Tag: kinect

DigitalOutbox Episode 208

DigitalOutbox Episode 208
DigitalOutbox Episode 208 – Xbox Changes and EU says you can be forgotten

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0:58 – Deal to combat piracy in UK with ‘alerts’ is imminent
5:21 – Tech world stunned as court rules Oracle can own APIs, Google loses copyright appeal
8:43 – EU court backs ‘right to be forgotten’ in Google case
18:07 – Twitter introduces mute feature on Android, iPhone, and the Web
20:23 – Google Maps just became a one-stop shop for UK public transport data
21:27 – Dixons and Carphone Warehouse shares drop on merger
24:28 – Microsoft to unbundle Xbox One and Kinect
28:33 – Microsoft brings free Games with Gold to Xbox One, drops Gold paywall for apps in June
31:21 – The new Unreal Tournament will be free, moddable and developed with players

DigitalOutbox Episode 89

DigitalOutbox Episode 89
In this episode the team discuss Apple, Lulzsec and Google Search.

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2:24 – Apple loosens grip on subscription terms
– Apple has lifted the conditions on in-app pricing.
– Significantly, these have now been replaced by a term that says publishers can include content that consumers have paid for elsewhere. So if a newspaper subscribers has paid the paper directly for a year’s online and in-app access, then Apple won’t take a piece of that payment because it was processed outside the App Store. The same applies for services including Spotify, or Netflix.
– Previous terms had insisted that in-app subscriptions were to be the same price or cheaper than subscriptions elsewhere, and also that external subscriptions had to be made available within the app.
– It means publishers can choose whatever price point they like for subscriptions wherever they are, and won’t have to include what might be irrelevant external subscription offers in the Apple apps.
– Apple blinked
4:11 – Apple antes up in Lodsys developer lawsuits
– Apple has made its move in support of theseven small app developers sued by Lodsys over in-app purchases in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas on May 31, filing a motion to intervene in the proceedings on June 9 according toFOSSpatents’ Florian Mueller. If granted, Apple would be added to the Lodsys suit as a defendant and counterclaim plaintiff.
– Mueller believes that even though Lodsys may oppose Apple’s motion to intervene, the Mac maker is likely to be admitted as a defendant, in which case it has already submitted its answer to Lodsys’ complaint of infringement, and its counterclaim. Apple also cites a number of other precedent-setting similar cases where tech companies were allowed to intervene in patent disputes, which back up and strengthen its motion. If Apple joins as a defendant, Mueller thinks it’s very likely it will take on any legal costs incurred by its developer partners.
6:48 – iTunes in the Cloud not until 2012 for the UK
– The music storage part of the iCloud, due to launch in the US around September time, will not be coming to the UK until at least quarter one of 2012.
– A spokesman for the Performing Right Society (PRS), which ensures that composers, songwriters and music publishers are paid for their work, told The Telegraph, that negotiations with Apple about ensuring rights in the UK had started but were at a “very early stage”.
– “The licensing team at the PRS have started talks with Apple, but are a long way off from any deals being signed…It is very much the early stages of the negotiations and is similar to the launch of iTunes – which began in the US and took a while to roll out to other countries,” they said.
– A music executive at one of the major record labels, who wished to remain unnamed, said: “Tentative talks have begun between the major labels and Apple in the UK. However, all talks are at the really early stages and no one expects to see the cloud music service live on this side of the pond until 2012.”
– Mark Mulligan, vice president and research director at Forrester Research, said: “Apple’s cloud music service will not launch in the UK until at least quarter one of 2012. These types of negotiations take a long time… For one thing the UK arms of all the major record labels are biding their time and waiting to see how the service affects download sales in the US before they sign up to anything.”
– Quicky – Final Cut Pro X, Compressor 5 Motion 4 available on Mac App store from Tuesday 21st as well as 3TB Time Capsule and updated Airport Extreme
13:14 – Nokia and Apple Settle
– Nokia and Apple have agreed a technology licensing agreement that ends the long-running legal dispute between the two firms.
– “The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies,” Nokia said. Nokia sued Apple for patent infringements in 2009 and extended the action in December last year. Apple had countersued, accusing Nokia of infringing its patents.
– Nokia said Apple had agreed a one-off payment, the value of which was not disclosed, and ongoing royalties to use its technologies. Apple said the deal covered both companies’ patents.
15:30 – Google Search Updates
– Google Search on the Desktop
– We first offered speech recognition on mobile search, but you should have that power no matter where you are. You should never have to stop and ask yourself, “Can I speak for this?”—it should be ubiquitous and intuitive. So we’ve added speech recognition into search on desktop for Chrome users. If you’re using Chrome, you’ll start to see a little microphone in every Google search box.
– English only initially, beta version of Chrome soon
– Search by image
– Next to the microphone on images.google.com, you’ll also see a little camera for the new Search by Image feature. If you click the camera, you can upload any picture or plug in an image URL from the web and ask Google to figure out what it is. Try it out when digging through old vacation photos and trying to identify landmarks—the search [mountain path] probably isn’t going to tell you where you were, but computer vision may just do the trick. Search by Image is rolling out now globally in 40 languages. We’re also releasing Chrome and Firefox extensions that enable you to search any image on the web by right-clicking.
– Google Instant: Instant Pages
– Instant Pages can get the top search result ready in the background while you’re choosing which link to click, saving you yet another two to five seconds on typical searches. Let’s say you’re searching for information about the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, so you search for [dc folklife festival]. As you scan the results deciding which one to choose, Google is already prerendering the top search result for you. That way when you click, the page loads instantly.
– Next beta version of Chrome will have this feature
– It’s the borg!
– Sorry officer, I have no idea why my computer was downloading THAT page. 🙂
23:11 – iCann greenlights expansion of web domains
– Icann has decided to allow the number of internet “domains” to expand enormously in one of the biggest changes ever to the internet’s method of naming sites.
– New website suffixes should start appearing late in 2012 and could be categorised by subjects including industry, geography and ethnicity and include Arabic, Chinese and other scripts.
– A special meeting of Icann’s board approved a plan to expand the number of possible internet domain name endings from the current 22 – such as “.com”, “.org” and “.net” (which are separate of the country-specific domain endings such as “.uk”) – to allow domains “in any language or script”, according to Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive of Icann.
– Icann will receive applications for new domain names for 90 days from 12 January 2012. The fee is $185,000, and the form for application is 360 pages long. It will also begin an awareness campaign pointing out that it has introduced the new scheme.
26:08 – Mobile phone firms develop wave and pay system
– Vodafone, O2, Orange and T-Mobile announced plans on Thursday for a joint venture that would allow shoppers to pay for goods and services with their phones rather than cash or cards.
– Consumers will be able to pay for sandwiches, drinks and train tickets by placing their phones close to a reader similar to the Oyster card system on the London Underground. In the future the technology might even allow you to unlock your front door and start your car.
– Kevin Russell, chief executive of 3, the UK’s smallest operator, hit out at his larger rivals for leaving 3 out of the project. “We would want and expect to be a part at the heart of a cross-industry development like this and are more than a little concerned that, as a core competitor, we have not yet been invited to be part of this joint venture,” he said.
– Vodafone, O2 and Everything Everywhere said the service would be open to all retailers, banks, ticketing companies, advertisers and other mobile companies, including 3, Tesco and Virgin Mobile.
