Category: Podcast

DigitalOutbox Episode 15

DigitalOutbox Episode 15
In this episode the team discuss the Apple keynote edition. We’re more awake this week – if you get to the end though you deserve a medal. And a kip!

Playback
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Shownotes
1:58 – WordPress Hack Outbreak
– Is WordPress the Windows of blog tools?
– Hackers exploiting old version to spread comment spam and diguide links to dubious (spyware/malware) sites
– If your running anything but 2.8.4 you’re at risk
– Easy to update now – one click
– If you customise then updating is more hassle
– Posterous, tumblr even hosted wordpress a better option?
– If you keep vigilant, you should have nothing to fear
– Is wordpress targeted because of it’s size, ease of hacking – both?
– RSS Cloud
– Push notification of blog updates
– http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/rss-in-the-clouds/
– The idea is to deliver news faster, without relying on a single company to do all the work.
– Lazyfeed and river2 support RSS Cloud – others to follow? The biggie is Google reader though.
– Enabled on wordpress.com, plugin too
– After the Deadline
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/08/automattic-acquires-spellcheck-plug-in-after-the-deadline/
– Really smart spelling, style and grammer checker
– Plugin – enabled on wordpress.com
7:34 – DSG Facebook Action
– DSG have said they are disturbed by reports that an unofficial facebook group for staff of DSG has seen disparaging comments about their customers posted by staff.
– They will investigate and follow up with action where appropriate.
– Aren’t all PC World customers stupid by definition? They are buying in store when they could by better and cheaper anywhere online!
– Wider issue of paranoid companies starting to sensor their employees even out of work…
10:20 – T-Mobile and Orange Merger
– Merger creates the biggest UK company in the mobile market. (Around 37%).
– O2 current leaders with 27%
– Deal expected to commence in November.
13:10 – Lies, Damned Lies…and Google
– Many stats have UK/Euro focus – way!
– More or Less: Behind the stats
15:55 – Steve Jobs at the Keynote
– Apple Event
– It’s Steve!
– iPhone 3.1
– App store update – genius for app’s
– New list – apps by revenue – is this to support premium app’s i.e. Tom Tom
– Longer backups!
– Save video from mails to photo roll
– 75,000 app’s, 1.8 billion app store downloads (excluding updates) (Really? An average of 36 downloads per device?)
– 50 million iPhone OS devices in existence (30 million iphones)
– Games demo’s – getting quite advanced looking! Nova and Madden look superb
– iTunes 9
– update UI (a bit odd?)
– http://static.maniacalrage.net/bucket/itunes/
– easier to get album info – click on i, all tracks
– uses webkit and html5 for some of the ui
– inconsistent across Mac UI
– Application organisation on iPhone – finally
– Genius Mix – not too bad – genre mixes more than anything else
– No speed improvement (not 64 bit)
– LP’s
– Animations, lyrics, videos etc
– Extras
– DVD extras really
– Better sync options
– Sync by genre, artist
– Sync photos by album, faces, events
– Movies now have better options
– Ringtones
– 30,000 ringtones
– They cost
– Home Sharing
– allows iTunes media to be copied and shared among 5 authorized computers in the same household, with settings available to make copying new purchases automatically
– Currently lax controls on this and apparently you can authorise a remote computer. Share apps and music, then unauthorise again. Effectively stripping and sharing content between accounts. This is sure to be addressed soon.
– Limited social networking – twitter, facebook, upload mix to imix for friends – only share from the store, not your library
– Wish List – add store stuff to wish list – just like Amazons
– This replaces shopping cart – eveything is now one click to buy! Click Buy, it’s bought. Be careful!
– Pre media sync – get out!
– Media organisation
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/10/itunes-9-focus-itunes-media-organization/
– iTunes now automatically adds new music to your library from a watched folder they quietly added to the iTunes Music folder structure. Apple did its darndest to sneak this new feature in under the radar among several who-cares features, but for our money, it’s absolutely the best feature to come to iTunes 9. So how does it work? Just find the folder named Automatically Add to iTunes in your iTunes Music folder (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Automatically Add to iTunes/ in OS X; C:\Users\Your Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes\ in Windows). Any music that finds its way into that folder will automatically be imported into iTunes.
– iTunes Media organization. It moves your folders around into a much more logical structure, with separate folders for audiobooks, iPhone apps, movies, music, podcasts, ringtones, TV shows, and voice memos.
– iPod Touch – 64 gb, reduced prices 8 – £149, 32 – £229, 64 – £299
– No camera!
– 50% faster – what does that mean? Faster than previous Touch?
– Shuffle – reduced prices, colours – 2 – 45, 4 – 59
– Classic – 160gb – 189
– iPod Nano – 8 – 115, 16 – 135
– Camera and mic, speaker
– It’s a video only camera, no stills!
– FM Tuner
– Pedometer
– Spotify on the iPhone
– Awesome
– No last.fm, no background app
– Could background running of a streaming service be an iTunes 9 announcement?
– 4 million tracks to choose from
– C64 Emulator
– Shak?
– Pay per game – deals being made with original IP owners
– Why are people so excited? All games ranged from pretty pap to utter cack…
– Pulled by Apple. They asked for Basic to be removed – dev hid it instead of removing (like Yelp), then told everyone, then Apple removed it. New version uploaded without Basic now. Keep pants on everyone.
– Flickr app
– Official from Yahoo/Flickr
– Free
– Quick
– Upload photo’s and video
– 10.6.1 Update
– Flash, security, minor bugs
– New ad – http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
1:17:47 – Dreamcast is 10!
– 10 years old!
– memories, thoughts?

Picks
Shakeel
Free on iTunes
– free content to download (every week?)
– Free single of the week
– The Inbetweeners: Series 2 – first 4 episodes currently FREE!!
– good way to build your library for free
– try stuff you probably wouldn’t normally bother with, only to be pleasantly surprised
– Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream

Ian
Madden on iPhone
– Good version of Madden
– Controls a bit fiddly
– Graphics good though

Chris
Trials HD
– XBox Arcade – PC as well I believe.
– Kick-start in your living room!
– Great game. Around £10. Good looking.
– Axpansive – user content. Starts easy, gets mega hard. Highly adictive.
– Frustrating at times but has the “one more go” in spades.

