Tag: vodafone

DigitalOutbox Episode 121

DigitalOutbox Episode 121
DigitalOutbox Episode 121 – LinkedIn stumble, Google Maps the future and E3

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:37 – Do Not Track – IE’s default already dead
– The latest proposed draft of the Do Not Trackspecification published Wednesday requires that users must choose to turn on the anti-behavioral tracking feature in their browsers and software.
– That means that Microsoft IE 10, which the company announced last week will have Do Not Track turned on by default, won’t be compliant with the official spec. Which means that tech and ad companies who say they comply with Do Not Track could simply ignore the flag set by IE 10 and track those who use that browser. Which means Microsoft has no choice but to change the setting.
2:48 – LinkedIn leaks your meeting notes
– LinkedIn mobile app subscribers may be surprised to learn that the calendar entries on their iPhones or iPads— which may include details about meeting locations, participants, dial-in information, passwords and sensitive meeting notes — are transmitted back to LinkedIn’s servers without their knowledge.
– LinkedIn’s mobile app for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, included an opt-in feature that allows users to view their iOS calendar entries within the app. Once users opt in to that feature, however, LinkedIn automatically transmits their calendar entries to its servers. LinkedIn grabs details for every calendar on the iOS device, which may include both personal and corporate calendar entries.
– LinkedIn quickly respond – http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/06/06/mobile-calendar-feature/
– We Do:
We ask your permission before accessing your calendar, this will continue to be an opt-in feature
We provide you with a way to turn off the calendar feature at any time in the settings
We send calendar data to our server only when the LinkedIn app is launched to be matched with relevant LinkedIn profiles of meeting attendees
We send your calendar data to our servers over a secure SSL connection
We Don’t:
We do not store any calendar information on our servers
We do not share or use your calendar data for purposes other than matching it with relevant LinkedIn profiles
We do not under any circumstances access your calendar data unless you have explicitly opted in to sync your calendar
We Will Improve:
We will no longer send data from the meeting notes section of your calendar event
There will be a new “learn more” link to provide more information about how your calendar data is being used
These improvements are live on Android now and have been submitted to the Apple store and will be available shortly.
5:45 – 6.5 million passwords leaked from LinkedIn
– According to a new report from Dagens IT, nearly 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords were recently dumped onto a Russian hacker forum.
– Of the millions of passwords dumped, Dagen IT claims that nearly 300,000 of them have been decrypted so far and that number seems sure to grow as users spread that hefty file around.
– The passwords are stored as unsalted SHA-1 hashes, and multiple reports on Twitter indicate that users have found their own hashes buried in the massive text dump. While unsalted hashes are much less secure than their salted brethren, it still takes a non-trivial amount of time to decrypt unless a user opted to use a common dictionary word as their password. It’s currently unknown whether or not the email addresses that correspond to those passwords have also been dumped, though if they are in someone’s possession, they apparently don’t feel like sharing.
– Considering that LinkedIn reported back in February that 150 million people use the professional networking service (a number that has certainly grown since then), the breach represents a relatively small number of users. Though chances are slim that you yourself are personally affected — 6.5 million people makes up less than 5% of LinkedIn’s userbase — those odds seem unlikely to assuage the concerns of people who are.
– Linked in confirm it…kind off
– We want to provide you with an update on this morning’s reports of stolen passwords. We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts:
Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.
These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in these emails. For security reasons, you should never change your password on any website by following a link in an email.
These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.
– Check if your password was leaked – http://leakedin.org/
– Horrible – wait until there’s a leak of Facebook passwords. Meltdown.
– Eharmony and Last.fm also have password breaches
– http://www.last.fm/passwordsecurity
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/us-news-blog/2012/jun/07/blogpost-eharmony-linkedin-hacked-leaked
– Eharmony lose 1.5m passwords – same hackers that affected LinkedIn
– As a precaution, eHarmony has reset the affected passwords, but did not say how many of its 20 million registered users might have been compromised.
– Security experts believe more than the 1.5 million listed have been stolen
– Lastfm – only breaking news tonight but asking all users to change their passwords
– This weekend will see me go long and random on all passwords, ditch accounts I don’t use and be totally reliant on 1password. A pain but like 2 step authentication on Google, a necessary evil.
9:58 – Twitter tops 400m tweets a day
– The stratospheric figure was revealed by the social networks CEO, Dick Costolo, who noted that spam (not really) and both mobile usage and revenue are outpacing desktops.
11:05 – Vodafone and O2 speed up 4G rollout through use of shared network
– Vodafone and O2 are clubbing together to speed up the roll-out of superfast 4G mobile broadband to virtually everyone.
– The nation’s second- and third-biggest mobile operators say they will pool their network of radio masts and antennas to enable them to cover 98% of the population by 2015.
– Combined, the companies will share a network of 18,500 masts which, they promise, will extend current 2G and 3G coverage to all but the most remote villages. They will also kit out the masts with 4G technology so they can offer mobile internet speeds fast enough to download and stream TV and music as soon as the government approves the sales of 4G licences.
– The deal follows the merger of Orange and T-Mobile UK to create the nation’s biggest network, run by a new joint venture company calledEverything Everywhere. Vodafone and O2’s deal is not a full-blown merger and the companies will continue to operate different airwaves. Three, the nation’s smallest operator, piggybacks on Everything Everywhere’s network.
– Saves money but does consumer really benefit? Looks like there is 2 mobile networks now in the UK.