– The trio said they would inject significant capital into the project and would each own one third of the equity. The service is expected to go live early next year, subject to regulatory clearance.
29:36 – O2 will not sell the Playbook
– Blackberry Playbook which launched on Jun 16th won’t be sold by O2 in the UK
– The telco emailed interested punters that RIM’s 7in, QNX OS-based slate will not be available after all, saying it had issues with the “end to end customer experience” offered by the gadget
31:17 – HP Touchpad Pricing and Launch
– HP wants £399 for the 16GB model, £479 for the 32GB version – exactly what Apple is asking for the equivalent iPads 2s.
– Both are driven by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and sport 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 1.3Mp webcam too. 9.7” screen
– The 240 x 190 x 14mm gadget weighs 740g and ships in July.
32:16 – Sky Go Launches July 4th
– Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV, the two services for watching Sky away from your telly are being combined to form Sky Go — and it’s free to all Sky customers.
– Sky Player lets you watch Sky online, and Sky Mobile TV lets you watch on your phone. With the introduction of Sky Go there’ll be just one service for your phone, tablet, laptop and computer, which is free to all Sky subscribers.
– Sky Go will show live programmes and catch-up TV from across the board of Sky channels. That includes all five Sky Sports channels, ESPN, Sky News, Sky Movies, Sky News, Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Arts, MTV, Disney, GOLD, Nickelodeon, NatGeo, History, Eden and ESPN.
– On your computer or laptop you can choose from 30 channels to watch on the go. Tablets and smart phones are limited to slightly fewer stations, but can get all the Sky Sports channels, ESPN and Sky News. More channels will be added to the phone and tablet line-up over time.
– You can register two devices to watch Sky Go, whether it’s your laptop in bed or your phone on the bus. Sadly you won’t be able to watch when you’re on holiday, as rights issues prevent overseas streaming.
– Sky Player and Sky Sports on the iPhone were previously subscription options so great to have these free for Sky subscribers
– In August, Sky Go will become available to non-Sky TV customers for a monthly subscription price ranging from £15 to £40. Sky Player will remain available on Xbox Live and Freeview service Fetch TV, but will rebrand as just ‘Sky’.
35:46 – PR firm busted
– Redner Group stated:
– Too many went too far with their reviews…we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom,” the company tweeted. “Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews…that’s completely different,” another tweet read.
– That was on companies official twitter feed…but has since been removed and an apology tweeted out as well
– Everyone kind of expects it…but still not good to see
– Currently, Duke Nukem Forever has a Metacritic score of 49 on the Xbox 360
40:26 – Dropbox Left User Accounts Unlocked for 4 Hours Sunday
– Yesterday we made a code update at 1:54pm Pacific time that introduced a bug affecting our authentication mechanism. We discovered this at 5:41pm and a fix was live at 5:46pm. A very small number of users (much less than 1 percent) logged in during that period, some of whom could have logged into an account without the correct password. As a precaution, we ended all logged in sessions.
– We’re conducting a thorough investigation of related activity to understand whether any accounts were improperly accessed. If we identify any specific instances of unusual activity, we’ll immediately notify the account owner. If you’re concerned about any activity that has occurred in your account, you can contact us at support@dropbox.com.
– This should never have happened. We are scrutinizing our controls and we will be implementing additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again.
– If you were affected then you will have been e-mailed as review is complete
– Worried – check your event log – https://www.dropbox.com/events
– For those who are seeking a service similiar to Dropbox, but with more security, Wuala and SpiderOak encrypt data on users’ devices, not on a central server.
43:01 – WordPress.org Password reset
– Noticed suspicious commits to several popular plugins (AddThis, WPtouch, and W3 Total Cache) containing cleverly disguised backdoors. We determined the commits were not from the authors, rolled them back, pushed updates to the plugins, and shut down access to the plugin repository while we looked for anything else unsavory.
– To use the forums, trac, or commit to a plugin or theme, you’ll need to reset your password to a new one. (Same for bbPress.org and BuddyPress.org.)
44:25 – Lulzsec and Anonymous Declare Open War Against All Governments and Fat Cats
– Lulzsec and Anonymoushave just declared full open war against all governments, banks and big corporations in the world. They are calling all hackers in the world to unite. Their objective is to fully expose all corruption and dark secrets
– This is getting tiring…..and dangerous. Real change ala wikileaks is powerful but hacking user accounts and throwing them online for individuals to be damaged…is childish
– Trying to be characters like robin hood?
– Net may be closing in – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/21/lulzsec-hacker-group-who-belongs
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13859868 – 19 year old arrested in UK
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/22/ryan-cleary-charged-lulzsec-hacking
– Charged with 5 offences of computer hacking
51:05 – Microsoft launches Kinect SDK for Windows
– Embraces hacking community by launching official SDK for Kinect on Windows
– This will allow users to create games, UIs, and apps with Kinect’s 3D sensing technology including 3D scanning, audio tracking, and the creation of 3D wireframes in real time.
The three major features include, Raw sensor streams, Skeletal tracking, Advanced audio capabilities
52:41 – Popcap bought for $1 billion
– Huge news in the gaming world: PopCap Games, the company behind such hits as Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled, is in the process of being acquired — and we’re hearing from multiple sources that the price is over $1 billion.
54:29 – iOS Apps
– Bungie Mobile
– http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/14/bungie-releases-free-ios-app/
– Free app from Bungie
– Track your Halo stats
– Login with Bungie ID and enable blue flames!
– Discovr Apps and Music
– http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/14/discovr-launches-awesome-tool-to-find-and-discover-new-apps-think-interactive-graphs/
– Great apps for discovering new apps and music
– Graphically shows related apps or music, then details more on the app or artist
– Both £0.59 but very nicely written
– Order & Chaos
– http://toucharcade.com/2011/04/27/order-chaos-online-goes-worldwide-lets-take-over-the-arcadian-forest-server/
– Gameloft MMO – rip off of WOW
– Monthly sub but at the moment it’s £0.59 for 3 months gameplay
– Pretty amazing to have this running on iPhone/iPad
– Exfm
– Great music discovery app out today
– Get the chrome plugin to understand what it’s about
– Follow friends, industry leaders, music blogs etc
– Great way of finding new music
– Free!
59:02 – Lytro Light Field Cameras
– Introducing a light field camera this year
– Amazing demo – take a photo and in post you can change what is in focus
– Light field means capturing all the light moving in all the directions in the view of the camera
– A real step change in photography…
1:04:47 – Facebook – Spartan and iPad App
– Project Spartan is the codename for a new platform Facebook is on verge of launching. It’s entirely HTML5-based and the aim is to reach some 100 million users in a key place: mobile. More specifically, the initial target is both surprising and awesome: mobile Safari.
– Yes, Facebook is about to launch a mobile platform aimed squarely at working on the iPhone (and iPad). But it won’t be distributed through the App Store as a native application, it will be entirely HTML5-based and work in Safari. Why? Because it’s the one area of the device that Facebook will be able to control (or mostly control).
– Facebook iPad app

Picks
Chris
SlideIT
– Android Keyboard. Like HTC sense.
– Drag your fingers over the keys rather than pressing individual ones. Magically your words appear. Clever stuff.
– Trial – or buy full versoin £3.99
Ian
Reeder for Mac
– Reeder for Mac – £5.99 from Mac App Store
– The best feed reader for Mac
– Great Google reader integration
– Fast and it looks great too

DigitalOutbox Episode 80

DigitalOutbox Episode 80
In this episode the team discuss Twitter threatening dev’s, IE9, iPad 2 and bye bye to the Zune.

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Shownotes
2:06 – Twitter – Don’t compete with our apps
– Twitter has taken some time today in their developer forum to talk a bit about the state of the ecosystem and give some guidance.
– Platform lead Ryan Sarver notes that Twitter views a “consistent user experience” as very important to them. And it’s something they’re going to hold third-party developers to a very high standard to maintain. But they don’t want them to mimic Twitter’s own experience with their native apps in order to do this. They’ve updated the API Terms of Service to reflect all of this.
– “Developers have told us that they’d like more guidance from us about the best opportunities to build on Twitter. More specifically, developers ask us if they should build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience. The answer is no,” Sarver writes very matter-of-factly.
“If you are an existing developer of client apps, you can continue to serve your user base, but we will be holding you to high standards to ensure you do not violate users’ privacy, that you provide consistency in the user experience, and that you rigorously adhere to all areas of our Terms of Service. We have spoken with the major client applications in the Twitter ecosystem about these needs on an ongoing basis, and will continue to ensure a high bar is maintained,”
– So if your a developer what are Twitter happy with you developing:
– Publisher tools. Companies such as SocialFlow help publishers optimize how they use Twitter, leading to increased user engagement and the production of the right tweet at the right time.
– Curation, Realtime data signals, Social CRM, entreprise clients, and brand insights, Value-added content and vertical experiences.
– This hasn’t gone down well – Craig Hockenberry points out what Iconfactory’s Twitterrific brought to the Twitter platform – http://furbo.org/2011/03/11/twitterrific-firsts/ – First use of tweet, first use of bird icon, first native mac client, first char count, first to support replies and conversations (with help from Twitter engineering), first native iPhone client
– Twitter killed my app – http://aaron.vegh.ca/2011/03/twitter-killed-my-app/
– Some twitter stats to show you size (where’s identica?)
– http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/14/new-twitter-stats-140m-tweets-sent-per-day-460k-accounts-created-per-day/
– It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day from the first Tweet to get to the billionth Tweet. In a given week, users send a billion Tweets. Users are now sending 140 million Tweets, on average, per day, up from 50 million Tweets sent per day, a year ago. The all-time high in terms of Tweets sent per day was 177 million sent on March 11, 2011.
– In terms of Tweets per second, the all time high was 6,939 Tweets per second after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day. This compares to the previous record of 456 Tweets per second when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009.
– Twitter says that 572,000 accounts were created on March 12, 2011, with 460,000 new accounts per day over the last month on average. Mobile users are up 182 percent over the past year. And Twitter currently has 400 employees, up from 8 in January 2008.
10:25 – ISPs to Provide Better Traffic Management Info
– BSkyB, BT, O2, TalkTalk, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone have all agreed to provide better information on traffic management, which should help customers understand why connection speeds vary.
– While such information is already available in many cases, in order for consumers to have a better handle on the data, the indicators must be understandable, accessible, comparable and verifiable. The info will therefore be published in a ‘Key Fact Indicator’ table that summarises the practices in a standardised format. These will be available on the ISPs’ websites by the end of June.
– The tables can be accessed directly by the consumer, but also used by price comparison websites and the like to inform potential customers of the best options available to them.
– Antony Walker, head of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, which facilitated the move, reckons it “will not only help to ensure consumers are better informed about the services they buy and use, but will also provide a clearer picture for policy makers of the way in which traffic management is actually used in the UK market”.
14:00 – Facebook Comment Box Plugin
– Facebook updates it’s comments box plugin – comment via Facebook account or Yahoo
– Forces people to use real name – deter spamming?
– Improved moderation tools
– Can send comments to wall, get notifications when others comment – fine on low traffic sites – comment on Techcrunch though and boom – spam tastic
– No Google or Twitter sign in available but it was rumoured
– Facebook marches on
– http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/06/techcrunch-facebook-comments
– Techcrunch – less quantity, better quality
– Less anonymity = less trolls
20:06 – Google – Hide sites directly in search
– Similar to Chrome plugin launched a few weeks ago
– Click on block site to remove site from your search results
– Saved to your Google account so follows you around
20:52 – Google Maps Navigation now routes around traffic
– Google Maps Navigation has added traffic re-routing to it’s Android app
– Will take account of current and historic traffic levels when calculating best route
– Free!
– Traffic data is crowd sourced from other users to try and work out best available route
24:00 – Adobe Launches Wallaby
– Wallaby, a system it is launching today to convert basic Flash files — such as animations and banner ads — into code that will work on iOS.
– an AIR program that allows you to drag and drop a Flash file into it, at which point the system analyzes the file and outputs a sequence of HTML-friendly files that produce the same effect. By using HTML, CSS and SVG, the company says most simple Flash files can be recreated in ways that will work on Apple mobile products.
– I spoke to Adobe’s Tom Barclay about the launch, who said that the project had a specific purpose — to make Apple’s Flash ban less painful for developers — but pointed out that it was still very much experimental.
“There’s still room for improvement, but I think we’ve addressed a very specific use case for banner ads on iOS,” he told me.
– While it can port over simple animations and transitions, there’s a lot of information that it can’t handle: notably ActionScript instructions (which are used to program inside Flash) don’t convert, although Barclay suggested that they may come into the picture further down the line. Similarly, some of Flash’s higher-end features — such as filters and blend modes — aren’t being ported through Wallaby yet. And it doesn’t convert audio and video because HTML5 has its own dedicated tags for those.
26:29 – Conde Nast UK invests in iPad publishing
– Wired UK will release monthly app editions for iPad starting with its May issue, with British GQ making its tablet debut on the App Store with its July issue. Meanwhile, Vogue UK is to receive more “special edition” iPad issues throughout the year.
– For now, the publisher is focusing on iPad and iPhone only, although its thoughts are turning to other devices such as the raft of Android tablets about to go on sale, and RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook.
– For now, the pricing model will remain one-off purchases, too. Apple’s recently introduced subscription billing system is also on Condé Nast’s agenda, but only if the terms are right, according to Read. “We’re in discussions with Apple in the US about how we might reach a subs arrangement that suits both sides.”
– The publisher will also launch 21 iPhone apps across seven of its magazine brands this year, including GQ, Glamour, Vogue and Wired.
29:52 – Apple Updates
– iOS 4.3
– iTunes 10.2.1
– Safari 5.0.4
– XCode 4 – Released – free for developers who pay $99 yearly or $4.99 on app store for non developers
– Benchmarks for iPad2 are very impressive – http://www.anandtech.com/show/4216/apple-ipad-2-gpu-performance-explored-powervr-sgx543mp2-benchmarked
– Online backlog – 4-5 weeks now for delivery, physical stores sold out
– One More Thing
– Jon Bon Jovi
– Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it..
– God, it was a magical, magical time…I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: ‘What happened?’ Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.
38:54 – App Updates
– Flipboard – faster, instagram support
– Instapaper – faster, more social in that you can find liked reads from your twitter connections, can share to more places including Pinboard, can now search sync’d content – one of my fav apps just got better
41:14 – IE9 now released to mainstream
– Ars calling it the “most modern browser there is”
– Doesn’t work on anything before Vista.
– I’ve not had a chance to use yet. Speed graphs look good. Standards support looks much improved. Certainly a good thing. And with IE trying hard to now kill off IE6 – fingers crossed, those will move straight up to the latest version and save lots of development headaches!
44:09 – Kinect is record breaker
– Kinect officially fastest selling consumer electronic device ever… Guinness certified.
– “Fastest selling consumer electronics device in 60 days…”
45:38 – Zune Player is no more
– End of hardware. Software and service still live.