DigitalOutbox Episode 14

DigitalOutbox Episode 14
In this episode the team discuss…stuff. It’s also The Tired Edition. Chris is hungover, Shakeel is tired and emotional and Ian – who knows! Enjoy.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:47 – Sony Chooses Google Chrome
– Google has struck a deal with Sony to include their browser on Sony hardware.
– Google say similar deals will be announced in future with other manufacturers.
– Good move. MS still have 2/3 share of browser market largely as a result of lack of pre-installed options.
– Should see Google’s 3% share increase.
– Good for developers – Chrome is fastest, most compliant browser currently available.
– Chrome now one year old. Market share still growing – Mac version looking much better – proper release soon?
2:56 – O2 Broadband Security Issue
– Remote attackers can view/change settings and access home networks without permission.
– User discovered a security problem with the O2 Wireless Box II & III ADSL routers.
– Initially hard to get through to O2 and raise issue
– Press got hold of it, Be also got in touch to raise on users behalf
– O2 now acknowledge issue and are working on fix with Thomson. Allegedly.
– O2 Broadband customers can mitigate the risk of attack by enabling authentication on their router’s HTTP configuration interface (by default, the device lets you browse directly to http://192.168.1.254 without requiring a password)
5:08 – eBay Sells Skype
– eBay will sell 65% of Skype to a group of private investors.
– Selling the share for $2bn – valuing skype at $2.75bn total – more than the $2.6bn that ebay bought it for.
– Seems a good deal all round. Skype makes good profits. eBay was never the correct owner really.
– Hopefully its new owners can now push forward the technology and see the future of Skype confirmed.
6:27 – Windows Mobile 6.5
– After a strong caveat that what we’re looking at is preproduction software, a Sony Ericsson rep admitted that Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t all it could be
8:22 – Apple News
– Apple Event Confirmed
– Sept 9th
– It’s only rock and roll but we like it
– Rock Band Beatles released on same day – coincidence?
– Apple TV update?
– Loopt Background Location Service on iPhone
– http://mashable.com/2009/09/04/loopt-iphone-background/
– No app running in background – connects to AT&T location server. All mobiles updating provider with location
– Loopt taps into that stream to find out where you are and report that to others
– 5000 users in an invitation only trial
– Will cost $3.99 a month via AT&T
– GTA Chinatown Wars…for iPhone?
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/01/gta-chinatown-coming-to-the-iphone/
21:19 – Sony News
– Betting on 2010 for 3D
– Sony actively engaged in 3D programming for Bravia and Blu-ray disc players with content next year.
– http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/09/02/sonys-upcoming-icf-cl75ip-is-an-alarm-clock-digital-frame-and-dock-for-your-ipodiphone/
– $150?
– Looks lovely!
– PS3 3D Mode – 2010
– http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/04/ps3s-new-3d-mode-captured-on-video-coming-in-2010-to-all-exist/
– Will be available ‘in 2010’
– Enables 3D for all games
– Need a 3D TV, but not just a Sony Bravia 3D tv
– Migraines and motion sickness here we come
– Sony rep now says it’s conducting a technological investigation and there is no plan for the market launch of this at this time
– God Of War Collection
– God of War 1 & 2 on Blu-Ray
– 720p
– $40 + trophy support
– PS3 Firmware 3.0
– Thoughts?
30:11 – Left 4 Dead – Paid Content on Xbox
– Valve have said that MS insisted on making the DLC available in October, “paid for” content.
– Free for PC users but MS “wanted to make sure there’s an economy of value there”
– Download will cost 560 Microsoft Points (£4.76 / €6.72)
32:44 – OnLive Enters Beta
– Now open. US only
– http://www.onlive.com/beta_program.html
– The future of gaming? Will it scale? Good for casual games but not good enough for dedicated gamer?

Picks
Ian
Remember the Milk
– Web based todo manager
– On the surface it’s simple but easy to extend and configure to match GTD concepts

DigitalOutbox Episode 13 – Snow Leopard

DigitalOutbox Episode 13
In this episode the team discuss Snow Leopard.

Playback
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Shownotes
– Snow Leopard
– Thoughts on install and changes?
– Install was painless – around an hour
– On boot SL asked for ‘System Events.app’ – located in /System/Library/CoreServices/ – pointed to it – never had error again
– Expose update nice
– Clearer
– Click and hold in dock – expose for that app on it’s own
– Works with drag and drop of a file
– Allegedly – doesn’t work for me – drag a file to Textmate, windows pop up in expose mode, drag file – nothing. Drag file from finder to window – success. Buggy?
– Hold down space over a window to zoom to a readable size
– Dock – meus changed, stacks updated to scroll through grids, click on folder to drill within stack view, change yellow minimize behaviour so it shrinks to dock icon instead of it’s own icon on RHS of dock – ctrl click or right click on dock or hold and expose to view
– Quicktime – excellent front end
– Screencasting built in which is simple but won’t replace dedicated screen capture app
– Trim similar to 3GS control – very simple
– Cut out many of the Quicktime Pro controls – bundle Quicktime Pro 7 to soften the blow
– Dumbing down app? Similar to iMovie HD?
– Speed – finder, mail, spotlight
– http://gizmodo.com/5345354/snow-leopard-benchmarks
– Big time savings on boot, loading in preview etc. Noticable that on app’s not optimised for Snow Leopard there’s virtually no difference. Should see improvements in 3-6 months?
– 15-20gb of disk space back
– Snow Leopard reports disk size correctly
– http://lifehacker.com/5349204/snow-leopard-reports-hard-drive-capacity-correctly-in-base-10
– In Snow Leopard MacOS 10.6 storage capacity is now reported the way storage vendors specify it: in base 10, not base 2
– New Wake on Demand
– http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/wake-on-demand-could-lead-to-appletv-bliss.ars
– Need 2007 (or newer) AirPort Extreme Base Station or a 2008 (or newer) Time Capsule
– Works over wireless if you have a 2009 Mac
– New soft keyboard – http://www.9to5mac.com/snow-leopard-soft-keyboard
– XL iTablet?
– rumours of 13″ and 15″ tablets in addition to 10″. One of them running OS X
– rumour comes from a “100% reliable” source …. hmmm
– “two touchscreen prototypes…shape of large iphone…in a factory in Shenzuen…one of them running OS X” – claims the source
– could they just be internal prototypes or maybe in future devices??? – Smaller, faster O/S
– Malware scanning tool
– Oops
– Only detects 2 malwares but can be updated
– Is that why theres a subtle change in latest mac vs pc ad’s from ‘no viruses’ to ‘without thousands of viruses’
– Preview – selecting text easier and markup PDF’s with comments now added
– One for the future, once apps support it, but Mac OS X now has system-wide, user-definable text substitution—see the Text tab of Language & Text in System Preferences.
– Services and automator updated
– http://www.macosxautomation.com/services/index.html
– http://www.pixelcorps.tv/macbreak235
– Services now application specific
– Use automator, you can create a service
– HDTV ready
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/31/mac-os-x-now-hdtv-ready-with-10-6/
– Software compatibility list
– http://digs.by/7lx
– Lot’s of updates yesterday and today – coda, launchbar, superduper, wiretap studio, pathfinder, omni group app’s
– iStat menu’s came out today – lovely app
– Dan Benjamin – Those of you using Adobe Lightroom under Snow Leopard, get info (command-i) and verify that 32-but is *un-checked* for a huge speed boost
– Biggest improvements still to be seen – switch of 3rd party app’s to 64 bit and the increased performance that will bring
– Issues
– Mail – stops working after a couple of days – shutdown and restart fixes it – may delete accounts and create again
– Flash – older version included so download latest version – http://www.adobe.com/flashplatform/
– Licence and installation
– Needs to be an Intel Mac
– It is an upgrade licence…but you can install from fresh using Snow Leopard without using Leopard disk
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/03/snow-leopard-in-eula-we-trust/
– Recommend AppFresh to check your installed app’s and make sure you get up to date software
– 64 bit computing
– http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9137229/What_s_the_real_deal_with_64_bit_computing_in_Snow_Leopard_
– Apple app’s are 64 bit – most others aren’t
– Kernel loads in 32 bit for most users, can force 64 by holding down 6 and 4 on boot – can be flaky
– Foundations now in place for dev’s to move to 64 bit
– Leopard could run 64 bit apps but all core were 32
– Half way – next major OS fully 64 bit?
– Proper Review
– http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars
– John Siracusa – 23 pages, full and factual
– 10.6.1. seeded to testers

DigitalOutbox Episode 12

DigitalOutbox Episode 12
In this episode the team discuss this weeks tech news.