We asked Brian Lancaster, mobile industry expert and friend of the show
Is the O2/Vod deal purely to save money?
1. Yes, it’s all about money. Mobile operators want to move as far away from site ownership and engineering as possible and focus on being content and bandwidth suppliers. British mobile operators used to have sizeable engineering teams which have reduced to single figures of permanent employees – most are now contract staff or whole areas of network management/maintenance/engineering is contracted to the likes of Ericsson.

Will it limit customer choice?
2. No. Punters will still have deals from both networks to choose from – the spectrum cannot be blobbed into one single operator lump as this would breach OFCOM and the monopolies commission rules (only O2 and VF have 900MHz spectrum – T-Mobile/Orange/EE have 1800MHz only).

Will it deliver 4G more quickly to UK?
3. No as the existing Cornerstone agreement allowed both operators to share the same sites (towers, rooftops or large indoor sites such as the Wembley, Hampden, Millenium or St James Park. O2 and VF will still have separate LTE/4G spectrum (bid for and awarded to them separately) and there will still be some duplication of network hardware.

surely it’s the government auction that will dictate the pace of 4G?
4. The current limitations/critical paths are:

i) LTE spectrum award/auction – it is not clear whether 700MHz or 2600MHz will be used.
ii) Agreement on technology standards.
iii) Greater range of consumer devices (can only come from i) and ii) ).
iv) Improved backhaul network to carry the additional data loads.
15:48 – Digital music sales outstrip physical sales for the first time in the UK
– The British Phonographic Industry has released a report showing that physical music sales have been eclipsed by digital sales in the UK this year — a landmark achievement that the US experienced in 2011. The report indicates that 55.5 percent of the UK’s music revenues came from digital sales, resulting in part in a 2.7 percent increase in overall revenue over Q1 of last year, totaling £155.8 million. In contrast, physical media sales fell by 15.1 percent to £69.3 million, though BPI’s chief executive, Geoff Taylor, says that CD sales remain a strong source of revenue.
– One of the BPI’s most interesting numbers relates to à la carte and subscription based revenue, which increased 23.6 percent in Q1 to the tune of £86.5 million, or around $133 million. Considering the difference in population, this jump in digital sales revenue is rather impressive when compared to the $241 million the US generated last year.
18:30 – Instapaper hits Android
– Like Flipboard and Instagram, Instapaper was a much vaunted iOS exclusive…until now
– The Instapaper for Android app looks and operates much like its iOS cousin, and brings all of the mobile features you would want to Android devices, including your saved articles, the ability to share articles right from your device, and all of the reading and customization options you could possibly need.
– Despite Instapaper creator Marco Arment’s long-stated claim that an Android app wasn’t on his radar, he let the folks who developed the Tumblr app for Android build this gem for him.
20:18 – Major Google Maps update
– At a press event in San Francisco this morning, Google announced that it will soon feature far better 3D maps in Google Earth. The company also announced that Google Maps for mobile will soon feature offline caching. This feature will come to Google Maps to Android soon. Google says it wants to bring this feature to all platforms in the long run.
– The company also announced that its Street View cars have now driven 5 million miles and collected 20 petabytes worth of imagery data. Google also announced that it is bringing Map Maker to South Africa and Egypt today. Google’s engineering director for Street View, Luc Vincent also announced that the company has now managed to put the hardware that Google uses to capture its Street View data into a backpack called the Street View Trekker.
– To model the world in 3D, the company will now use the 45-degree aerial images it already gathers from planes. Thanks to new imagery rendering techniques and advances in computer vision, Google can now retire its old 3D view in Google Earth and replace it with these new images. The result, which Google demoed today, is nothing short of spectacular. These new features will come to Android and iOS devices. Google expects this new technology will cover “communities of over 300 million people” by the end of the year.
24:53 – Google buys Meebo
– