showing how Google TV is superior as a photo viewer, game player, etc.
– Broadband connectivity, it’s “easy” to integrate with your Cable or Satellite Box, and it has a strong processor: enhanced GPU for graphics (even 3D).
– Google TV input devices include a keyboard and a pointing device. It combines keyboard, remote, and mouse.
– Phones can also be paired to Google TV devices over WiFi. He is using a Nexus One to “speak to his TV.” You can use Google Voice Search on your TV.
– Multiple phones can be paired with the same Google TV.
– You can push whatever website is on your phone onto your TV from your phone. Very cool.
– http://www.google.com/tv/developer/ – Designing websites for Google TV
– It runs on Android, it uses Google Chrome and it runs Flash 10.1.
– Google TV automatically syncs your Android apps to your TV.
– YouTube Leanback announced: It pushes YouTube videos to your TV from your friends, YouTube’s recommendations, your subscriptions and favorites, etc.
– YouTube Leanback is a web interface, not an application just within Google TV. It’ll be available in the next few weeks.
– Now they’re talking about Google Listen, a product for Android that is now in Google TV. It allows you to search and subscribe to audio podcasts and audio shows. Oh, and it allows you to watch podcasts too.
– You can search Google Listen & Watch via the quick search box.
– Google TV is open-source on Android and Chrome. Platform, not a single product
– Hardware partners – Sony, Logitech and Intel
– Fall 2010
– Early 2011 will have updates with Android market, Google TV SKD, and TV Web APIs. In summer 2011, it will open source Google TV.
– It’s everyone against Apple – people catching up and overtaking
– Apple’s arrogance starting to bite?
50:06 – Google Secure Search
– Not on .co.uk yet.
50:49 – Facebook Roundup
– Continuing ground swell of negative articles against Facbook and privacy.
– Wallstreet Journal highlighting that advertisers are able to gain user details (something that isn’t supposed to happen).
– Campaign for “Deactivate your Facebook account Day” on May 31st.
– Facebook announce they will once more look at their privacy and simplify.
– Facebook kiss and make up with Zynga. Deal to keep Zynga games (farmville et all) on Facebook not announced but safe to say that Faceook aren’t taking 30% of their sales.
57:51 – Spotify New Accounts
– A Spotify account that allows full PC access without adverts but not phone access
– £10 gives you mobile access as well
– Also added spotify open -free, no invite but limited to 20 hours per month
– Lots of competition in this space now, price drop is evidence of that. Is Spotify struggling to make money?
59:44 – HP future with WebOS
– To be added to printers, netbooks, phones, tablets
– Also indicating that the purchase was for IP
– $1.2b well spent???
1:01:55 – Mubi Comes to PS3
– From Autumn, UK PS3 users can download Mubi
– independent, international and classic cinema
– 300 films at launch, quickly growing to over 1000
– streaming – not downloading
– pay per view, rent for a week, all you can watch monthly subscription and also free movies

Picks
Ian
Springpad
– web, iphone, android – lets you save things you want to remember
– todo’s, recipies, movies, books
– tasks, list support
– can add friends, see what they are doing/adding/sharing
– slick iphone tool

Chris
Nike – Write the future

Podcasting – Glasgow Mac User Group

We were recently invited to give a talk on podcasting at the Glasgow Mac user Group. Like fools we said yes and a couple of weeks back we gave the talk at the local Apple store. Despite a hiccup with my Macbook Pro, the evening seemed to go well.

It was certainly something new for me to do, having never used Keynote in anger before. A few people have since asked for the presentation as they are either interested in what we said or couldn’t make it along that evening so here it is. First up is a PDF of the slides which should mean anyone can open and view them.

I’ve also included a movie of the slides which are a bit more representative of the presentation. Right click and download the movie and watch within Quicktime. Click within the movie to progress through the slides.