Playback
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Shownotes
1:06 – UK Stance on Illegal File Sharing
– ISP’s angry at Government stance that repeat offenders could be cut off from net
– Seems that accusations alone could be enough to cut off someone’s connection.
– Proportional punishment? You can be a hacker, spamer, fraudster or other criminal and still have access to the internet. Seems if you share a Myley Cyrus track over the internet – someone whom clearly adds immense value to the creative landscape of modern culture…. Mmm – you can have, what is in effect, an essential service cut off.
– Where is the balance of proof? What about people who share an IP? What about parents who have no idea that their child is sharing files?
– Mandelson ordered an amendment to the digital Britain report – an unelected member of parliament throwing his weight around. Proposals are:
– Blocking access to download sites
– Reducing broadband speeds
– Temporarily suspending the individual’s Internet account as a last resort
– Most downloaded TV (4% is uk) – http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2009/08/28/heroes-tops-file-sharing-list/
– Top 10 Worldwide TV Torrents
– Heroes; 54,562,012 (2.18 million UK)
– Lost; 51,151,396 (2 million UK)
– 24; 34,119,093 (1.4 million UK)
– Who would police this? Can evidence and proof be 100% guaranteed?
6:44 – Pirate Bay Takedown
– The court ordered the site’s major bandwidth supplier, Black Internet, to disconnect TPB from the Internet or face penalties of 500,000 kroner ($70,600). The ISP complied, saying that it had no choice but to uphold the law.
– Shares in GGF suspended
– GGF chairman resigned
– Owed money to taxman
– Goodbye, it was fun whilst it lasted. Next.
– Alternative pirate bays already appearing… plus it’s not as if this was the only site out there anyway. Closing one site will not remedy the problem.
8:12 – Nokia Ovi and Netbook
– Ovi
– Appstore for Nokia
– http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nokias_ovi_to_compete_with_iphone_app_store.php
– Applications for all 75 of it’s handsets – challenging
– Booklet 3G
– http://mashable.com/2009/08/24/nokia-laptop-booklet-3g/
– Their first pc – Netbook – wifi, 3g, bluetooth, sim card slot
– 10.1 inch screen
– 12 hours battery life – wow (if true)
– Windows 7
– Looks quite nice!
– Fingers crossed for a sensibly priced, sensibly specified data bundle
12:30 – Bing and Wolfram
– Microsoft has apparently struck a licensing deal with Wolfram Alpha to include some of Wolfram’s search results within Bing.
– No comments yet from either MS or Wolfram.
– MS really do appear to be chasing the search market hard… with Yahoo taking the large majority of ad revenue you’ve got to question why? Longer term I expect they want to cash in on the Google billions that they collect through paid for advertising once the Yahoo agreement is over
14:14 – Microsoft Suck At Photoshop
– Polish version of photo has black head removed replaced with a white head but keeping the black hands
– What were they thinking?
– But this probably happens a lot
16:16 – Microsoft STILL amending prices for Windows 7
– From 1st Sept, no longer upgrade price for full version.
– There are now separate prices for upgrade and full
– Have now confirmed the family pack for install on 3 machines
– Doesn’t affect those already pre-ordered
– SORT IT OUT!
19:19 – Facebook Changing Privacy Policy
– Facebook has agreed to change its privacy policy in response to recommendations made by courts in Canada.
– Existing policy is in violation of Canadian law – specifically its holding onto users data for an indeterminate length of time
– Amends will be put in place that allow users to not only suspend their accounts but offer an easy option to delete their account and permanently delete data.
– However, Facebook has said this could take 12 months to implement… REALLY… 12 MONTHS!!! Facebook must really respect users privacy and the Canadian courts for it to be so high up their development schedules to only allow it to be rolled out in 12 months.
– Facebook 3.0 released on the appstore
– very nice update
– much more refined interface, easy to use and logical
– create your own iPhone-like pages
25:14 – Apple News
– Apple Care about your apps…
– http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49303437,00.htm
– Apple’s App Approval Team spend, on average, 6 mins per app to make a decision to approve/reject if Apple’s figures are to be believed.
– This process is carried out by 2 people, therefore a total of 12 mins per app.
– Victim of their own success? Stretching their staff a little thin?
– Yelp
– First augmented reality app
– Hidden option – shake three times and a dialogue appears offerring to enable ‘monacle’
– Once enabled, see reviews as you spin around iPhone – 3GS only
– Awesome 🙂
– Spotify
– annual subscription increased to £119.88
– adds social networking – share your music on Twitter, Facebook, Delicious
-iPhone app approved
– should be available to download soon
– will be interesting to see how it performs over 3G and wifi
– App is free but you need to be premium member to use the app to stream. (£10 month)
39:24 – Xbox Price Drop…and increase!
– XBox price cuts anounced
– Arcade = £159.99; Elite = £199.99
– No HDMI cable in Elite box.
– Possibly new Xbox Super Elite in October. 250GB HDD, includes 2 wireless controllers + Forza 3?… going to be an expensive bundle.

Picks
Shakeel
Your camera and the Law

Ian
TripIt
– Itinery planner
– E-mail travel e-mails to plans@tripit.com
– So far all my travel plans have imported well – if there is a mistake then you edit
– Free tripit iphone app to view all travel details, booking numbers and contact phone numbers – no paper required
– Stats on how much you’ve travelled and where each year – geeky but nice
– Social too – friends can see your travel plans, where your staying etc
– share plans via iCal feed, rss, linked in, blog etc
– Other app’s can import data automatically

Chris
Let the “Internet” decide what music you should listen to!
– Dynamically generated Spotify playlist generated by wearehanted.com by trawling as many social networks, blogs etc as possible to see what music people are talking about most at any time.
– List of about 99 tracks.
– Like this for the mashup aspect as well as the fact that the tracks I’ve heard through it have been good – and different from the char
–

DigitalOutbox Episode 11

DigitalOutbox Episode 11
In this episode the team discuss Sony PS3 Slim and Apple.

Playback
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Shownotes
– Android
– Developers finding switch from iPhone development to Android .. lacking .. severly – http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/the_android_opportunity
– the Android state-of-the-art is today further behind the iPhone state-of-the-art than it was when the G1 debuted last October
– must do better
– iPhone needs decent competition to benefit everybody
– Layar – Augmented Reality Browser
– http://mashable.com/2009/08/18/layar/
– On android, iPhone coming soon
– Data layed on top of real world
– Shopping, finding places, games, house prices, restaurant reviews, find friends, geo-tagged images, tours
– Imagine translation layer – foreign country and the phone translates

– Twitter
– Geolocation API
– http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/location-location-location.html
– Tweets near you
– tweets about a location – trending places?
– Users can connect locally – on the web site etc
– Retweet rework
– http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/project-retweet-phase-one.html
– did this need to be re-worked?
– Business accounts
– With analytics and other metrics to help businesses

– Windows Mobile OS – 2 “current” versions next year?
– It’s looking likely that MS will run with 2 mobile operating systems concurrently
– WM 6.5 as an incremental upgrade over the current 6.0 edition
– WM 7 as a radical overhaul to for high end, touch based devices which MS will work in collaboration with manufacturers.
– MS have said they know they have been slow to respond (Version 7 has been in development or a long time) but they are solving this.
– With hardware development ramping up across the board and with Android / Windows Mobile development being focussed on – can Apple keep up? Do they want/need to?
– Could the same thing happen to phones as happened with MP3 players? I.e. iPod wasn’t the best player available but best infrastructure locked people in… This isn’t an issue whilst the iPhone remains the best phone on many levels but that’s not going to last forever(?!).

– Video adverts in print media!
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8211209.stm
– Slim-line screens, roughly size of mobile screens, sat in traditional paper magazines.
– Chip can hold up to 40 mins of video!
– Pepsi and CBS first to advertise in US based Entertainment Weekly magazine.
– Wowsers! Feels like something out of Minority Report.

