DigitalOutbox Episode 62

DigitalOutbox Episode 62
In this episode the team discuss Twitter and the Tokyo Game Show.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:40 – Twitter Updates
– Seeing massive growth – 370,000 new signups per day
– 90 million tweets per day, 25% contain links
– Twitter.com is the biggest Twitter client
– Announcement: Today we’re launching a new Twitter.com — faster, easier, richer. Ev is playing a video to help explain/promote it. It shows pictures in the stream. You can click on a tweet and pull up more information on a person, on a n image, on a tweet, etc. YouTube videos are supported
– Looks similar to iPad app with slide out panel
– The mini-profile has arrived. You can bring up information on a user in the timeline, follow users, etc.
– 16 partners – Vimeo, Ustream, TwitpIc, Flickr, Justin.tv and others.
– Flickr set – tweet a link and the full set images and slideshow viewable from twitter
– No more ‘more’ button – endless tweets
– Keyboard shortcuts just like Google Reader, GMail etc
4:48 – Twitter Hijacked
– At the root of the problem is a cross-site scripting vulnerability that allows users to post JavaScript code – in this instance onMouseOver – inside tweets.
– Some using it for fun and games… but plenty of malicious users spreading porn sites, malware sites etc around.
– Rolling over a link (no need to click) re-directs user to the website and also re-tweets the message to spread the mal-link further.
7:13 – Facebook Places
– Finally launched in the UK
8:17 – HTC Mobiles and Services
– dashboard connected services for backup, security and handset control
– Can locate the phone from website and ring it
– Backup contacts, text etc
– New/updated Sense UI
– HTC Desire Z – qwerty slider – great first impressions
– Desire HD – EVO for the rest of the world
– 4.3 inch screen, blah, blah, blah – October
12:28 – iOS 4.2 Beta
– Now out for developers
– Also announced is AirPrint
– AirPrint automatically finds printers on local networks and can print text, photos and graphics to them wirelessly over Wi-Fi without the need to install drivers or download software. HP’s existing and upcoming ePrint enabled printers will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices.
14:49 – VLC on the iPad
– Multi codec support
– Basically – play any medi file on that closed iPad
– To Apple developers the VLC approval is as symbolic as Google Voice was a couple of days ago. You can’t get more open than the free VLC which comes with a bunch of Codecs so you can basically play anything, and is open source meaning that developers can build on top of it. Giddy off of their newfound Apple seal of approval, Apptitudes, the company behind the app, holds that they plan on making an iPhone version soon.
– Brave new world?
– Google voice apps now available, Basic is a feature on the C64 emulator
19:28 – Google Brings 2 Step Authentication
– http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/three-million-businesses-have-gone.html
– Google is announcing that it’s bringing the security feature to its millions of users: the feature will be rolling out first for Google Apps Premiere, Education, and Government edition customers, with plans to bring it to all Google users (even those who aren’t using its Apps suite) in the next few months.
– More secure systems are common in large businesses, and often require both a password and a physical card or dongle to login — these are called ‘two-factor’ systems, because they require both your password and another key, and are far more secure because a hacker probably isn’t going to have that physical token. Unfortunately these security systems are generally quite expensive. But Google is bringing one to the masses.
– Google’s system doesn’t require a physical keycard. Instead, it relies on your mobile phone. First, you need to activate the optional feature from your settings page (again, this is only available to certain Google Apps customers at first). Then, when you go to sign in to your Google account, you’ll first be asked to enter your password as usual. Next, you’ll be brought to a screen asking for a verification code (see the screenshot above).
– Could this be the start of the end of RSA and SecurID’s? http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=1156
– Also, Google Docs editing FINALLY coming to iPad and Android
24:29 – IE9 Beta
– UI – less is more – streamlined
– Pinned sites
– Enhanced download manager and tabs – can tear them off now
– Search in the address bar – thanks Chrome
– Hardware acceleration
– Standards – big step up from IE8, lots of HTML5 support
– First impressions (not mine) – fast and clean
– Can also pin pages (and web apps) as apps in Windows 7
27:44 – Tokyo Game Show
– http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/ps3-firmware-update-3-50-coming-september-21-adds-3d-blu-ray-su/
– PS3 to get 3D blu-ray support on Sept 21
– Already supports 3D games
– http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/gran-turismo-anywhere-brings-the-web-more-features-to-gt5/
– Gran Turismo Anywhere
– ” a new web portal for the racing sim. Features of GTA – actually, let’s just call it Gran Turismo Anywhere – include My Home, which includes message boards, photo sharing, and the like, as well as Remote Races, which isn’t real-time racing over the web, but rather a racing team management simulation.
– Last Guardian – Holiday 2011
– http://www.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/ico-shadow-of-the-colossus-collection-revealed-not-only-hd-bu/
– ICO / Shadow of the Colossus HD remakes coming to PS3
– Spring 2011
– Also supports 3D

Picks
Ian
Halo Reach
– Ultimate Halo
– Auto mute, bans players temporarily if they leave early too often
– Stats
– 31,000,000 games have been played since launch.
– 98,000,000 player games have been recorded.
– 8,214,338 Daily Challenges have been completed.
– 255,996 Weekly Challenges have been completed.
– 78,499,560,895 total credits have been earned.
– 953 years have been spent in match-made games.
– 1,365 years have been spent in campaign.
– 854,107 files have been uploaded.
– 577,804 recommendations have been sent to friends.
– 4,619,455 files have been downloaded.

DigitalOutbox Episode 17

DigitalOutbox Episode 17
In this episode the team discuss Microsoft Courier, Pay for your broadband and music, Google innovates and PS3 news from the Tokyo Game Show.