DigitalOutbox Episode 48

DigitalOutbox Episode 48
In this episode the team discuss Android and iPad pricing.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
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Shownotes
2:47 – Be Careful What You Tweet
– Fines £385, costs of £600
– The Tweet he sent to his 600 “followers” in the early hours of 6 January said: “Robin Hood Airport is closed. You’ve got a week… otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!”
– The court heard he had now lost his job because of the prosecution.
– Be careful what you tweet
– Ridiculous
5:37 – Pirate Bay Offline
– several Hollywood film studios won an injunction against its bandwidth provider CB3ROB via a court in Hamburg
– It has no internet connection
– A Pirate Bay source told TorrentFreak that it is already working on a backup solution to bring the site online; the servers themselves haven’t been touched (or moved) rom their well-guarded – and highly secret – location; they simply need to be routed through another provider.
– Might not be that easy – running out of friends as movie and music industry pursue it
7:02 – Android OS pulls ahead of iPhone in smartphone market
– slips into second place behind RIM
– RIM 36%, Android 28%, iPhone 21%
– possibly to do with 2-for-1 sales at Verizon???? (Chris disagrees ;P )
– having a variety of handsets from different manufacturers obviously helps
– http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/10/android-os-pulls-ahead-of-apple-in-smartphone-market/
– Apple spokesperson responds by adding in ipod touches to the iphone sales figures and says “So what?” – http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20100511/apple-on-npd-android-outselling-iphone-claim/?mod=ATD_rss
Chris – I think the impact of an upcoming new iPhone, plus people now buying iPad as well. Plus some VERY compelling Android devices that are now fairly ahead of the curve and maybe (just maybe) some backlash about Apple approach.
12:22 – Google stops selling Nexus One direct online
– U-Turn for search giant.
– Store “not lived up to expectations” people like to try before they buy with phones apparently.
– Customer service issues perhaps? Or simply a lack of marketing $ spent promoting Nexus one?
17:44 – Google WiFi collection blunder
– Google has admitted that for the past three years it has wrongly collected information people have sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks.
– came to light after German authorities asked to audit the data the company’s Street View cars gathered
– These snippets could include parts of an email, text or photograph or even the website someone may be viewing.
– As soon as we became aware of this problem, we grounded our Street View cars and segregated the data on our network, which we then disconnected to make it inaccessible
– Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short. So we will be:
– Asking a third party to review the software at issue, how it worked and what data it gathered, as well as to confirm that we deleted the data appropriately; and
– Internally reviewing our procedures to ensure that our controls are sufficiently robust to address these kinds of problems in the future.
– In addition, given the concerns raised, we have decided that it’s best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely.
– Henry’s just waiting for the lawsuits
22:27 – UK iPad Pricing
– Best for light/irregular 3G usage: Orange’s 5p/MB pay as you go tariff
– Best for regular 3G usage: Orange’s pay monthly £15 for 3GB
– Best for heavy 3G usage: Orange’s iPad Monthly £25 for 10GB
– Best for light/irregular 3G and wi-fi usage: O2’s £2 a day/500MB offer (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)
– Best for regular 3G and wi-fi usage: O2’s £10 a month for 1GB offer (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)
– Best for heavy 3G and wi-fi usage: O2’s £15 a month for 3GB (unlimited wi-fi on 7,500 BT Openzone and The Cloud hotspots)
– O2’s unlimited wi-fi offering makes its offer best for customers who expect to use their iPad on the go.
– http://electricpig.co.uk/2010/05/17/ipad-uk-apple-approved-routes-to-an-ipad-discount/
– In a complete failure of foresight, Henry’s prediction of a network subsidised ipad looks increasingly unlikely.
– Henry is clearly rubbish at this prediction lark… 🙂
– Co-Pilot for the iPad!!! Stick that bad boy to the car windscreen!
30:50 – Get your eBook in the iBook store
– Lulu is a certified aggregator – will allow you to publish your book to iBook store – wow
– Must be valid epub file and have an ISDN number – Lulu will assign for free and convert to epub
– Pricing – 80% of profit after Apples cut – On a $9.99 book, for example, you will receive $5.60 .
– Apple can decline content – only one so far out of hundreds
34:28 – BT extend broadband rollout and OnLive
– Originally its fibre services, offering speeds of up to 40 megabits per second (Mbps), were due to reach around 40% of the population by 2012.
– A £1bn investment will see the project roll out to a further 20% of the population by 2015.
– Secretly OnLive has been operating a test site in Europe from a BT (British Telecommunications plc) data center in Wales since 2009. And I’m happy to report, that over the European Internet infrastructure, OnLive is AWESOME. We’ve tested OnLive across all of Western Europe spanning from the UK to Italy and from Scandinavia down to Spain.
– Today we are announcing that BT, the largest broadband operator in the UK, has formed a partnership with and has made an investment in OnLive. We’ll be working together with BT to bring the OnLive Game Service to the UK, such that it operates reliably and with high quality over the UK’s Internet backbone to BT’s broadband customers. BT has an exclusive right to bundle the OnLive Game Service together with their broadband service offerings in the UK, although UK gamers will also be able to order the OnLive Game Service directly from OnLive to run over any UK ISP.
– Once we get the US service up and running, we’ll be sharing more details, including when we’ll be starting a UK public Beta (with UK postcodes, no less). One thing I can say is when we do launch in the UK, gamers will have the benefit of everything we’ve learned from the US launch, as well as the latest OnLive features. Also, unlike the US launch, where we are ramping up with PCs and Macs, then introducing the OnLive MicroConsole™ HDTV adapter later, the UK will launch on PC, Mac and HDTV from the get-go. BT say later this year in UK
– BT has also taken a 2.6 percent stake in the company.
41:01 – Used Games Tax
– EA introduce $10 online pass
– Comes included with game
– Sell game, new owner has to pay $10 to get online
– Sneaky.
44:59 – Red Dead Redemption
– reviews starting to trickle out – Game Informer: 9.75/10, Games TM: 9.00. IGN 9.8/10. Eurogamer 8/10 (!losers)
– http://ps3.nowgamer.com/reviews/ps3/9197/red-dead-redemption – 9.3/10
– metacritic – 96 (based on 16 reviews)
– looks awesome
– My pre-order is being processed 🙂
46:20 – Nintendo – Apple is the enemy of the future
– Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata says battle with Sony is over, Apple is the ‘enemy of the future’
– this is a month after semi-transformed-Hulk Reggie Fils-Aime stated iPhone OS wasn’t a viable platform for game development
– battle with Sony is a “victory already won”

Picks
Chris
Friv
– A plethora of flash games… Some bad. Some good. Some great.

Henry
Fish Text
– cheap international txts iphone app

Ian
Steam
– steam for mac….and pc.
– Front end on Mac is pretty poor
– 63 games at launch incl Civ 4, Braid, Portal
– Portal free until May 24th for both platforms too
– Downloading…slow….