– Apple
– FCC Inquiry
– AT&T – not involved in Google Voice rejection
– http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/atandt-tells-the-fcc-it-had-no-role-in-removing-google-voice-fro/
– Apple – http://www.apple.com/hotnews/apple-answers-fcc-questions/
– Not rejected, still looking at Google Voice app’s
– Says it has not rejected the Google Voice application and “continues to study it.”
– Apple’s concerned Google Voice alters “the iPhone’s distinctive user experience” and “disables Apple’s Visual Voicemail.”
– “The iPhone user’s entire Contacts database is transferred to Google’s servers, and we have yet to obtain any assurances from Google that this data will only be used in appropriate ways.” [Doesn’t Mac OS X do this when it syncs Address Book to Google? What’s the issue? — ed.] GV Mobile, GVDialer, and VoiceCentral all have the same issues.
– Says its “covering new ground and doing things that had never been done before,” and that “many of the issues we face are difficult and new.”
– Apple did not consult with AT&T about whether to approve Google Voice, and Apple alone makes the final decision on whether or not to approve iPhone apps, although part of the AT&T / Apple contract forbids Apple from approving VoIP apps that run on the cell network.
– “Most of the review process is consumed with quality issues and software bugs.”
– SlingPlayer Mobile was “initially rejected because redirecting a TV signal to an iPhone using AT&T’s cellular network is prohibited by AT&T’s customer Terms of Service.” [That’s pretty much the opposite of what AT&T promised us. — ed.]
– There are more than 40 full-time trained iPhone app reviewers, and at least two different reviewers go over each app. There’s also an App Store Executive Review Board that meets weekly to determine procedures and sets policy for the review process, and also reviews apps that are escalated to the board because they “raise new or complex issues.” [Hello, Phil Schiller!]
– Apple gets 8,500 new apps and updates a week, and it claims only 20 percent are not approved as originally submitted.
– Googles Response
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/21/googles-response-to-the-fcc/
– Redacted content
– What will happen? I think Google Voice will soon become an accepted app
– Apple are lying – they told the other Google Voice developers that their was rejected – not what they’ve said here
– App Store is changing – Qik now can upload over 3G, Obama art app which was rejected is now accepted with an expedited route through approval, developer of C64 emulator contacted by senior Apple rep and told him big news is coming soon

– iPhone 3GS best selling phone in Japan!!!! Reason? it’s free!!!

– iPhone to become most popular camera on Flickr
– http://mashable.com/2009/08/17/iphone-flickr/
– Despite poor image quality
– Watch it boom if iPod touch and nano come with camera
– iPhone, the number 1 camera on Flickr – surprise? I think so …

– TomTom GPS car kit will work with iPod Touch and other 3rd party S/W apps (CoPilot?) http://gizmodo.com/5339070/confirmed-tomtoms-gps-car-kit-will-work-with-ipod-touch-third-party-apps

– Event scheduled for Sep 9th?
– http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20090817/apple-event-scheduled-for-wednesday-sept-9-music-only-no-tablet/?mod=ATD_rss
– iPod’s, iTunes, no tablet
– Beatles – how many times have we heard this now?
– What is the massive data centre Apple is building going to be used for?

– Twitterific 2.1 update
– video recording and uploading
– updated contact sheet for better viewing
– numerous bug fixes and tweaks

– Gadgets n’ Games
– Sony Gamescom news
– PS3 slim unveiled – http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=221475
– launched first week of September worldwide
– €299 worldwide, $299 in US, £249 in UK
– Talk of shortages from retailers but denied by Sony
– 30% lighter, 32% smaller, 34% less power consumption
– current PS3 to get price cut
– looks like a matte finish (less of a dust magnet)
– hi-res pics here http://www.joystiq.com/photos/playstation-3-slim/2216305/full/
– $24 for a stand! Slim can’t stand vertically without another peripheral
– Faster gaming (improved chip speed?), supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio bitstream output to your receiver
– HDD is removable – http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/video-another-look-at-ps3-slim-and-its-removable-hdd/

– PS3 video store to launch in in Eur in Nov
– rent or buy SD/HD videos
– PS3 firmware 3.0 out on 1st Sept
– animated themes – hurrah
– “What’s New?” section
– BBC iPlayer
– ‘other’ interface tweaks
– PS3 Home 1.3 this september
– http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/08/19/playstation-home-v1-3-coming-this-september/
– Universal Game launching form within Home
– From Home to Start menu of game without signing out of home
– In store item previews
– Additional portable Objects
– Everyone will get a free camera – snap from 1st or 3rd person view, photo’s saved to photos in XMB
– More to come like…a bubble machine
– More gestures and poses for your avatar
– PS3 drops price immediately – £249
– LBP to get water levels – maybe time for me to dig it out again
– New Heavy Rain trailer reveals new character and ‘love’ theme
– New Uncharted 2 video looking as amazing as before – cannot wait for this
– Stunning GOW III in-game images from Gamescom http://www.joystiq.com/photos/god-of-war-3-gamescom/2217198/full
– more motion control goodies to be revealed at TGS in September
– PSP GO buyers in first 10 days of release to receive GT for free (register your PSP GO before Oct 10)
– PSP mini games available on PSN from Oct
– limited to 100MB each
– low dev costs
– iPhone inspired ??
– Fieldrunners, Hero of Sparta, Tetris and MiniGore and others successful on the iPhone will appear as mini games
– 50 titles by year end

– Dante’s Inferno trailer looking promising ..
– Pre-order Guitar Hero 5 from Amazon, get GHWT (game only) for FREE!!!! (game is £70 with guitar)
– PixelJunk Shooter looking awesome

– XBox360 Arcade to get £30 price hike? http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=221412
– Fable 3 in 2010
– Fable 2 goes episodic this year
– Logitech G27 steering wheel – looks awesome but £329.99. http://www.trustedreviews.com/peripherals/news/2009/08/18/Logitech-G27-Steering-Wheel-Debuts/p1

– Batman Arkham Asylum – played demo, rather bloody enjoyable, great atmosphere, detective mode is very cool, can be a button basher though

– Do UK Retailers Limit Game Market?
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8210622.stm
– US market also depressed – http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24837
– Exchange rate and pricing structure makes it difficult to break into UK
– Second hand market hurting game companies, restricting innovation
– Madden 10 – Online franchise needs code from within the pack when bought – second hand have to pay $10/800 MS Points to join
– Madden also has VIP lobbies, game type and server access – $4.99 or 400 points – I can understand the server access but not an increased difficulty.
– Digital Distribution the answer? Kill of Game etc?

– Your average hard-core gamer is no longer a teenager, but a 35 year old, over-weight, sad bastard http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad

– Sony stalling mass production of OLED displays due to recent losses they’ve sustained

– James Cameron’s Avatar – looks fantastic
– District 9 – a most welcome, low budget, low hyped spectacle. compared to the usual Hollywood, high-budget bores dished out by the ton

Picks
– Shakeel – PS3 Media Server
– no nonsense, free, easy to use media server for PS3
– best feature – streams MKV’s, allowing use of subs and DTS, all on the fly
– no encoding required
–
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/
– Ian – BrowserLabs
– http://browserlab.adobe.com/
– Compare a web site in a variety of browsers without launching them OR booting into a different OS
– Firefox 2.0 – XP, Firefox 2.0 – OS X, Firefox 3.0 – XP, Firefox 3.0 – OS X, IE6 – XP, IE7 – XP, Safari OS X
– Not extensive but easier to hit this than use parallels or multiple machines
– Compare side by side or onion skin – overlap two browsers
– Chris – Sumo Paint & Pixlr
– http://www.sumopaint.com/
– http://pixlr.com/
– Wowsers! Online alternatives to Photoshop?
– Serious pieces of Flex coding. These kind of applications make you realise that we could one day spend life in the cloud.