Playback
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Shownotes
0:49 – Digital Britain – time to pay!
– 50p tax on landlines to go ahead
– Presented in bill before christmas
– Is this the right thing to do?
5:17 – Music At War
– Two camps emerging. Those that think that everything possible should be done to eliminate illegal file sharing. Although I can’t find details of what they are suggesting.
– Another camp saying that what’s the point in trying to stop file-sharing – nothing will work anyway.
– And now the two camps are at war.
– Come up with a sensible solution. Fight clever. Work with new technology and the new music listener – don’t fight a losing battle to protect old infrastructure.
– Lily Allen and artists come to some agreement on piracy stance
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/09/lily_unites_musicians_against.html
– http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com/showscreen.php?site_id=161&screentype=folder&screenid=2990&newsaction=showitem&newsid=2588&dc=6&sn=News
– We the undersigned wish to express our support for Lily Allen in her campaign to alert music lovers to the threat that illegal downloading presents to our industry and to condemn the vitriol that has been directed at her in recent days.
– Our meeting also voted overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.
11:18 – Charge for iPlayer?
– Lorraine Heggessey, chief executive of TV production company Talkback Thames.
– Industry want to charge micro-payments for catch up services but BBC scuppering this.
– BBC have no plans to charge. Licence fee covers this content.
13:31 – Google Chrome Frame
– Plugin for IE 6(and 7 & 8) that replaces rendering engine in IE6 with Chrome
– Will this force Microsoft to be more aggressive on moving from IE6?
– http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10360850-56.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware
– “With Internet Explorer 8, we made significant advancements and updates to make the browser safer for our customers,” Microsoft said. “Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.”
– So, time to remove Silverlight?
18:10 – Google SideWiki
– Commenting for the web?
– Needs google toolbar
– Not original, been tried before and failed but will it be successful due to Google’s brand and market share?
– Yet another comment source – fragmentation of the conversation although there is an api
22:42 – Push GMail
– Google sync now support gmail
– Setup exchange account on iPhone to get push calendar, contacts and gmail
– Google working around Apple’s limitations and choices
– Only 1 exchange account available on iPhone
25:26 – Picasa 3.5
– Face recognition, similar to picasa albums online
– Share albums based on name
– Better geotagging and uploading/sharing options
26:15 – Bing increases market share
– From 8.9 to 9.3% in US market.
– OK it’s only a small increase but considering everyone said it was impossible to even steal a small share away from Google was impossible.
– May mean that Bing is a default choice for some users now.
27:21 – Apple Acknowledges battery concerns
– Users can log battery issues with Apple
– Also can install Battery Life Logging and report issues back to Apple
– http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/09/20/apple-seeking-info-iphone-31-users-reporting-poor-battery-life/
30:01 – USB IF Sides with Apple
– Palm issues dismissed
– Your letter also states that:
“Palm will shortly issue an update of its WebOS operating system that uses Apple’s Vendor ID number for the sole purpose of restoring the Palm media sync functionality.”
I attach for your information the USB-IF’s adopted and published policy regarding Vendor Identification Numbers (VIDs). Under the Policy, Palm may only use the single Vendor ID issued to Palm for Palm’s usage. Usage of any other company’s Vendor ID is specifically precluded. Palm’s expressed intent to use Apple’s VID appears to violate the attached policy.
Please clarify Palm’s intent and respond to this potential violation within seven days.
– GET OUT!
34:48 – iTunes Update
– Resolves issues browsing the iTunes Store.
– Addresses a performance issue where iTunes may become unresponsive.
– Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit.
– Fixes a problem syncing Podcasts in playlists to iPod or iPhone.
– Fixes a problem sorting albums with multiple discs.
– Addresses an issue with the Zoom button not switching to Mini Player.
– Improves application syncing for iPod touch and iPhone.
– Genius is now automatically updated to show Genius Mixes.
41:37 – Tiny Blu Ray PC
– Like a Mac mini – but with BluRay (kind of what we were talking about last week) £650 or £450 without the BluRay.
– Comes with media centre remote.
– Don’t know what kind of storage it has but media centre seems pretty good at streaming.
42:22 – Microsoft Courier
– A booklet, not a tablet
– Late prototype
– Touch and stylus driven,camera,7inch screens
49:24 – Sony at Tokyo Game Show
– Sony Motion Controller
– Japan release March
– Spring 2010 for rest of the world
– 4-5 million units worldwide
– Old games will be adpated to support it
– 250GB PS3 Slim
– Oct 1st
– On Amazon for £285 – bundles on the way
– PS3 Firmware issues – ian
– Tam mentioned this…
– http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/09/25/ps3-3-0-3-01-firmware-update-making-blu-ray-drive-unusable/
– Issues with 3.0 and 3.0.1 for people
– Been perfect for me
– God of War 1 & 2 bundle to include E3 demo of God of War 3
– PS3 Rumour Leaks
– wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN – PS2 emulator ??
– special “Japanese Import” section for titles only released in Japan – ie Yakuza 3
– leaked document mentions possibility of Dreamcast titles appearing on PSN

Picks
Shakeel
Snippet
– sits on menu bar
– nice and clean interface
– pop-up menus and mini-windows, very little clutter
– easily search for your snippets of code, copy then paste into new projects.
– search by tags
– no need to hunt through previous/old projects
– easily create new snippets from any text
– select type of code, add tags
– primarily designed for programming but just as useful for storing other regularly used information
– for blocks of text, can copy a small selection instead of the whole lot, all from a mini pop-up window
– when code or text is copied, focus automatically returned to the last used app

Ian
Halo 3 ODST
– Co-op
– Firefight
– Multiplayer maps
– Good Value

Chris
MS Windows 7 Parties
– Ooooooo Mmmmmm Ggggggg