DigitalOutbox Episode 47

DigitalOutbox Episode 47
In this episode the team discuss Facebook, iPad and HTML5.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
3:31 – Facebook Privacy Mess
– In an attempt to reduce concerns about user privacy, Facebook has inadvertently opened a security hole that let 3rd parties view your friend requests and your private messages sent through the chat system.
– In trying to do the right thing… they still get it wrong!
– And they believe ignorance is bliss for their users
– Ethan Beard, director of Facebook’s developer network – Facebook Blames Riot Over Privacy On Media, Says Users “Love” The Changes
– “the reason that people use Facebook is to share information with their friends and to connect with things that are important to them.”
– My biggest issue is that there is no way to extract your information from facebook and the speed of privacy changes has happened too fast for people to keep up to date.
– There has been a change of stance to a default of locked down, to an assumption of openness.
– If something is made public by a policy change, you do not have the any option to completely remove previous content. Event “De-activating” content does not remove it. Facebook have also made changes so that whereas content was time-limited in the past, they now have the option to keep all content for as long as they want, regardless of whether you want to de-activate or not.
– Evolution of privacy on Facebook – http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/
10:09 – Microsoft Cancels Courier
– At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The “Courier” project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.
– Gutted.
11:55 – HP Kills Slate
– Hewlett-Packard has killed off its much ballyhooed Windows 7 tablet computer, says a source who’s been briefed on the matter.
– HP may also be abandoning Intel-based hardware for its slate lineup simply because it’s too power hungry. That would also rule out Windows 7 as an operating system.
– Wow
– Surely not – only site to report this and HP Slate was shown to investors after Palm acquisition
– iPad and Android the only real options?
– Chrome OS
– Other Linux mashups designed for different form factors.
– Can Linux react quick enough to offer a controlled tablet/touch focused interface?
15:16 – UK iPad Priced
– pre-order May 10
– release May 28
– £429/£499/£599 for WiFi
– £529/£599/£699 for 3G.
– Orange pricing
– http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/32979/orange-reveals-ipad-3g-rates
– Pay as you go, daily, weekly and monthly. With the PAYG option, each MB will cost 5p, up to a maximum of £40 in a month (so 800MB in total). This will appeal to users who will only use their iPad for emails or a bit of light surfing when out and about.
– Next up is the daily option at £2 for up to 200MB worth of data for you to use before midnight, this can be bought on an ad-hoc basis. The weekly option takes this limited data plan a bit further – £7.50 for 1GB’s worth of 3G data. It might be an idea to try out these plans before deciding whether you need to opt for the final option – the monthly plans.
– Orange has put two packages in place – Monthly 15 and Monthly 25, naturally costing £15 and £25 per month respectively. The major difference between them is either a 3GB limit or a 10GB limit, but both also grant access to 750MB Wi-Fi when away from home via BT’s Openzone
– Importantly, the iBook store will also be there for the May 28th launch
23:41 – Google Flurry
– Google Editions book
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10098111.stm
– Google book store
– Not tied to single device
– To date Google has scanned over 12 million books, both in-print and out-of-print, giving it a greater selection of material than either Apple or Amazon.
– Works on any web enabled device
– books will be purchased directly from Google and also from retailers who will keep the majority of the money earned.
– Out in the summer
– Google buys BumpTop
– http://gigaom.com/2010/05/02/google-buys-bumptop-3-d-multi-touch-tablet-interface-on-the-way/
– For Android tablet?
– I tried it and didn’t like it as an interface
– However…for a touch driven device…maybe
– Looks nice. Some nice interface ideas. But surely power hungry for a tablet/touch device? Reminds me of Microsoft Surface.
– Google brings back Gmail to the UK
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10096107.stm
– Bye bye Googlemail.co.uk, hello gmail.co.uk. Long dispute finally resolved with uk owner of gmail.co.uk. Originally wanted £27 million from Google but no details of how much Google finally coughed up.
– Google Search changed
– http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/spring-metamorphosis-googles-new-look.html
– Streamlined
– Flattened logo
– Left hand side navigation – mostly hidden
– Also applies to mobile site
– Chrome Update
– http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/05/pedal-to-chrome-metal-our-fastest-beta.html
– Another speed jump
– Not only bookmakr sync, preference sync as well
– HTML5 features – geolocation, file drag and drop
– First beta to have Flash baked in and updated via auto-update mechanism
– To finish off, IE falls before 60% market share
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/04/internet_explorer_market_share_decline/
– 15 months to drop 10%
34:19 – Microsoft Stands with Apple on H264
– Microsoft said Thursday that Internet Explorer 9 will support the variety of Web video Apple built into Safari but not the one embraced by Firefox and Opera.
– “In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video only,” Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said in a blog post.
– His reasons for the support: the format is widely used in the computing industry, from video cameras to Google’s YouTube, it benefits from hardware decoding support that improves performance, and there are questions about the rights to use H.264’s chief rival today, Ogg Theora.
– Google’s Chrome supports both H.264 and Ogg Theora.
– The lack of one format being used across all formats undermines the move from Flash, costs website hosts and devs more cash
– But H.264 patent encumbered and is licensed by the MPEG-LA, with Apple and Microsoft members with patents in the patent pool so it’s in their financial interest to promote H.264. Licences don’t transfer downstream which may be a real problem for consumers in future.
40:36 – Scribd scrapping Flash moving to HTML5
– Scribd co-founder and chief technology officer Jared Friedman tells me: “We are scrapping three years of Flash development and betting the company on HTML5 because we believe HTML5 is a dramatically better reading experience than Flash. Now any document can become a Web page.”
– Documents will simply become very long Web pages. A new bookmark feature will help you keep your place in especially long documents. Scribd’s documents will be especially iPad friendly.
– Instead of downloading a book from Apple’s iBooks store or Amazon’s Kindle app, you can see if an electronic version is on Scribd and read it in your browser. Pinch and zoom to make the text bigger. No download necessary. The books and other documents are stored on the Web. They can be shared via Facebook and Twitter, or sent to a mobile phone.
– Documents and video moving away from plugin, especially Flash, dependancy
– Flash won’t die – just be less widely used, focussing more on interface, games, interactivity which it should do
– http://www.scribd.com/documents/30964170/Scribd-in-HTML5 – test page
43:10 – Dropbox API
– Android app
– Native iPad app
– Mobile API – Dropbox Anywhere – Desktop API later this year
– Dev’s could integrate DropBox into their app’s via API – very exciting for mobile dev’s
– Why didn’t Apple include this – every iPhone/iPad owner gets 2GB of web space?
46:06 – Skype 5 Way Video Calling
– Within next week
– Windows first, Mac later this year
– Free for first three to four months, they paid for
– Great for our podcast 🙂

Picks
Ian
Halo Reach
– Fantastic update
– Single player and co-op is good
– Multiplayer is quite awesome

Henry
Cupidtino
– Cupidtino is a beautiful new dating site created for fans of Apple products by fans of Apple products!
– Find the apple fanboy/girl of your dreams.

Chris
Movie Peg
– £5 a lot for a bit of plastic for sure… still.
– Like the idea.

DigitalOutbox Episode 46

DigitalOutbox Episode 46
In this episode the team discuss Facebook privacy, Spotify, and Apple vs Adobe again!