DigitalOutbox Episode 10

DigitalOutbox Episode 10
In this episode the team discuss the latest tech news.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:23 – Feedback
– Not feedback as much as an apology to the residents of Portsmouth! My facts were wrong. The people of Paulsgrove merely staged demonstrations, fire bombed houses and cars and made people flee their homes – often innocent residents – and had 5 year-old kids holding some pretty sick placards and chanting hate messages. It was the people of Newport, Wales, that forced a Paediatrition to leave her home after vandalism thought to have come from confusion over her job title…
– Tam – http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ – PS3 Media Server
– Installed this and am able to play mkv on PS3. Java, no codecs to install, supported on Windows, Mac and Linux. say goodbye to mkv2vob
– Lewis – We are Apple fanboys – take a look at Windows Media Server PC – Plays everything, Full library of movies, Pictures, Music, High def output, Plays blurays and HD, and downloads, Works with a remote control, Records TV, Even Hi-Def (via Freesat), Costs a lot less than devices to do all that would.
– Jim – volume issues, hopefully fixed this week
4:24 – Facebook buys FriendFeed
– Some duplication but Facebook have bought a great team
– Maybe people will use more of friendfeed
– Will friendfeed remain a seperate service (doubt it) and what of it’s API’s?
– FriendFeed may still live as a seperate site
– Who are Facebook fighting – Twitter? Google? Both. Real time search and feeds becoming hot topic
– Where does Facebook benefit – search, real time, content aggregation, comment tracking, im tracking
– Facebook turns on realtime searching just a few hours later – http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/10/facebook-flips-the-switch-on-real-time-search-goes-after-twitter-where-it-hurts/
– $50 million in stocks and shares
– http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/friendfeed-tips-saved-searches/
– Facebook Lite to launch – simpler, quicker to load, like a mobile site, like friendfeed or a facebook alternative to twitter?
– None of that – for parts of the world where broadband is slow, flaky
8:04 – Google Reader and Search Engine Updates
– Twitter, facebook etc sharing via send to
– Also add custom send to, like send to pdf generation service. Be nice to have evernote – http://lifehacker.com/5336606/convert-google-reader-items-to-pdfs#comments – http://blog.evernote.com/2009/08/14/send-blog-posts-from-google-reader-to-evernote/
– Easily subscribe to people you follow’s blogs, flickr etc
– Mark as read – older than a day, older than a week
13:11 – Mobile Privacy
– iPhone app’s doing the same
– http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dear_iphone_users_your_apps_are_spying_on_you.php
– Not Apple app’s
– He says applications using Pinch Media track the following information:
iPhone’s unique ID, iPhone Model, OS Version, Application version (in this case, camera zoom 1.x)
If the application is cracked/pirated, If your iPhone is jailbroken, Time & date you start the application
Time & date you close the application, Your current latitude & longitude, Your gender (if Facebook enabled)
Your birth month (if Facebook enabled), Your birth year (if Facebook enabled)
What’s worse is that you’re often never told that the app will be performing this level of detailed tracking and you’re often never given the opportunity to opt-out. The data recorded is continuously tracked every time you use the application. This violation of user privacy is so egregious that the developer even goes so far as to call Pinch Media “iPhone spyware.”

In addition, a recent post on the iPhone Dev Team blog, the site hosted by the developers who release the jailbreaking and unlocking applications for the iPhone, also calls out Pinch Media for tracking your location even when it’s unnecessary to do so. In the example they cited, an tip calculator app was identified as tracking your geographical location through time and uploading that data to Pinch Media.
– Why do they need this? Is this an issue?
16:47 – Microsoft Can’t Sell Word
– Patent infringement on XML structured document storage – ie how Office documents are stored as docx, docm etc.
– Judge in Texas has ruled that a patent held by i4i has been infringed and therefore Microsoft must stop selling Word or importing Word into the USA…
– Some pretty woolly distinctions on what the companies “invention” is – they call it “custom XML”
– There are lots of other products that apparently infringe the “invention” – such as OpenOffice – but they haven’t gone after them.
– Isn’t all XML custom!!?? Isn’t that the whole point!!??
– Looks like i4i may well just be chasing a cheque
– Pretty ironic that MS gets whacked for trying to open up their document formats. After years of proprietary formats.
– Ultimate outcome of ruling unknown… looks for all thr world that i4i are looking for a nice fat cheque.
20:21 – Download the Pirate Bay
– “The index has 873671 torrents, ranging from id 3211594 to 5051940 (2009-08-13).
I only got 873671 torrents, but according to the website the tracker tracks over 2 million torrents.
The discrepancy is most likely due to many torrent files including the TPB tracker but has not been uploaded to the web site.”
– Only a few days to grab the torrent
22:06 – Apple Rumours
– Keynote – September 7th?
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNQWIDZLyLQ
– iPod’s with camera’s and mic’s
– iTunes 9
– http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/08/08/apple-itunes-9-details-blu-ray-app-organization/
– Blu Ray support
– App organisation
– twitter, facebook, last.fm integration
– iPod event in September?
– iTablet to feature an 8-10″ OLED screen???
– 2010 rather than september or this year?
– Matte screen option now available for an upgrade fee of $50 http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/11/apple_again_offers_matte_screen_option_for_15_inch_macbook_pro.html

– RUMOUR but nice if true!!! Apple possibly developing their own social networking app for integration with iTunes, iLife etc?? http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/08/11/more-itunes-9-details-apple-developing-social-networking-application/
– seems to be part of a bigger social networking push by Apple. Apple has plans to tie iTunes 9 into a “Social” application that they plan to release in the future. It was said that the application (separate from iTunes) will be similar to Yahoo’s OneConnect offering and consolidate all your social networking services. (iPhone application? Desktop app?).
– The application will allow you to broadcast what music you’re currently listening to, allow you to share your music with people on your network, connect with your friend’s friends (?), and update all of your statuses at the same time. ITunes 9 will let you broadcast music statuses as well.
– Big Phil’s talking again
– http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/160726521/on-saturday-night-we-drove-up-to-seattle-to
– Apple are listening, realising they have not just a PR issue but an app store with issues and unhapp devs + real competition
– Interesting to understand the changes that ill come from this
– Snow Leopard – Gold Master
– http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/11/mac-os-x-snow-leopard-build-10a432-designated-gold-master/
– Out before end of the month?
– Packaging – http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/15/photos-of-snow-leopard-disc-and-retail-packaging/
– Outlook for Mac
– Bye bye entourage
– End of 2010
– Mail’s enough for me
36:15 – Toshiba Eats Humble Pie
– Toshiba finally eats humble pie and moves to blu-ray
– will continue with it’s upscaling technology which no-one really gives a shit about
– still adamant HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war was necessary
39:06 – Zune HD
Great interface
– 720p playback from the dock to tv
– 16:9 OLED screen
– Zune HD’s launch date (September 15th). Prices are $219.99 for the black 16GB version and $289.99 for the “platinum” 32GB edition.
– Web browser, search by Bing
– HD radio
44:20 – PSP Go
– Not what you think – Nintendo DSi and DS advert

Picks
Ian
CoPilot
– £25.99
– Sat Nav app for the iPhone
– Enter destination – postcode search, street with number, point of interest in city or local
– Stores Home, Work, Recent and fav’s
– Quick stop – pick Gas Station, Restaurant, Hotels, Vehicle Repair
– Can plan a trip or add a detour – avoid a road for example
– 3D and 2D views – clear graphics although zooming in with pinch is slow
– Live Services – Live Link, Live Weather and Roadside Assistance – Live Traffic is there but greyed out – pay for upgrade?
– Driving Views – 3D,2D, Itinerary, 2D Next Turn (can change colours to be most suitable, auto swap at night to something clearer)
– Routing works out quickest route – does this very quickly. Can set vehicle type including walking, avoid tolls, congestion
– Change POI display and alerts
– Speed limit warnings
– Turn warnings can be set to 2 miles, 1 mile etc
– 6 voices
– Test last week – worked 3 out of 3 times in built up and open areas
– Recalculated quickly when I took the printed google maps route…which turned out to be a slower route
– GPS can take a while to lock
– Updated position well – kept up with car without issue
– Interface looks like a sat nav, not an iPhone app which is a bit odd. Keyboard isn’t qwerty – next update
– No speed camera’s – promised for next update
– For me, light sat nav usage, ideal. Tom Tom – £60 – good reviews so far, looks like an iphone app but i’m more than happy with this purchase