Picks
Chris
Droid@Screen
– Recently used to do my blog post on Android OS. It’s a desktop java app that can output your Android screen in a window! Fantastic! OK, you have to jump through a few hoops. You need to have the Android SDK and also the debug USB driver, but once that’s all up and running, you just load the .jar file and off you go.
– Used in conjunction with Camtasia/Jing you can then record the window.
– FPS is an issue – 30fps is fastest it offers and that’s not to say that you get 30 updates of the screen every second! It’s jerky at best but as a way of showing how Android works, I couldn’t find a better option out there at the moment.
– It’s also delightfully geeky!
Ian
Zite
– Magazine app for the iPad
– Displays content based on twitter followers, google reader and what you read as you use the app
– Like the front end, slower than Flipboard but not a dealbreaker

DigitalOutbox Episode 73

DigitalOutbox Episode 73
In this episode the team discuss CES, App Stores and T-Mobile fail.

Playback
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Shownotes
1:28 – Microsoft CES
– Underwhelming
– Kinect selling 8 million devices in 60 days – beats 5 million prediction – big news
– Kinect avatars coming later this year
– Their best product in 10 years?
– Windows 7 Phone – doing great – if it was, why not release sales figures? Microsoft has sold 1.5m Windows Phone 7 handsets in 6 weeks
– They have got some good idea’s in that O/S – I like tiles, snap tiles form other app’s to front page
– 5500 app’s though is a worry – Flickr and Kindle coming though
– Windows 7 – doing great
– IE9 looks a great upgrade
– Hardware
– Acer – 2 14” touchscreens – touch keyboard appears
– Samsung slider – slide screen over keyboard – very nice
– Asus tablet – touch and stylus, wireless keyboard, i5 chip, coming March – http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/asus-eee-slate-ep121-officially-unveiled-ips-display-core-i5-a/
– Surface – now 4 inches…thin 🙂
– Every pixel is an infra red camera – no big camera’s anymore
–
– Next Windows – support Intel, AMD and ARM
– Two big deals however:
– The abandonment of Windows exclusivity by practically all of Microsoft’s OEM customers.
– The abandonment of Intel exclusivity by Microsoft for the next generation of Windows.
– End of PC era – John Gruber?
– No breakdown of markets – netbook, tablets, desktops – basically if it’s a market, it will have Windows is the take away?
8:22 – CES
– Android 3 – Honeycomb looks very different – http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2011/01/sneak-peak-of-android-30-honeycomb.html
– GHz dual-core Tegra 2 will power this 10.1-incher, while 4G connectivity will be made available as an update in Q2 following a Q1 launch. Other specs include a 1280 x 800 resolution, 5 megapixel camera, 720p video recording and 1080p video playback, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and finally, a healthy 32GB of onboard storage. The battery is rated to be capable of supporting 10 hours of video.
– HP – No tablet – Feb 9th for launch
– Asus Eee Pad MeMO – http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/asus-eee-pad-memo-tablet-takes-a-pen-out-of-the-couriers-book/
– Blackberry Playbook – http://gizmodo.com/5726902/money-shot-the-blackberry-playbook-tablet
– Needs Blackberry phone – You have to tether to your BlackBerry to get your calendar or email.
– Performance though is very very good
– 3d cameras – 3D TV’s haven’t sold, now 3D cameras?
– Star Wars on BluRay this September with 30 hours of extras
– Super fast phones – dual core chips – 1ghz coming soon
– Motorola Atrix 4G
– Tegra 2-powered handset the best phone at the show, it’s hands-down one of craziest products we’ve seen in quite a while. The handset itself is glorious with its 4-inch QHD display, front-facing cam, and fingerprint reader, but its 11.6-inch Laptop Dock and its Webtop operating system turn it into one unique beast
– Anything else?
– Apple dominate CES again without being there
– Mac App Store
– iPad 2 Rumours
– iPhone comes to Verizon…allegedly (confirmed…)
19:26 – BT Eroding Net Neutrality
– The telecoms company’s wholesale arm is starting to sell a new service that allows broadband providers – such as Virgin Media and Sky – to put video from paying clients, like the BBC’s iPlayer or Google’s YouTube, in an internet fast lane.
– BT’s new service, dubbed Content Connect, has provoked accusations of breaching the broad principles of “net neutrality”, whereby all content is delivered equally to internet users.
– Content Connect enables ISPs to store video within their own networks, closer to the user, as opposed to third-party companies – such as Akamai, which delivers the BBC’s iPlayer – caching popular content around the globe. By paying the ISP, rather than the third-party company, users could get a guaranteed delivery of service even at peak times.
– But it would also create a situation where companies that are unwilling – or unable – to pay would have their content delivered less efficiently to the end user.
– But BT today denied claims the new service will create a two-tier internet, saying that it “supports the concept” of net neutrality but believes that ISPs should be free to charge content owners for a “higher quality” delivery service.
– TalkTalk has also openly expressed a willingness to charge content companies for better delivery of their video to the nation’s homes, while Virgin Media manages time-sensitive traffic at peak times but does not prioritise one company’s content explicitly over another.
23:25 – Government announce plans to block pornography in the UK
– The government plans to change the way broadband providers filter Internet access to help stop access to pornography. The step follows existing plans that ISPs have used to help block inadvertent access of child pornography websites. The government want providers to use the same technology to block pornography unless adults have opted in to viewing it. This should help stop children from gaining access to inappropriate material that is currently freely available on the web. TalkTalk are already in the process of implementing a system which scans websites for malware and will introduce parental controls that can be configured for all users of the connection.
– BT said it would be happy to discuss the implementation of such a system but there are many ‘legal, consumer rights and technical issues’ that need to be evaluated before it could go live. Trefor Davies of Timico was less keen on the idea and questioned how well a system like this could work. There are millions of sites that would need to be blocked and these are changing all the time.
– This would obviously please some industries who could piggyback on the system and use it to help stop access to illegally downloaded music and films for example.
26:45 – T-Mobile Cuts
– T-Mobile UK is cutting “fair use” data limits on Feb 1 from up to 3GB to 500MB and has sparked furious complaints from customers, who were told by text today of the move.
– T-Mobile customers on “unlimited” Android monthly data contracts who contacted The Reg were particularly aggrieved. Most were aware that the fair use policy was 3GB per month, but all felt this was sufficient for their smartphone use.
– But today T-Mobile invoked “subject to change” rights, outlined in the contract small-print, to reduce fair usage down to 500MB. – http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/12/t-mobile-data-limit
– The amendments, state that customers who exceed the 500MB cap can no longer download files or watch videos. Browsing sites such as Facebook, Gmail and BBC News will not be affected, though.