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:41 – Facebook f8
– 400 million users
– We’re going to combine all the permissions dialogs that you use using Connect into a single Permissions dialog. Someone comes to a site. You show them a dialog that shows all the permissions you need. They click once.
– “Once upon a time, Facebook could be used simply to share your interests and information with a select small community of your own choosing. As Facebook’s privacy policy once promised, ‘No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.’
– How times have changed.
– Today, Facebook removed its users’ ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information. Certain parts of users’ profiles, ‘including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests’ will now be transformed into ‘connections,’ meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don’t want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them.”
– Open Graph – new plugins to see what friends have liked and shared
– Like button everywhere – share without logging in
– Will be on all IMDB pages from today – hit button, added to your movies in Facebook
– 30 other partners
– Search. 400 million users sharing 25 billion things a month. Now devs will be able to search all public updates on Facebook.
– Finally, revamping the way authentication works. Together with industry leaders we’ll adopt oAuth 2.0. The first reason this is cool: it’s an industry standard. Code you write will work equally well expect standard to be widely adopted. It’s objectively more awesome. It’s just simple.
– One more cool thing (a glimpse of the future). When we wondered what would happen if we worked with a small group of trusted companies if users didn’t have to click Connect. What if they already knew public info of public users. Worked with Microsoft (Docs.com).
– Microsoft is announcing Docs.com. Online version of Office Suite. Makes it easy to share and collaborate with friends online. one of friends writes up a document. Share it, goes to Docs.com. Share it with you, you go to Docs.com without having to reauthenticate. Immediately can get started. All the power of Microsoft office suite online with simple FB integration. This is built with the ground up with assumption that every user has real idenitfy and friends. Will be avialable later today at Docs.com.
– Another example: Pandora. Now for the first time when you go to Pandora it will be able to start playing music from bands you’ve liked all across the web.
– Massive announcements really
– Facebook will be everywhere on the web
– Capture more of what we do, where we go online, information we consume and create
– Launched a commerce system on top of this – Facebook credits
– Facebook are betting on social connections – as big as the hyperlink
BUT
– Who controls Facebook – do we trust Facebook – Google has better image
– Is this a utility – utilities are usually governed
– What happens if facebook is used to authenticate everywhere and it goes down….web broken?
– How to alter your privacy settings in facebook – http://www.fastcompany.com/1624745/time-to-audit-your-facebook-privacy-settings
– What does Facebook share about you – http://zesty.ca/facebook/
– EFF has a timeline of FB privacy – http://w2.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline/
10:19 – Spotify Updates
– added a number of social features, centered on a fully editable Spotify music profile
– Connect to Facebook: you can connect to Facebook inside of Spotify, instantly adding all your Facebook friends who’ve selected the same feature. Your friends’ profiles will appear in a new ‘People’ sidebar at the right of the screen, with your personal profile at the top.
– Add usernames: you can also add people by typing their Spotify username, should you know it, into the Spotify search field. For example searching ‘spotify:user:username’ will bring up their profile (if their profile is published).
– Publish your Spotify profile to the web: easily publish the link to your Spotify profile on your blog, Facebook page, website or anywhere else on the web and allow others to follow your musical journey. For example here’s a link to the official Spotify profile.
– Inbox: a new ‘inbox’ folder on Spotify’s left sidebar lets you send tracks to friends directly within the platform, simply by dragging and dropping a track to their name in the People sidebar. Alternatively, just right click on the track and select the new ‘send to’ option.
– Facebook feed: music your friends have posted on Facebook will be visible on the Spotify ‘What’s new’ page and via a new ‘Feed’ tab.
– Popularity count for playlists: all playlists will show how many other Spotify users are currently subscribed to that playlist. By clicking on the number, you can even see the usernames of those who added the playlist.
– Track playlist changes: see who and when a track was added to a playlist with the new ‘Added’ and ‘User’ columns in playlists.
– Spotify is evolving into a total music management platform. We’ve added a ‘Library’ folder in the left side bar, enabling you to combine your own music library with ours.
– Local files: missing any music in Spotify? Now you can import a link to all the music files stored on your computer with a simple click of a button.
– Gracenote: As with any good music media player, if you have missing or incorrect track information you need software to check those files and automatically correct them so that you can better organise and link them to our catalogue. Gracenote does just this.
– Local file linking: we will check your local files and see if we have that track/artist/album in Spotify. If we do, we’ll make the file linkable so you can easily go from that file into an artist or album page. This allows for better sharing of playlists that contain a mix of your own music and Spotify’s.
– Starred: every track and album on Spotify can now be ‘starred’ – allowing you to tag all your favourites into a special sub-folder.
– Wireless sync: you can copy your music files to your mobile without connecting a USB cable with our new wireless sync feature.
– Filter bar: the library has a permanent filter-bar at the top so you can easily type in what you’re searching for. In all other lists the filter bar is visible when pressing cmd-f (mac) or ctrl-f (windows).
15:00 – No Hulu for the UK
– Couldn’t agree terms with UK broadcasters
– Hulu wants to sell the adverts around the content – couldn’t agree with ITV, C4, Five
– A source close to Hulu said that the company had not totally ruled out a UK launch somewhere down the line: “It has definitely had to postpone its UK expansion plans, which the team are disappointed by. But without being able to secure any exclusive content – because Channel 4 and Five have already signed third party deals with YouTube and SeeSaw and ITV isn’t playing ball, it had to ensure it could sell the advertising inventory around the content it could secure. When those talks fell through – Hulu has been forced to walk away. But it remains hopeful that it can have a UK presence in the future – when the broadcasters realise they need to be more flexible with their business models.”