Chris
The Edge of Flash
– Some inspiring, highly creative and generally amazing Flash based applications.
– It’s worth going through the back archive of the Adobe Edge magazine: http://www.adobe.com/newsletters/edge/ just to see what’s on offer.
– I’ll pick out one or two memorable ones as:
– http://soytuaire.labuat.com/ An absolutely stunning interactive music application
– http://thankyou.thisisgrow.com/TFWA – how to sell clothing in the modern world

DigitalOutbox Episode 9

DigitalOutbox Episode 9
In this episode the team discuss the latest tech news.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
– Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, Google DDoS
– Down for a couple of hours plus service impacted rest of the day
– Num 3 story on BBC news….perspective?
– Rumour now is that this was a DDoS against one person – http://mashable.com/2009/08/07/twitter-facebook-2/
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8190786.stm
– Russia to blame? – pro-Georgian blogger, known as Cyxymu, said he had been targeted for “telling the truth about the Russian-Georgian war” in his writings.
– Ev interview on Newsnight – awful journalism and editing – he looked bemused

– End of free news
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8186701.stm
– Will charge customers for news content across all it’s websites
– Would you pay to look at The Sun online?
– $3.4bn loss
– Agree that if they are successful other sites will follow
– Make content “better and differentiate it from other people”
– Google News Archive
– http://googlenewsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/extra-extra-updates-from-our-growing.html
– http://news.google.com/archivesearch
– Quadrupled the amount of newspapers
– Now have articles dating back to mid 1700’s
– All searchable – great resource

– Skype under threat of closure from licence issue
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/01/ebay-case-threatens-skype-shutdown
– Turns out eBay only gets issued a licence for the technology underlying the Skype service.
– The Skype founders company, Joltid, who issues the licence looks now as though it’s going to pull the plug on the licence over copyright infringement arguments.
– Skype was bought by eBay for $3.1billion – something which could now be worthless without the licence.
– It’s unclear what this will mean for users – whether eBay will develop it’s own tecnologies to continue to support the platform, whether we’ll all need to find a new service or whether Joltid will buy back Skype for a reduced rate.

– Friends Reunited sold for £25 million
– Bought by ITV for £125 million in 2005
– Bought by BrightSolid (owned by DC Thomson)
– Really bought for Genes Reunited as Brightsolid run Find My Past
– Is it relevant anymore – Facebook, Twitter taken over (London is top twitter using city in the world)

– Delicious.com upgrade
– New homepage – focus on recently bookmarked and tweeted messages
– No longer waits for a volume of bookmarks to show on homepage which takes time
– More focus on realtime
– Adding timelines and tag filtering to search
– Can tweet as you add links, sending to friends etc

– Flickr Search
– Much improved search
– Points to groups, photographers, tag clusters and places as well as photo’s
– Size control on photo’s
– Can search for creative common images as well
– Easily see notes, views, fav’s against each image
– Real opportunity to make flickr the place for quality image searching on the web but…
– Can’t sort by views, comments etc
– Can’t query by any of the camera metadata that flickr currently hold
–

– Both these show how yahoo can still compete but, is delicious still relevant? Is it too little too late?

– Windows 7 ‘E’ Cancelled – sanity prevails
– http://windows7news.com/2009/08/02/windows-7-‘e’-canceled/
– The European – ‘E’ – versions of MS Windows 7, due to be shipped without an internet browser, have been cancelled.
– It now looks as though the only sensible solution to the whole saga has been chosen as the way forward. The user will now be offered a selection of popular browsers to install from a menu.
– The solution still needs to be agreed officially but looks likely to be spread out across the windows suite of operating systems.
– Those who’ve ordered the ‘E’ versions already will most likely receive simply the full version of the operating system.
– This should also open the way for upgrade versions of the software to be sold – rather than forcing users down a full clean install of their computer.

– Palm complain again to USB Implementers Forum
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/palm_uses_apples_usb_vendor_id/
– Palm Pre changed vendor ID to Apple to foil latest iTunes update
– Says Apple are being anti competitive
– Should develop their own media player – can’t see how it’s anti competitive
– Get out

– Gary McKinnon
– Lost legal appeal against extradition
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/31/mckinnon_judicial_review_reaction/
– Will try and appeal to Supreme Court and Obama
– Arrested in 2002 hacked into 97 computers
– Hacked from UK, comp’s were in USA
– Now diagnosed with mild form of autism
– Terrorist charges in USA, faces 70 years in jail, fears for his mental health and welfare

– O2 data fail
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/o2_data_down_yet_again/
– Third time in three weeks
– Half a million text tweets since launching last week
– No explanation for the outages

– O2 loses iPhone exclusivity
– http://www.9to5mac.com/october_9_o2
– October 9th – other networks to sell 3G

– T-Mobile selling iPhones in the UK
– http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/03/t_mobile_i_phone/
– No publicity
– Limited to a small amount per week for people spending >£75 a month

– Apple
– Apple try to gag teenager with exploding iPod
– http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/5963015/Apple-tries-to-silence-man-and-his-daughter-over-exploding-iPod.html
– http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6736587.ece
– Offered to refund money but denied liability
– Would only payout if owner signed a letter
– “agree that you will keep the terms and existence of this settlement agreement completely confidential”, and that any breach of confidentiality “may result in Apple seeking injunctive relief, damages and legal costs against the defaulting persons or parties”.
– Eric Schmidt resigns from Apple board
– Android and Chrome OS are conflicts of interest
– Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple’s Board.
– FCC inquiry a factor as he is on the board of two out of the three companies at the centre of the inquiry?

– New hardware reference found in iPhone OS beta
– http://theappleblog.com/2009/08/05/mystery-product-reference-found-in-iphone-os-beta/
– iProd1,1 alongside standardMuxPTPEthernet
– Tablet with high speed wireless internet?
– iMac refresh/new features?
– http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/07/apples_next_imacs_rumored_with_compelling_new_features.html
– Blu-ray?
– Price drop?
– September?

– Prolific app developer banned from app store
– http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2009/08/05/banned-app-store-developer-auctioning-off-business/
– Had 900 app’s, mostly crap
– Planned to grow company and have around 10,000 app’s in app store by year end
– A good app store story
– Apple censors a dictionary
– http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/ninjawords
– Removes objecitonable words
– Still forces a 17+ rating
– Words like ass and screw omitted
– Didn’t apply this to dictionary.com’s app
– http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/phil_schiller_app_store
– Response from Phil Schiller
– Apple insisted on 17+, not the removal of words – that was the developer’s decision
– Developer since agreed
– Apple listening….communicating???
– Sex Offender app removed
– Dev may raise suit against Apple
– Rumour that e-book readers may be removed due to concern over copyright ownership

– Tom Tom for iPhone Priced?
– £113.85
– Includes suction mount for car and software
– Good value?
– CoPilot Live United kingdom – £25.99, lot’s of positive reviews, top 25 (no 11) in UK app store

– Gaming
– 80GB PS3 discontinued in Japan, rumours: either 160GB finally releases in JPN or … PS3 Slim http://gizmodo.com/5329524/80gb-ps3-discontinued-in-japan-one-step-closer-to-the-ps3-slim
–