– U-turn… now appears that this new cap will only be for new customers.
30:22 – Android in Space
– Google sends up payload of an Android mascot and a Nexus S into near space
– The video looks amazing
– Google still = fun for me
31:52 – Google Goggles Update
– Update will now solve Sudoku puzzles
– Also has faster barcode scanning and recognizes print ad’s
32:44 – Google TV Failing
– Google TV is second worst reviewed product according to Walt Mossberg
– Reports that Logitech are displeased with Google TV
– Reports that Google have asked manufacturers not to demo Google TV during CES
– Apple TV ships 1 million in three months
– Still no silver bullet in this market
34:11 – Skype Updated on iOS
– Video calling enabled on iOS devices
– Works over wifi and 3G
– Free
– Betters facetime which is wifi only
35:09 – 3D Game Warning
– The eyesight of children under six could be harmed by 3D games played on Nintendo’s forthcoming handheld console, the company has warned.
– The games giant posted the health warning on the website devoted to the 3DS handheld. It said specialists had warned of possible damage that could be caused by 3D games which present different images to the right and left eye.
– Younger children should only play 2D versions of 3DS games, said Nintendo.
– In issuing the warning, Nintendo joins Sony and Toshiba in alerting people to the ill effects that can attend watching 3D movies or playing 3D games.
– Sony has already said that parents should get medical advice before letting children watch 3D content on the PlayStation. Toshiba has said parents should keep an eye on children watching its TVs that can display 3D images without needing glasses.
– The companies have also warned that watching too much 3D content can cause adults discomfort.
– Price announced for 3DS – 300 Yen, £200 at least in UK
– Games – £30-£50
– Region locked
– Feb Japan, March in UK
38:21 – Open Source Kinect Drivers
– PrimeSense, the company responsible for the technology behind Microsoft’s Kinect camera system, has, in conjunction with Willow Garage and Side-Kick, released official Windows and Linux (Ubuntu version 10.10 and later) open source drivers for Kinect
– The drivers allow access to the Kinect’s audio, video and depth sensors and include a complete API known as OpenNI (open natural interaction).
39:51 – Canabalt goes Open Source
– Dev taking part in Indie Game Sale
– Has decided to open source Canabalt
– Newest version of game, high score and twitter back end support stripped as they didn’t want to risk someone hacking user data
– you can use it for anything you want, even for commercial stuff but it’s not our fault if it doesn’t work.” However, the Canabalt-specific game code, game art, animation, music and sound effects are all proprietary, and protected by our copyrights and trademarks.
– Download from GitHub – happy learning
41:52 – Kindle 3 is Amazons bestselling product ever
– Beats Harry Potter 7 as biggest selling product Amazon has ever stocked
– No idea on figures – guesstimate is 8 million this year
43:15 – Amazon App Store
– Amazon.com launched the Amazon Appstore Developer Portal. You can find the Portal at developer.amazon.com. It is a new self-service tool that allows mobile application developers—Android developers in particular—to join our Appstore Developer Program and submit apps for the upcoming launch of the Amazon Appstore for Android.
– Why should you submit your apps for inclusion in the Amazon Appstore for Android?
– For the first time, you will have access to tens of millions of active Amazon customers.
– Amazon’s proven marketing and merchandizing features will help you get your apps discovered and in front of the right customers.
– The convenience of using an existing Amazon.com account will make it simple and easy for customers to purchase your apps – both online and on their mobile devices.
– The Appstore Developer Portal is your one-stop location to manage account details, manage marketing materials, and track sales and projected earnings using self-service and customizable reports.
– Could they launch a Mac, Windows app store?
45:42 – Mac App Store Launched
– Mac app store launches – 1000 apps, not clear how many are new
– Can buy individual iLife and iWork apps
– Aperture – £173 boxed, £44.99 in the App Store or $199 and $79
(Why is Apple TV $99 in US and £101 in UK?)
– Some other bargains there too
– Many prices the same as there web store counterparts though – no race to the bottom
– Twitter for Mac also launched via app store (Tweetie 2)
– Streams enabled – feels like IM if you tweet back and forward
– Addicting, distracting
– Apple and Panic app’s already bought are identified as installed by App Store even though installed outside of the store
– Evernote – Rate of new users on Mac is 1800% higher than normal – http://blog.evernote.com/2011/01/07/mac-app-store-more-than-doubles-new-users/
– So far, 166,789 new users have started using Evernote in the first few days of 2011. Since the launch of the Mac App Store, more than half of them are coming from the Mac. About 40,000 new users have signed up from the Mac so far. Note that this is new users only! It’s not the same as the total number of downloads from the Mac App Store (we had 90,000 of those, from store launch till midnight last night), because a large number of people downloading us from the Mac App Store are already registered Evernote users from a different platform.
– http://www.macstories.net/news/developer-goes-from-7-sales-a-day-to-1500-with-mac-app-store/
– LittleFin was selling between 6 – 10 copies of Compartments, a simple home inventory app for the Mac we reviewed here, a day through their website. The day before the Mac App Store launch, they sold only 7 copies. But as soon as the Store launched on January 6 and Ap8.ple featured the app in the Mac App Store homepage and its “Great Mac Apps” webpage, LittleFin saw a terrific increase in sales. In fact, they sold 1,547 copies in the first 24 hours of the Mac App Store. The app, now featured under “Staff Favorites”, is available at $9.99. Before the Mac App Store the app was sold at $24.95; the developers decided to lower the price as an experiment. Since January 6, the app has been selling 1,000 copies a day on average.
– Confusion over App Store finding already bought app’s. I still think it’s confusing to end users who have already purchased app’s that the App Store doesn’t recognise these app’s. To get app store updates, buy them again. No easy way for dev’s to swap licence over.
– Macworlds Mac App Store faq – http://www.macworld.com/article/156962/2011/01/mac_app_store_faq.html
– No beta’s, demo’s or trials – that sucks
– Some piracy fears – but not if app is coded properly
– Developer should check for digital signature that matches their app’s sig. Angry birds checks for existance of signature…any signature so you can download a free app, copy that signature to angry birds and your good to go.
– You have to delve into the Package Contents of the app’s dmg file, navigate to a particular folder and delete specific files. You then copy and paste those same files from the free app’s folder to the paid one. In other words, you would need to know these specific instructions before doing this – it’s not a matter of simply copying-and-pasting a receipt number, like you would have on some brick-and-mortar retail store’s receipt, into a field or pop-up notification within the paid app.
– 1 million downloads in 24 hours….970,000 were Twitter for Mac
– Couple of funnies
– http://readthefuckinghig.tumblr.com/ – Read the Fucking HIG (human interface guidelines)
– http://ifiboughtyourappalreadycaniupdateitthroughthemacappstore.com/
54:05 – Verizon iPhone
– Moves to new network in America
– Nothing new…apart from Personal Hotspots
– Verizon iPhone will let you create a personal hotspot and share your data connection via WiFi with up to five other devices, such as laptops or other cell phones.
– Verizon only or coming to an iPhone near you soon
– Verizon iPhones running 4.2.5 – launch at start of Feb?
– Not 4G as was hoped by our American friends – also, not exclusive. iPhone perhaps making it finally onto all other US networks…
– Now looks like personal hotspots coming to all iPhones running 4.2.5 (although likely needs to be carrier supported) – March according to Boy Genius Report
– Phone has altered antena…
56:15 – Google Drops support for H.264 Video in Chrome
– Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.
– So why is Flash plugin supported in Chrome?
– From DF – As it stands now, Chrome not only supports Flash, it ships with its own embedded copy of Flash. I don’t see how Google keeps Flash but drops H.264 in the name of “openness” without being seen as utter hypocrites.
– This is more Google vs Apple
1:01:26 – Microsoft object to App Store trademark
– Why Apple shouldn’t be allowed to trademark App Store – by the folk who trademarked Windows
– “Microsoft opposes Apple’s Application Serial No. 77/525433 for APP STORE on the grounds that ‘app store’ is generic for retail store services featuring apps and unregistrable for ancillary services such as searching for and downloading apps from such stores”.