17:36 – Blippy Exposes Users Credit Card Numbers
– 4 users full names and numbers exposed by running google search – site:blippy.com +”from card”
– Scary – so much for protecting users – always was a dumb idea in my opinion
– Blippy blog – http://blippy.posterous.com/blippy-and-credit-card-numbers
– While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for the 4 people who were affected (to whom we apologize and are contacting), and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks. Don’t worry – Google cache is great and we won’t get caught again.
– But…2 days later – http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-blippy-users-debit-card-numbers-still-appearing-in-google-2010-4
– “site:blippy.com +outstanding.” in Google turns up another card
– Site and service can’t be trusted – simple as that
20:11 – Google Maps navigation in the UK
– Runs on Android 1.6 and later
– Voice commands and voice search, street view, traffic warnings, POIs and step-by-step directions
– Free
– Also confirmed that service will come to iPhone…
– Or Not – Official Comment from Google – We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we’ve had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all.
24:07 – Bing losing money
– Just shows how seriously M$ is in taking on Google and just how much cash they have to throw around.
– Is it worth it?
25:56 – Scott Adams and the Stolen iPhone
– Police raid Jason Chens home – take his comps
– Was the raid legal?
– Are Apple after Gizmodo, the guy that took/sold the phone…..everyone?
– Do the police work for Apple?
– This is like a tech world soap opera
– Like Pete and Katie splitting…who?
30:22 – Apple vs Adobe
– Writing on his blog, Mike Chambers, project manager for Adobe Flash, revealed this week that his company is not planning additional investments in the software feature. Chambers noted that Adobe complied with Apple’s licensing terms during the development cycle of Flash CS5.
– “However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason,” he wrote.
– Chambers suggested that Apple’s changes to the developer agreement were meant to specifically target Adobe and developers who might port software from Flash to the iPhone.
– “It is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5,” he wrote. “Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.”
– Apple responds publicly on Flash
– “Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” said spokeswoman Trudy Miller in a statement.
– Why is this a big deal?
– Apples quarterly results were massive
– Best quarter ever
– Apple’s iPhone business, which didn’t exist three years ago, now represents a whopping 40% of the company’s revenue, and has been the company’s biggest revenue generator for three quarters in a row.
– But wait…..it’s not all bad – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/23/apple_and_adobe_together_again/
– 10.6.3 includes a new Video Decode Acceleration Framework. This C programming interface provides low-level access to the H.264 decoding capabilities of certain GPUs
– http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2010/tn2267.html
– This is what has prevented hardware acceleration of Flash on the Mac
– Adobe are looking at it closely and hope to include it later this year
– Plex have done it already…
– http://elan.plexapp.com/2010/04/27/hardware-accelerated-h-264-decoding-on-plex/
– For the first time, your GPU is used to decode H.264 video. The results are incredibly impressive, with 720p and 1080p video decoding smoothly with much reduced CPU utilization
– Adobe company spokesman says that Mac hardware acceleration will arrive with an incarnation of the Flash Player due “shortly after” version 10.1, which is now on its second release candidate.
– http://blog.kaourantin.net/?p=89
– Version available now with Hardware decoding
– MacBooks shipped after January 21st, 2009, Mac Minis shipped after March 3rd, 2009, MacBook Pros shipped after October 14th, 2008, iMacs which shipped after the first quarter of 2009
– Doesn’t support al resolutions but a great step forward
– Blog post also acknowledges quicktimes better performance but that theres a good plan on how to proceed
– Thoughts on Flash by Steve Jobs
– http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
– Summary
– It’s proprietary.
– Most web video plays on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
– Who needs Flash games? We have apps for that.
– Flash has poor security.
– Flash doesn’t perform well on mobile devices.
– Flash negatively affects battery life.
– Flash was designed for PCs, not touchscreens.
– Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
– Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
– Third, there’s reliability, security and performance. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash. Flash also doesn’t perform well on a mobile platform
– Battery life is an issue
– Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X
– Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
– And so it goes on.
– Dagger in the heart for Flash on mobiles?
53:12 – Apple buys Siri
– $200 million
– Siri was a great iPhone app – virtual personal assistant
– Great demo’s, not yet released in UK
– Bought to make iPhone exclusive?
– Bought for the underlying technology?
– Bought for mobile search? iAds?
55:43 – HP Buys Palm
– $1.2 billion
– HP back in smartphone market
– Saying no to Windows Phone 7?
– looking to make Web OS tablets to compete with iPad http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/28/hp_on_palm_buy/
58:54 – Dell Launching New Phones
– Lightning
– Windows 7 portrait slider
– 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display, AT&T and T-Mobile 3G,
– five megapixel autofocus camera, 1GB of flash with 512MB RAM plus 8GB of storage on a MicroSD card (non-user-replaceable, we’re assuming),
– GPS, accelerometer, compass, FM radio, and full Flash support including video playback
– Thunder
– Similar specs to Lightning but with Android 2.1
– Flash, Smoke
– Android as well, slightly less highly spec’d, oddish design
1:01:16 – Nexus One UK Launch
– Available on Vodafone from Friday 30th
– Free on 2 year contracts, but only with 1GB of mobile internet and mail, starting from £35
– Free on 18 month contract starting from £40
– For customers who only want to sign up for 18 months, the phone will cost £99 on a £30 a month contract, or £59 for £35 a month. It is free on an 18 month contract at £40 a month. On a two-year contract, the phone will cost £99 for £25 a month, or £59 for £30 a month.
– No yearly contract
1:05:00 – Sky Launches Unlimited Broadband
– Sky is set to become the first broadband provider to offer free internet access for all customers at speeds of up to 20Mb/s
– called Sky Everyday Lite, users have to be Sky TV subscribers and signed up to the firm’s Sky Talk phone service. And downloads are capped at 2GB a month. service is free and available from 1 June.
– On the same day, Sky also introduces Sky Unlimited, a £7.50-a-month package that is, it claims truly unlimited – there will be “no usage caps, fair use policies or traffic management”.