– Gadgets ‘n Stuff
– Nikon launches S1000pj, first compact camera with built-in VGA projector, 12.1MP, 5x zoom, 2.7” LCD, $430 http://www.europe-nikon.com/product/en_GB/products/broad/1850/overview.html
– Pioneer SC-LX72 £1699, SC-LX82 £1799-£2000 – both with intimidating features: Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master audio decoding, DLNA audio streaming and internet radio access, and Class D amplification, 1080p up-scaling, 24p support, Five HDMI inputs and two outputs. http://www.trustedreviews.com/home-cinema/news/2009/08/04/Pioneer-Announces-SC-LX72–SC-LX82-AV-Receivers/p1

Picks
– Shakeel – HTML 5 Canvas examples, work with FireFox 3.5 and Safari 4, unable to try in IE but hear it don’t work or some bits do work but veeeeeeery slowwwwwwwwly
– http://www.phpguru.org/static/html5-canvas-examples
– From Ian (I know it’s your pick but try and mention this, slow I guess due to twitter DDoS) – http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas/ – 0 lines of flash
– Ian – App Store Expense monitor
– http://wetfish.de/
– Free – lets you know how much you’ve spent in the app store – £165.07
– Let’s you edit prices as some prices have changed so you can get the true price of what you’ve paid – I’m nearer £185

DigitalOutbox Episode 8

DigitalOutbox Episode 8
In this episode the team discuss Microsoft loves Yahoo, Twitter and some Apple hate. Honest.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
– Microsoft & Yahoo deal
– http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com
– http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090729/yahoo-ceo-carol-bartzs-letter-about-the-yasoft-deal/?mod=ATD_rss
– All about competing with Google
– Leaves Yahoo looking pretty weak – if they don’t do search what do they do? Mail, Flickr. Link/lander page?
– 10 year agreement – long time in internet timeline
– Google AdWords vs. Microsoft AdCenter and Google AdSense vs. Microsoft PubCenter – thats it
– They don’t mention Google by name – “the market leader” or “the competitor’
– There’s no upfront payment.
– The deal requires regulatory approval and isn’t expected to close until 2010.
– The company’s don’t expect to see the full benefits of the deal until 24 months
after regulatory approval.
– While the companies claim Yahoo! “will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers”, most of the value is and will be derived via the self-service channel – which Microsoft will
now control.
– The deal could put Yahoo!’s affiliate/syndicated search business at risk.
– The deal’s 10 year length may put Yahoo at Microsoft’s mercy given that there’s only one other supplier — Google.
– Combined they have 40% ad market share in the US, 8% market share in the UK.
– We have a plan where some Yahoo engineers over time may move over to Microsoft.
– Yes, there are certainly many Yahoo search employees who will be asked to take jobs at MSFT. There will also be search employees [who get redeployed]. Unfortunately there will be some redundancies in Yahoo. This is a transition over the next 2 and half years. Nothing will change until we get regulatory approval, but yes, there will be redundancies, but in the future.

– European Windows 7, XP and Vista owners get to choose browser
– http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/29/microsoft-giving-europeans-with-windows-xp-and-vista-choice-of-b/
– Choose from 10 browsers – IE8 installed but on first launch users get to choose a different browser
– Update to XP and Vista users means they will get same option
– MS bending over backwards…looks a good solution though

– Broadband UK
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8171074.stm
– http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4014-ofcom-finally-publishes-final-broadband-report.html
– People still not getting advertised speeds
– Virgin Media (10Mb) fastest compared to the others (8Mb)
– Doesn’t take account of throttling etc
– Sky – customer base increasing
– O2 & BE – customer base increasing

– Palm Pre
– Web OS 1.1 – iTunes syncing works again
– System: … “Resolves an issue preventing media sync from working with latest version of iTunes (8.2.1).”

– Twitter
– Twitter 101 guide for business
– 1000’s of spammers deleted from twitter
– New homepage coming soon
– Launched Wednesday
– Search focussed
– See popular topics by minute, day, week
– Changed ‘updates’ to ‘tweets’
– More aggressive Twitter?
– Be careful what you tweet – person is being sued for their tweet – http://mashable.com/2009/07/28/woman-sued-tweet/
– O2 launched their text tweet service early – Monday.

– Apple
– Tablet
– September launch or early next year
– 10 inch touchscreen/tablet
– Same OS as iPhone
– This has been rumoured for years
– Cocktail – interactive booklets, sleeve notes alongside music
– Prize – still rumoured at $800-$900

– Time Capsule now 2TB
– http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB996/Time-Capsule-2TB?mco=NzE0MTY
– 2TB for £349 – same price as 1TB was
– 1TB now £229
– 500GB discontinued

– Suicide factory worker at Foxconn
– 4G iPhone lost
– Family claim worker was beaten and bullied
– Family got $52,600 + $4385 every year while a parent is alive compensation and girlfriend got a free Mac laptop

– iPhone Hack Alert
– http://mashable.com/2009/07/30/iphone-hack/
– A text with a single square character – turn off phone
– Apple told about this at start of July
– No fix yet
– Couple of weeks before hackers build tool to exploit this?
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8177755.stm
– O2 announce Friday that a fix will be available on Saturday to address issue
– Hear nothing from Apple
– 3.0.1 released on Friday
– 250 Meg download
– Allegedly addresses the text security issue
– The also release a statement – We appreciate the information provided to us about SMS vulnerabilities which affect several mobile phone platforms. This morning, less than 24 hours after a demonstration of this exploit, we’ve issued a free software update that eliminates the vulnerability from the iPhone. Contrary to what’s been reported, no one has been able to take control of the iPhone to gain access to personal information using this exploit.

– iPhone 3GS security
– Encrypted but ‘easy’ to hack
– Can copy all disk contents within 2 mins
– Demo’d to Wired magazine

– Google Latitude
– Not an app but a web app
– No location in the background – real shame
– Google said Apple requested Latitude as a web app, not an actual applicaiton
– Surely Brightkite is a better option?

– Spotify for iPhone
– http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/07/27/spotify-for-iphone/
– Waiting for Apple approval – will it get it?
– Playlists sync’d, updated pushed automatically
– Offline playlists – download music to iPhone for playback later
– Premium subscribers only (£9.99 a month or £119.88 – no saving but you get 30 invites – wow, not)

– Official Google Voice App blocked
– Other Google Voice app’s removed from App Store
– Is AT&T behind the move but still stinks?
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/apple-is-growing-rotten-to-the-core-and-its-likely-atts-fault/
– http://www.riverturn.com/blog/?p=455
– Blog post from developer of Google Voice app that was pulled
– Horrible conversation with Apple rep
– Want Google Voice? There is no app for that. Except on Android and Blackberry. Blackberry on AT&T.
– Will this encourage jailbreaks? Switchers to Palm/Android?
– One of the unofficial Google Voice app’s now on Cydia – jailbreak time if you use Google voice?
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/31/i-quit-the-iphone/
– Now the FCC are to investigate the Google Voice issue:
– Earlier today, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) sent out letters to Apple, AT&T and Google, readable here [FCC’s letter to Apple, to AT&T & to Google] asking each company about its involvement in the Google Voice app rejections. The agency is asking Apple to explain why the Google app was rejected and the third-party apps removed, if any VoIP apps have been approved, and whether there are general rules and regulations covering application approvals (something many developers would also love to know).
– Will ask Google if other Google Voice app’s were allowed, whether Apple explained why the rejection took place and what is Androids approval process
– Will ask Apple why Google Voice was removed as well as third party app’s, if any VOIP app’s have been approved (Google Voice isn’t VOIP) and also what general rules covering approvals are in place
– Will ask AT&T whether they were consulted on this, if any VOIP app’s run on their network and for a list of rejected app’s while explaining how some are approved for 3G enabled services like Sling

– iPhone dev’s backlash?
– http://www.polarbearfarm.com/blog/?p=124
– http://carpeaqua.com/2009/07/28/where-do-i-sign-up/
– http://stevenf.tumblr.com/post/152606616/im-furious-with-apple-and-at-t-right-now-with
– Rejections are final straw
– Turning into a $0.99 store – consumer expects app’s to cost this now
– Why would you spend months developing an app for it to be rejected?
– Poor developer relations
– Is it sour grapes from the established Mac development community?
– Hardly. If your app connects to 3rd party server or the web it needs a NC-17 rating. Instapaper now comes with a warning. Where’s the warning in Safari, iTunes or Mail?
– http://dashes.com/anil/2009/07/apple-secrecy-does-not-scale.html
– Where’s the Apple bloggers?
– Microsoft, Adobe all have their dev’s blogging and being open to a certain extent, open once they’ve publicly announced something at least
– Jailbreaking could disable towers
– http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/29/apple-claims-jailbreaking-could-disable-transmission-towers/
– Desperate
– Surely bull?