Picks
Ian
MyFitnessPal
– Track food, excercise, weight
– Social networking part
– Free iPhone app – excellent app
– Easy to add in food intake from extensive database of foods
– Very impressed

Chris
Logitech HD Pro C910 Webcam
– Capable of capturing HD video / 10MP stills
– Stereo Sound… (good quality)
– Supports SkypeHD if your connection can…(1meg upload)
– Also supports Logitechs Cid HD service (but who uses that??)
– Built in upload to YouTube/Facebook if you want
– Comes with Magix vid/photo editing software
– Has silly options to add effects and avatars (very impressive facial tracking on show)
– Also, excellent motion detection so it can even act as a security cam should you wish!
– Downsides – expensive. Cheapest I’ve seen it is around £70… likely cheaper soon.
– Unless you have great connection and latest software – chances are you won’t really be sending over HD vid via skype but the high quality optics mean that your standard def vids are much improved.

DigitalOutbox Episode 69

DigitalOutbox Episode 69
In this episode the team discuss Net Neutrality Threat, Don’t Joke on Twitter, Facebook Messaging and Kinect.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
0:59 – Google Rewards and Punishes
– Gives all employees $1000 extra bonus
– Also increases all salaries from 1st Jan by 10%
– And…
– “We’ve heard from your feedback on Googlegeist and other surveys that salary is more important to you than any other component of pay (i.e., bonus and equity),” the memo reads.
– “To address that, we’re moving a portion of your bonus into your base salary, so now it’s income you can count on, every time you get your paycheck… Thank you for all that you do, and for making Google a place where magic happens.”
– But they weren’t happy that the actual memo got leaked so….
– Within hours, Google notified its staff that it had terminated the leaker, several sources told CNNMoney. A Google spokesman declined to comment on the issue, or on the memo.
– Offer engineer $3.5 million to not join Facebook
– http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/11/google-offers-staff-engineer-3-5-million-to-turn-down-facebook-offer
– We’ve confirmed today that a staff engineer at Google being heavily romanced by Facebook was offered a jaw dropping $3.5 million in restricted stock by Google (this means Google is handing over stock worth $3.5 million based on its value today, and that stock will vest over time). He quite wisely accepted Google’s counter offer. Facebook lost this one.
– Also up to 30% increase for top execs
– Stories that Google may be planning “G-Town” – A town for Google employees to live, work and play! OMG. We said that Google had the cash of a small country… now they might have the infrastructure.
5:24 – End of Net Neutrality?
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11773574
– http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4475-government-rocks-the-net-neutrality-boat-by-avoiding-regulation.html
– Culture minister Ed Vaizey has backed a “two-speed” internet, letting service providers charge content makers and customers for “fast lane” access.
– It paves the way for an end to “net neutrality” – with heavy bandwidth users like Google and the BBC likely to face a bill for the pipes they use.
– Ditching net neutrality could lead to websites paying ISPs to ensure their content gets priority.
– Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are supposed to treat all web traffic equally – serving only as a one-size-fits-all pipe for whatever data is passing from content providers to end users.
– But some traffic management, where traffic from one source is favoured over another, is likely to be allowed, with a ruling due next year, Mr Vaizey suggests.
– In his speech, he argues that the continued quality of internet services in the UK is under threat due to the rapid expansion of mobile and wireless networks and the “massive investment” it needed.
– As a result, ISPs had to be free to experiment with new ways of raising revenue – provided customers were clear about what they were buying.
10:52 – Stop the Broadband Con
– http://www.virginmedia.com/information/richard-branson-broadband-honesty.php
– Why are services advertised as up to 20 or 24mb when average speed is just 6.5Mb – The average download speed received for ‘up to’ 20/24Mb DSL packages was 6.5Mb according to Ofcom’s 2010 UK broadband speeds report
– Virgin Media is already delivering the fastest broadband in the UK and it’s prepared to be open about the exact broadband speeds it delivers. It’s the first ISP in the UK to publish the typical real world speeds its customers receive each month.
– They want other ISP’s to sign up to this campaign
– Virgins typical speeds for October – http://shop.virginmedia.com/broadband/about-virgin-broadband/speed-matters.html?buspart=6469
13:47 – HM Government EMail
– Response to petition regards not disconnecting file-sharers.
“It is clear that online copyright infringement inflicts considerable damage on the UK’s creative economy including music, TV and film, games, sports and software. Industry estimates place this harm at £400m pa.
– The Digital Economy Act includes a number of measures to tackle the problem and we expect these to be successful in significantly reducing online copyright infringement. However this is an area of rapid technological change and developing consumer behaviour. The Act therefore includes a reserve power to introduce further “technical” measures if the initial measures do not succeed. These technical measures would limit or restrict an infringers’ access to the internet. They do not include disconnection.”
– Loving the subject of another email this week – from Adobe
– “Why explore new Acrobat X? It’s magic.”
16:34 – Facebook Messaging
– “This is not an email killer. This is a messaging experience that includes email as one part of it,” Zuckerberg said. It’s all about making communication simpler. “This is the way that the future should work,” he continued.
– To do that, Facebook has created three key things: Seamless messaging, conversation history, and a social inbox. Essentially, they’ve created a way to communicate no matter what format you want to use: email, chat, SMS — they’re all included. “People should share however they want to share,” engineer Andrew Bosworth said.
– All of this messaging is kept in a single social inbox. And all of your conversation history with people is kept.
– Alongside the product on Facebook.com, this is going to work on their mobile applications as well. An updated iPhone app is launching shortly. It’s important that you can keep messages going while you’re on the go, Bosworth noted.
– But you don’t need an app. It’s important to note that this can work with SMS too.
– And yes, everyone can get an @facebook.com email address if they want. But they don’t need to get one — you can use any email address. And yes, IMAP support is coming soon too (but not just yet)
– This messaging system will be rolling out pretty slowly over the period over the next few months, Zuckerberg said.
– He said that 15 engineers have worked on this product — remarkably, this is the most that have ever worked on a single Facebook project.
– http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_integrates_microsoft_office_web_apps_into.php
– Also be able to view office attachments without leaving Facebook using MS Office Web apps
23:09 – Twitter joke trial: Paul Chambers loses appeal against conviction
– The man convicted of “menace” for threatening to blow up an airport in a Twitter joke has lost his appeal.