Picks
Ian
iStat Menus
– Mac app that shows you lots of stats about your machine
– Temps, fan speeds, network speeds etc
– Looks great

Jamie Oliver for iphone
– Great recipe app
– Lots of video and audio content
– Recipes easy to follow and the ones I’ve tried are lovely

Transmit
– The best FTP app for Mac
– Robust and feature rich

Chris
Unhappy Hipsters
– alternative captions to photos from lifestyle magazines.

Earth View in Google Maps

We all love Google Maps. We all love Google Earth. Now get the best of both worlds via the newly launched Google Earth plugin for Google Maps. One quick download later and your good to go.

DigitalOutbox Episode 45

DigitalOutbox Episode 45
In this episode the team discuss Twitter Chirps, iPhone revealed and the Droid Incredible.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:25 – DEBill
– Libdems will call for repeal of digital economy bill
– Hoorah
3:31 – Twitter Chirps
– Launching Promoted tweets
– We are launching the first phase of our Promoted Tweets platform with a handful of innovative advertising partners that include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America—with more to come. Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users.
– You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you
– Promoted Tweets will be clearly labeled as “promoted” when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favoriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.
– Before we roll out more phases, we want to get a better understanding of the resonance of Promoted Tweets, user experience and advertiser value. Once this is done, we plan to allow Promoted Tweets to be shown by Twitter clients and other ecosystem partners and to expand beyond Twitter search, including displaying relevant Promoted Tweets in your timelines in a way that is useful to you.
– A Promoted Tweet isn’t guaranteed to stay afloat for a long time — if the tweet isn’t tracking well in terms of replies, clicks, and a number of other metrics Twitter is calling “resonance”, it will be pulled, and the advertiser won’t pay for it.
– Twitter Chirp
– Google Rolls Out Twitter Timelines
– http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/google-rolls-out-twitter-timelines-in-realtime-search/
– Google is going a different route by adding a timeline view of realtime updates.
– The feature is rolling out over the next few days, and includes more than just Twitter updates
– The timeline lets you go back in time to see what people were saying about any particular topic. It searches updates on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz, and MySpace.
– It is an attempt to recreate the conversation which occurred at a specific point in time about any topic.
– 3 Billion requests a day through API
– Growth – 1500% a year
– Twitter realise that twitter is too hard to use
– For devs, best twitter can do is grow userbase
– 55 million new tweets per day
– 600 million search queries
– Announcing today we’re launching Points of Interest. Actual places, not just lat/long. You’ll be able to click on Palace of Fine arts, see what everyone there is saying.
– User Stream API will give developers access to a feed of user actions on a more granular level than just tweets. The user stream includes mentions, friending and favoriting (the kind of stuff you’re used to seeing in Facebook’s news feed). The API will be available to developers to play with at Twitter’s Chirp Hack Day (which actually starts tonight).
– Annotations feature that will be launching “next quarter” that gives developers much more flexibility around the context of a tweet. The feature will allow developers to “add any arbitrary metadata to any tweet in the system.” So, just like a tweet can today be transmitted along with information about which other tweet it was in reply to, or what location it came from, or what application it was created on, now Twitter will allow developers to make up new stuff. Twitter is looking to see how developers use Annotations before it creates any sort of taxonomy for them, Sarver said.
– Twitter is launching a central developer resource site at dev.twitter.com later today. It includes such features as documentation that’s generated from code, rather than written by hand (this won applause from the Chirp audience), a way to securely build and reference API calls, an official WatchMouse monitor for the Twitter service and a way to search across all the repositories of Twitter developer information.
– Today the Library of Congress is announcing that it’s doing its part to digitally preserve each and every public tweet since the beginning of time … err Twitter. It fittingly broke the news on Twitter earlier today.
– after a six-month delay, “Tweets will be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.”
– @anywhere also launched – http://dev.twitter.com/anywhere
– integrate twitter into your website with ease
14:46 – New Macbook Pros
– i5 and i7 dual cores – not quad core
– Emphasis on battery life rather than all out performance – 13 inch 10 hours, 15, 17 – 8-9 hours
– Screens – glossy 1440×900 screen, or a denser 1680×1050 panel with either glossy or matte coatings
– No need to reboot to swap between integrated and high end video
– 13 inch from £999, 15 from £1499, 17 from £1899
– From El Jobs…We chose killer graphics plus 10 hour battery life over a very small CPU speed increase. Users will see far more performance boost from the speedy graphics.
18:21 – iPad Dealyed in UK
– Now end of May due to greater than anticipated success in US – yeah right!
– Details and pre-orders announced on May 10th
– Makes this close to an iPhone launch
– O2 will also be announcing iPad deals in the coming weeks, also Vodafone and Orange
– really BBC, was it third biggest news in the UK?
21:18 – Opera Mini Approved
– Served through proxy with the sites compressed
– I thought experience was quite poor
– Safari as fast if not faster, GUI very poor too
– Zooming in was hit and miss, many times zooming in far too much
– Does sync bookmarks back to desktop
– So much for the regime
23:14 – iPhone 4G Leaked Lost or Stolen
– What’s new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What’s changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
– Biggest gadget story of the year…maybe ever?
– Gruber – Apple consider the phone….stolen
– Gizmodo confirm they paid for the phone
– Gizmodo tell the world the name of the engineer that lost the phone…what about the guy that stole/found the phone and sold it for premium? Was that really needed? From now on he’s the guy that lost the iphone. Then they do another post asking Apple not to sack him. Classy.
– Is Gizmodo handling stolen goods?
– Apple wants it back – http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/357361/apple-asks-for-its-iphone-4-back
32:19 – Microsoft Kin
– Today, Microsoft is launching its own Microsoft-branded phones targeted at younger users, “Kin,” also known as Project Pink. 2 phones, Kin 1, Kin 2
– Microsoft has dubbed a group of younger users “sociologists.” They like to share pictures on Facebook, check on their friends via mobile, talk tech and blog. They’re talking about Generation Y. It’s a teenie phone
– The first phone (pictures coming) is almost completely square. Microsoft is demoing the device on stage now, showing off its social features. Your contacts are almost entirely photo-based — it looks like a collage when you look at your favorites or friends.
– The interface is touchscreen: You can do drag-and-drop of links and swipe to open windows such as search. It does have a physical keyboard
– Use Zune video and music service
– 5- and 8-megapixel cameras on the two models, and it shoots video in 720p
– Kin Studio – web component of phone to access all content via slick front end
– Sharp built hardware
– Out in US on Verizon in May
– Autumn in UK on Vodafone
36:24 – Droid Incredible
– Camera at 8MP looks to be very impressive
– Best touch interface found on an android phone
– Sound playback and earpiece excellent
– 8GB internal storage + micro SD slot, therefore 40GB available – many apps don’t see internal storage though, and the phone doesn’t come with a card
– Software – Android 2.1 + Sense interface – well integrated
– In fact reviews say this is best interface found on an Android device
– Browser comes with Flash Lite – lots of problem, If someone was hoping to convince us that Flash could work on a device like this, consider the job unfinished.
– Battery – good but not outstanding for a device like this – get through a day just
– Best Android phone today
– What about tomorrow?