– Secret of Monkey Island hits the iPhone
– 350mb
– Swap between new and old graphics with one swipe
– Space Invaders Infinity Gene

– Wipeout

Picks
– LittleSnapper 1.5 and Ember
– LittleSnapper
– http://www.realmacsoftware.com/littlesnapper/
– $24 ($15 off)
– Capture desktop (full, area, window, timed), webpage
– Create collections, add tags
– Annotate pictures
– Store in library
– Export to flickr, pdf and Ember
– Ember
– http://emberapp.com/
– Inspiration rather than Flickr type images
– Focus on design, screenshots, websites etc
– Explore via collections or tags
– Free and paid options
– Limited amount of uploads and collections
– 1Password

DigitalOutbox Episode 7

DigitalOutbox Episode 7
In this episode the team discuss Windows 7, Virgin Media, naughty Amazon, Apple news and app’s and Console streaming. Blimey.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
– Windows 7
– On sale
– Euro website crashes
– Surprised at how many people are buying…the OS that will replace XP.
– Was £50 at PC World at one point. Bit of a rush on getting the best deals.

– MS Spotify rival
– Microsoft to launch a music streaming service
– no clear info yet, could be free with ads, but could be paid for service, nothing confirmed

– Virgin Media
– DOCSIS 3.0 rollout almost complete
– 50Meg drops to £38 without phone line, £28 with a phone line, still no throttling or bandwidth caps
– Trailing 10mb upload, 200mb download services
– Change to target hardcore downloaders
– Will contact those that abuse between 9 and 21

– Amazon pulls books from Kindle
– Orwell books too – Irony
– 1984, Animal Farm remotely wiped
– People who bought it had it wiped from their Kindle, money refunded
– Say they won’t do it again
– So much for owning the media….
– These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

– Apple
– Apple apparently called MS asking them to stop running Laptop Hunter ads …
– iTunes 8.2.1 blocks Palm Pre – get out
– Palm Pre sdk released, weak compared to iPhone but out very quickly compared to Apple
– My Location now enabled on iPhone safari browser
– iTunes D45
– new D45 section launched, discounted price for 2x songs: a hit song and a less common or previously unreleased song – App Store – 1.5 billion downloads
– Slow 3.0 for 3G and older?
– Tunewiki for iPhone
– Free app
– Music streaming, lyrics database, youtube charts
– Purchase music from stream your listening too
– Tweet the current track your listening too
– Music maps – who’ listening to this track around the globe
– User interface – nasty

– Twitbit: another Twitter app,
– £2.99, includes Push notifications, all or nothing though, future updates will allow customisation
– Resident Evil Degeneration on iPhone/iPod – £3.99, rather good apparently
– DropBox iPhone app almost complete: view, modify and download your files + sync iPhone photos
– SweetFM now open source (was $29)
– http://www.chocomoko.com/
– Last.fm client with iTunes integration
– Great design
– Rips the stream – 128kbps copies to iTunes with tags and album art

– Games
– Activision – Modern Warfare 2 – £54.99 in the UK. Fuckers. EA won’t raise prices of holiday titles…this year.
– Battlefield 1943 – Glorious now that it works
– Wipeout HD Fury – Expansion pack, July 23rd, 3 new modes, 12 new tracks, thirteen new ships. More than original game?

– Console Streaming
– PS3 – bluetooth remote
– Xbox 360 – noisy
– Streaming from Mac – Connect 360, Medialink, Rivet
– Quality
– Issues?

Picks
– Parachute Panic – .59p, hand drawn graphics, really simple, really addictive – nice music too
– AppMiner – FREE – bargain hunter

DigitalOutbox Episode 6

DigitalOutbox Episode 6
In this episode the team discuss Google Chrome OS, O2 and Twitter sitting in a tree, Prowl and push notifications and a special look at Plex, a media centre for the Mac.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
– Google Chrome OS
– Very little announced – http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html
– FAQ – http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-os-faq.html
– If it is really cloud based computing, where is the onine infrastructure to cope with photo libraries, music, graphics, itunes library etc
– Rumours of Microsoft announcement on Monday forcing Googles hand – Office in the cloud? It is – Office 2010 with Excel, Word, Powerpoint in the cloud. App’s are free, more feature rich than Google. http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/
– Targetting netbooks first, lightweight computing, targeting people who spend most time on the web. Only beginning
– Open source and free
– Will current Windows app’s run on it? Or is it a brand new platform to be developed against
– The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.
– No details
– Lots of competition from MS, Apple, Linux + things like Jolicloud – http://www.jolicloud.com/
– Hardware partners – Acer, Adobe, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments
– Downloadable version by year end, first netbooks late 2010

– Google out of beta
– http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-apps-is-out-of-beta-yes-really.html
– Finally
– Enterprise push? – http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/paving-road-to-apps-adoption-in-large.html – guess so.

– O2 Free replies and DM’s to your mobile
– From 1st August
– Some fair usage applied – try to keep under 600 a month
– Tests to twitter will be as part of your normal bundle

– Games
– 1 vs 100 – July 10th on Xbox Live – http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/1vs100
– Battlefield 1943 – woes…

– Apple
– Touchscreen Netbook Rumour
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/07/13/rumor-watch-apple-touchscreen-netbook-on-tap-for-october/
– October, $800, 10 inch screen
– Camera’s on iPods?
– Natural progression
– Video assumed – game changer for devices like Flip?
– Apple in talks with T-Mobile and Orange -explains the O2 – Palm Pre decision
– Appstore is 1!
– Prowl
– http://theappleblog.com/2009/07/06/prowl-get-any-growl-notifications-via-push-on-your-iphone/
– http://prowl.weks.net/
– Growl notifications form your Mac pushed to your iphone.
– Limitless applications of this – file transfer complete, chat requests, e-mails, system activity, backups complete etc etc etc
– Register on prowl site, client on the Mac
– Useful but potentially spammy
– Can set to send only when mac is idle
– TwitVid
– Free
– Add video to twitter – posts link to your uploaded video
– BoxCar
– £1.19
– Push notifications for mentions and DM
– System for push notifications doesn’t scale – nothing to differentiate between notifications

– PLEX
– Mac media player
– based on XBMC
– Setup – clumsy, awkward
– http://www.screencastsonline.com/index_files/SCO0201-plex.php
– Careful with file naming
– movies
– tv
–

Picks
– mkv2vob – http://www.mkv2vob.com/ current version 2.4.6
– mkv2vob will remux MKV files with H.264 video and AC3 audio to a VOB file which is playable on the Sony PS3
– http://wechoosethemoon.org/ – 40 years since apollo 11