– Paul Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant whose online courtship with another user of the microblogging site led to the “foolish prank”, had hoped that a crown court would dismiss his conviction and £1,000 fine without a full hearing
– But Judge Jacqueline Davies instead handed down a devastating finding at Doncaster which dismissed Chambers’s appeal on every count. After reading out his comment from the site – “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!” – she found that it contained menace and Chambers must have known that it might be taken seriously.
– He was also saddled with a legal bill three times higher than his original £384 with £600 costs, as the court ordered him to pay a further £2,000 legal bill for the latest proceedings.
– Stephen Fry offers to pay for fine
– Twitter campaign to raise funds for appeal
– I Am Spartacus
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/12/iamspartacus-campaign-twitter-airport?CMP=twt_gu
– Twitter users angered by the conviction of a man who threatened to blow up an airport in a Twitter joke showed support for him in their thousands today, thumbing their noses at the law by republishing the words that landed him in trouble.
– Under the hashtag #IAmSpartacus – a reference to the film in which Spartacus’s fellow gladiators show their solidarity with him by each proclaiming “I am Spartacus” – thousands of people have copied Chambers’s original message.
– As a result of the show of support for him, #IAmSpartacus was the most popular worldwide subject being referred to on Twitter at the time of writing.
– Even Daily Mail think it’s absurb – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330049/Paul-Chambers-Twitter-bomb-joke-trial-thats-blown-justice-bits.html
– But as Paul said this morning – “Support from The Daily Mail is like kissing your sister. Essentially it’s the same, but it just doesn’t feel right.”
27:29 – Tory councillor arrested over Alibhai-Brown Stoning Tweet
– Police in Birmingham today arrested a Conservative city councillor who sent a Twitter message saying that the newspaper columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown should be stoned to death.
– Alibhai-Brown said last night she would report Gareth Compton, a councillor for the Erdington district, to police following the tweet
– The Conservative party said Compton had been suspended indefinitely over the alleged tweet.
– The message – now apparently deleted – said: “Can someone please stone Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to death? I shan’t tell Amnesty if you don’t. It would be a blessing, really.”
– Alibhai-Brown, who writes columns for the Independent and the London Evening Standard, said last night she regarded his comments as incitement to murder. She told the Guardian: “It’s really upsetting. My teenage daughter is really upset too. It’s really scared us.
– “You just don’t do this. I have a lot of threats on my life. It’s incitement. I’m going to the police – I want them to know that a law’s been broken.” She added that she regarded Compton’s remarks as racially motivated because he mentioned stoning.
30:13 – Twitter and Ping
– Like a track in iTunes Ping and it will auto tweet for you
– Set it up and it defaults to tweeting everything you like (can be changed)
– Click on link on Twitter and in side panel track is listed and can be previewed – click again to buy in iTunes
– Awful – nothing about social, like last.fm, and all about commerce
– Noise in my twitter stream
– Don’t cross the streams!!!
32:13 – Google TV Being Blocked
– Fox has finally made a decision, following the other major networks, Hulu and several cable channels by opting to block streaming video on its website from Google TV devices
– Blocking by Flash ID is the order of the day and takes simple browser workarounds out of play, so unless users want to go the PlayOn route, there’s large swaths of legitimate video on the web that’s now inaccessible. This same type of blocking is likely to affect other devices like the Boxee Box
– It’s the old empire logic again. Even though you can view the content online, because this is being delivered on a TV, it MUST BE STOPPED…. we’ll see more of this as the lines blur between tech.
35:06 – Beatles on iTunes
– Finally Beatles available on iTunes
– Great, just….
– In some cases double the price of cd’s that can be bought online and shipped to you by couriers – physical media!!!
– or that Apple grossly over hyped the event as contractually they probably had too
– “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget. Check back here tomorrow for an exciting announcement from iTunes.”
– Ringo Starr added: “I’m particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes.”
– They do have exclusive digital rights that extends into 2011…and they’ve made some adverts for it so they think it’s a big deal
– Steve thinks he’s the fifth Beatle
38:11 – Google Voice App Finally hits App Store
– US only and it only took a year or so
– This is Apple saying sorry for all the Beatles shit.
39:13 – Gingerbread will have NFC
– Near Field Communication will be in next Android release
– New Android phones will have a chip that let you tap your phone against special sensors to complete an action
– Payments – hook up credit card to phone
– Location – sign in
– This was a rumoured feature of next iPhone – Google look to be beating Apple
– Coming…within a few weeks
– Also, Schmidt Schmidt has finally made it clear what differentiates Google’s Android OS from the soon-to-be-released Chrome OS: keyboards.
– That’s a rather simplified expression of the bigger picture, but ultimately, Google sees Chrome OS as the operating system for traditional computers, such as PCs, netbooks and laptops, which may include touch interfaces but always include keyboards; and the company sees Android as an operating system best suited to mobile devices, which may include keyboards but almost always include touch interfaces.
– Chrome OS – next few months for release (rumoured to be November)
43:33 – Edit Google Docs on your Mobile Device
– Google now rolling out editing of docs on your iOS (version 3.0+) and Android with Froyo (version 2.2) devices over next few days
– Great for iPad users
– Works for docs and spreadsheets
44:23 – GT5 Release Date
– Finally announced – Wed November 24th
– Will have…1000 cars
– Lots of tracks and modes
– 800 “standard” cars and 200 “premium” cars (premium cars have deformation, standard, just get scratched)
46:57 – COD Black Ops Breaks Records
– $360 million revenue in…..24 HOURS
– Avatar – $232 million in its opening weekend
– UK – £58 million day one sales ($93.5 million) – 1.4 million units
– $650 million in five days – first patch now out

Picks
Chris
Kinect
– I weakened like Ian at an Apple store.
– For all the jibing it has solicited, I love it.
– Of course early days. Honeymoon period, but this turns an xbox into something else. I know it’s not for all, but it’s like getting a new console. The games even come in a purple box rather than green.
– Played multiplayer yesterday, and it’s all good.
– Technology is impressive. It works. It does track behind, but this doesn’t really affect as the games don’t require pixel perfect precision.
– It does indeed need a lot of room. For 2 player, the start of the play area is about 6ft and the back of the play area is about 12ft. Need 6ft sideways as well.
– It costs. Sure. But it will come down in price. I also have confidence that it will have its killer game next year some point.
– Already 1m units sold. I am not alone.