Picks
Ian
Lonely Planet iPhone guides Free
– Free until Thursday 22nd from App Store
– 13 cities – great offer

YoruFukurou (NightOwl)
– Native twitter Client for Mac
– Free, fast, feature rich

Shakeel
Marvel Comics for iPhone
– Good app for downloading and reading comics
– Pretty readable given small screen size

Henry
Free App Calendar
– Get a free app every day
– Nice way to get new content…for FREE

Chris
Geocaching
– but shhh, don’t tell the muggles.
– Not so much an app as a way of life.
– Free “taster” app.
– £5.99 for full app.
– Available across major platforms.
– Essentially a global treasure hunt.

DigitalOutbox Episode 44

DigitalOutbox Episode 44
In this episode the team discuss Politics and the Regime.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:43 – Bye Bye Broadband tax
– a 50p-a-month broadband tax, which would have been applied to all households with a landline telephone, has been shelved.
– The Conservatives said they also forced the government to backtrack on the plans to levy a charge on landline phone bills – due to come into force in October – to pay for the universal roll-out of broadband.
– They declared the reversal of the two tax rises – as well as another on the taxation of holiday rental homes – as a “major victory for businesses and consumers across Britain”.
– Labour has said all the tax measures will be re-introduced should Labour be re-elected.
3:07 – Digital Bill passed in Wash Up Session
– The government forced through the controversial digital economy bill with the aid of the Conservative party last night, attaining a crucial third reading – which means it will get royal assent and become law – after just two hours of debate in the Commons.
– Clause 43 dropped a proposal on orphan works which had been opposed by photographers.
– Clause 43 was to allow orphan works
– Clause 43 says that if someone finds your photograph, wants to use it and decides that they can’t trace you, they can do whatever they like with it after paying an arbitrary fee to a UK Government-appointed “licensing body”. You’ll never know unless you happen to find it being used in this way, in which case you should be able to claim some money.
– lause 43 also introduces “Extended Collective Licensing”. This means that if someone finds your photograph and can trace you, they still don’t have to contact you for permission to use it. They can go to a UK Government-appointed “collecting society” and ask them instead. They’ll pay an arbitrary fee and be able to do whatever they like with the photograph. Your photograph. Again, without asking you first or paying what you would have charged.
– Full list of all measures – http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-digital-economy-bill-quick-guide-to-all-45-measures/
– Tom Watson, the former Cabinet Office minister who resigned in mid-2009, voted against the government for the first time in the final vote to take the bill to a third reading. However the vote was overwhelmingly in the government’s favour, which it won by 189 votes to 47. 20 MP’s debated the bill.
– Earlier the government removed its proposed clause 18, which could have given it sweeping powers to block sites, but replaced it with an amendment to clause 8 of the bill. The new clause allows the secretary of state for business to order the blocking of “a location on the internet which the court is satisfied has been, is being or is likely to be used for or in connection with an activity that infringes copyright”.
– Example was given that Wikileaks could be blocked as it hosts copyrighted material
– Dropbox, Windows Live, Xmarks, Google, MobileMe – all could be construed as being used to infringe copyright. Youtube, Vimeo, Flickr – where could this stop? Or start.
– The third reading on Wednesday followed the second reading on Tuesday – around 40 MP’s debated it
– 1 Bill, 20,000 letters, 40 MP’s turn up to debate – http://debillitated.heroku.com/
– The Digital Economy Bill passed: The internet watched live as a handful of MPs ignored democracy in their attempts to control that they don’t understand. – http://www.skeptobot.com/2010/04/digital-economy-bill-passed-internet.html
– The third reading has been just as bad. Almost Empty. 2 hours given to debate amendments to 50 clauses. The first clause took 1hr. The last 49 were glossed over in the last hour. Ten minutes before the vote labour MPs put down their drinks, pulled themselves out of the bar and stumbled in to vote for the Bill. Having listened to nothing. Disgusting.
– 6-9 months scrutiny first, then potentially first letters could go out
– However the law that has been passed requires a years gap between letter and disconnection – so end of 2011 before we see any impact on home users – much sooner for websites to be disconnected though
– internet service providers will be obliged to send letters to any of their subscribers linked to alleged infringements.
– Copyright holders will be able to apply for a court order to gain access to the names and addresses of serious infringers and take action against them while ISPs would be able to suspend accounts of offenders.
– Can’t believe how quickly such important laws got voted through – one last trip to the lords and then it’s in place
– Letters to the house, websites taken down. Can’t believe this is the UK and it was brought in by a Labour government
– Stephen Timms who led the digital economy bill thought that IP address meant Intellectual property
– http://i.imgur.com/1pXlO.jpg
– Copyright is hard – http://ceedee.co.uk/copyright-is-hard
– Big business owns the government – this proves it
– Talk Talk not happy – http://www.talktalkblog.co.uk/2010/04/08/digital-economy-bill-its-a-wash-up/
– O2 – don’t know what they are – http://blog.o2.co.uk/home/2010/04/o2-comments-on-the-digital-economy-act.html
– Annoyed – visit Open Rights Group – http://www.openrightsgroup.org/ although I’m not overly convinced by this group
– Annoyed – what did your MP vote – http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/32.htm#hddr_2
– Annoyed – vote for someone that will at least respond to your letters
34:48 – Apple vs Adobe
– Dev changes – cross compilers no longer allowed i.e. Flash-to-iPhone compiler from Adobe due next week
– Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited)
– Could affect Wired apps? Built using Adobe Air.
– Be in no doubt – numerous times during this keynote, Steve Jobs showed Adobe the middle finger.
– http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/09/adobe-says-iphone-ipad-adoption-and-alternative-technologies/
– If you were in any doubt, Adobes filings to Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday:
– it flatly says that “to the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed
– Friday nights – Flash Blog – Platform Evangelist speaks
– http://theflashblog.com/?p=1888
– I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted.
– Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior.
– Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple. Comments disabled as I’m not interested in hearing from the Cupertino Comment SPAM bots.
– Adobe CTO speaks – http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/04/cs5_countdown_is_on.html
– CS5 is bigger than this one block from Apple
– There’s plenty of healthy competition that we can work with
– Developer talks to Steve – http://mashable.com/2010/04/10/steve-jobs-adobe
– We’ve been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.
– Calm, reasoned response – http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/04/11/gruber-a-voice-of-calm-in-a-mobile-world-gone-out-of-control/
– Good article summing up points form either side
– Did Adobe screw themselves – http://innerdaemon.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/sorry-adobe-you-screwed-yourself/
– 10 years ago dropped Apple and didn’t develop for OS X despite Apple reaching out several times to Adobe for support
– Payback?
– REGIME!!!!
46:12 – CS5 Launched
– Flash
– Player 10.1
– Mmm, nothing
– Our ActionScript toting contact says player 10.1 offers some snazzy features – including peer-2-peer functionality that’s quite exciting.
– Unprecedented access to 98% of desktop computers an lots of other connected devices
– Photoshop CS5
– 64 bit on Mac and PC
– HDR Pro
– Saving presents for single and multiple exposures
– Noise tools looking strong – reduction in demo looked really good
– Automatic Lens correction – looked very nice
– Online location for sharing lens profiles
– Content aware fill!
– Brushes
– Puppet Warp – drop points on body and make changes
– CS5 – empowers the digital artist
– Pricing – http://www.macworld.co.uk/procreative/news/index.cfm?newsid=3219980&pagtype=allchandate
– http://thomashawk.com/2010/04/adobe-photoshop-cs5-boldly-empowers-the-digital-artist.html
– The new version has lots of cool new toys and tools for photographers, which I’ll get into, but for me by far the most significant achievement in this new version is that it has for the first time made painting available to the photographer.