Ian
Boxcar for iPhone
– Notification app for iOS
– Instant push notifications for your social networks, email accounts, RSS feeds and more.
– Receive super fast notifications when someone comments, updates or messages you.
– Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, RSS, Growl
– Track when someone else tweets

DigitalOutbox Episode 68

DigitalOutbox Episode 68
In this episode the team discuss Kinect, Virgin, Digital Britain, RockMelt and Sheep Wars.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
2:27 – Times Paywall Fail
– Persuaded 50,000 people to pay for The times
– Analysts estimated that the initial annual revenues generated from digital would be about £5m.
– The Times charges £2 a week – the “paywall” – for access to its digital content, after customers pay an inital £1 for a 30-day trial. Customers can also pay £9.99 a month to sign up to a dedicated edition for the Apple iPad, although only about 10,000 chose to pay for this version only.
– All we know is that “around half” of the total are monthly subscribers. They will be composed of people taking advantage of News International’s 30-day £1 introductory offer to the website itself and people who have paid £9.99 for The Times’s iPad app.
Similarly, that comment in News Int’s statement about “many” of “the early adopters” living in the UK does not give a geographical breakdown. How many of the total come from inside and outside Britain?
– It is no surprise that they are “relatively affluent”, of course. That message is clearly aimed at advertisers. But ad agencies will surely want to know the British audience numbers.
Most importantly, there is no clear breakdown of the 105,000 total figure to show how many people have subscribed monthly, weekly or daily.
– They did have a figure of 30 million impressions at one point – nothing like that now
– None of their content is shared either – nothing can go viral
6:31 – SkyFire
– SkyFire can convert Flash videos — which the iPhone normally cannot display — into HTML5 on SkyFire’s servers, making it possible to view said videos on the iPhone after a short delay
– Browser approved by apple, selling for $2.99 or £1.79 in proper money
– Needs fast connection, doesn’t always work, wont work with games and is blocked by Hulu
– Hours after launch it was pulled from the App Store
– Not by Apple….by developers due to overwhelming demand
– Stunt? It worked – $1 million in revenue i first weekend
8:11 – Virgin announce TiVo Boxes
– Virgin Media has revealed the first details about its new TiVo-powered set top boxes, including a massive 1 Terabyte of storage and web applications for the TV screen.
– Later in the year, the cable operator will launch the new platform, along with a TiVo-powered set top box capable of storing 500 hours of programming.
– When coupled with Virgin Media’s existing video on-demand service, the receiver will give users access to more than 4,600 hours of TV shows, movies and music videos, including HD and 3D content.
– Underpinned by Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband network, the new box will also feature a dedicated internal modem for delivering bandwidth-heavy services without impacting the user’s main broadband connection.
– That also means the TiVo service will bring a wide range of internet services and digital applications to the television screen.
– No specific details were given on the apps, but it’s likely that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter will be available, along with other digital services.
14:17 – XMarks Saved
– Free and premium options
14:53 – Google Get Knuckles Wrapped
– no punishment though
– Google has also been ordered to delete the data it collected from users’ Wi-Fi networks by its Street View cars once legally cleared to do so. The culture minister, Ed Vaizey, last week announced the Metropolitan police had dropped its investigation into the breaches.
– He added that the technology giant would now be subject to an official audit of its data protection practices in the UK.
15:37 – Skype 5 Hits the Mac
– New UI
– Integrates with address book
– Group video chat
17:19 – Ministry of Sound Suspend File Sharing Action
– Ministry of Sound is suspending plans to send warning notices to more than 25,000 BT broadband customers suspected of illegal downloading, claiming that the internet service provider has deleted their details.
– BT had agreed to retain the personal details of 20,000 of its customers earlier this year, so that Ministry of Sound could pursue them once an injunction on the court order was lifted. However, the record label today said that BT had “failed to preserve” the details.
– A BT spokesman responded: “We’re surprised at this claim since we provided a similar number of customer details to comply with a court order earlier this year for Ministry of Sound and there was no suggestion then that this was a problem for them.
– “All such information is automatically deleted from our systems after 90 days in accordance with our data retention policy; the Ministry of Sound and its solicitors are well aware of this. Upon request from Ministry of Sound we saved as much of the specific data sought as we reasonably could and any not preserved must have been too old. Our door remains open to Ministry of Sound and any other rights holder who wants to enforce their rights in a fair way through an established legal process.”
21:10 – Queen joins Facebook
– First Youtube, then Twitter, then Flickr now Facebook
– Not an individual account but an official page
22:36 – Sheep wars…
– Blacksheep is a firefox addon that scans open networks for Firesheep snoopers and alerts the user.
– Available for download on the Zscaler website (http://www.zscaler.com/blacksheep.html)
24:56 – RockMelt
– Social browser that lives in the cloud
– Built on Chromium it uses Facebook to authenticate and sign in
– See friends on left hand side of browser
– Can easily post content to them, chat, mail etc from browser
– Bookmarks on right hand side alongside tweets but these are favourite sites whch ping you when new content is added
– All stored on cloud – same browser experience wherever you login to browser
– Isn’t this Flock 2.0?
– Limited beta for the moment
32:34 – Kinect Launches
– The Kinect is out in shops. £130
– And the amazing thing? That the first reviews are almost universal in saying that it’s an impressive piece of tech.
– Other than a couple of howlers, most launch games are around the 7 mark.
– You can’t ignore the fact that all reviews say there are some glitches along the way and that you need a good amount of space to use but most are convinced that this is a game changer (not for your average gamer – but for casual).
– Finally, all reviews are looking forward to the defining games for the tech which will no doubt come next year…
– I’m tempted…
– Oh’ and there’s a bounty out for people to hack and get working on PC – looks like someones already managed it at rudimentary level.
38:39 – Dev Builds Bot to Buy Cheap Stuff Online
– Started with a strip from xkcd – http://xkcd.com/576/
– Hunkin wrote a Python script that would scrape certain categories on the site for cheap, buy-now items with free shipping. The script is optimized to search for rare, esoteric items, as well. The bot gets $1 added to its savings every day, and all purchases are deducted from the savings.
– Not only does the bot buy these treasures on Hunkin’s behalf; it also shares its finds with the world via Twitter: – http://twitter.com/#!/trademe_xkcd576
– If the bot doesn’t find any items that meet its parameters, it simply tweets that it’s putting its dollar into savings.

Picks
Ian
COD Black Ops
– Great update
– Multiplayer is good
– Single player more of the same, with some pretty controversial scenes