-All very good and I’m sure impressive (voodoo even with the content aware fill) but they GONE AND DONE IT AGAIN – f*****s
– Ignoring VAT: US FULL = £1235 – UK £1509
US UPGRADE (CS3 Design Prem) – £519.52 – UK £714
1:02:11 – Twitter buys Tweetie
– Twitter buys Tweetie
– Renamed Twitter for iPhone and made free (instead of £1.59)
– Loren Brichter will become a key member of Twitters mobile team that is already having huge impact with device makers and service providers around the world.
– Loren’s work won the 2009 Apple Design Award and we will eventually launch Twitter for iPad with his help.
– No word on the Mac version of Tweetie
– One week before Chirp – is this Twitter wanting to take better control of user experience?
– I’d be concerned if I had a paid for Twitter app right now as part of my core business – http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2010/04/of-course-were-hole-fillers-and-why-no-one-should-depend-on-only-one-platform.html
1:05:47 – Palm up for Sale
– Palm Inc., creator of the Pre smartphone, is seeking bids for the company as early as this week, according to three people familiar with the situation.
– HTC, Lenovo, Dell rumoured
– HTC favourite
– Still a good brand
1:06:59 – iPad Sales
– Sat only
– Over 300,000 iPads, by Thursday, 450,000
– iPad owners downloaded over 1,000,000 apps, by Thursday 3.5 million apps
– iPad owners downloaded over 250,000 books from iBooks, by Thursday 600,000 books
– 30,000 devices more than iPhones were purchased when they first went on sale
1:08:12 – Google Docs Updated
– Adds Google Drawings
– more of an online whiteboard. The app is designed to help people visualize ideas through flow charts, diagrams, and stencils.
– There is a chat window where participants can chime in. Images can be imported and moved around.
– no freehand drawing option.
– Google Drawings requires an HTML5 browser
– The real news, though, is that Google Docs and Spreadsheets is getting more realtime. There has always been a noticeable delay when new edits get saved and synced up, especially when more than one person is working on the same document. Google is addressing this delay with an entirely new architecture built from the ground up.
– Realtime collaboration – see what others are typing
– Commenting
– Rulers, tab stops, better image handling
– Spreadsheets – faster, move columns, auto fill
1:10:57 – Site Speed affects search ranking
– Matt Cutts talked about this last year
– A slow site could affect your Google rank
– There are 200 other ranking factors though – relevance still more important
– While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page.
– Currently, fewer than 1% of search queries are affected by the site speed signal in our implementation and the signal for site speed only applies for visitors searching in English on Google.com at this point
– Need to get our site updated 🙂
1:15:33 – MI5 Makes Non IT Literate Staff Redundant
– MI5 is ditching staff who lack computer skills in a programme of compulsory and voluntary redundancies.
– or if you read the Daily Mail…
– MI5 is making dozens of its older staff redundant as they do not have the computer skills to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
– “Our enemies use every available method to attack including using technology.
– “We have to be aware of the imminent threats of cyber attacks and the old generation of MI5 have to be completely comfortable using computers and the latest technology.”
– Mr Mercer added: “There is no room now for the ‘old school tie’ or recruitment from just certain Oxbridge colleges. “We need people from all walks of life who can speak a range of languages and possess certain technical skill

Picks
Ian
Hipstamatic
– Good photo tool for iOS
– Lots of filters and borders – you too can make your shiny new iPhone take photo’s from the 70’s

Ian
Online password generator
– Online password generator. It’s in here because it’s a tool I constantly come back to.
– Creates secure passwords. Plenty of options for type of letter / punctuation / avoid similar letters/cars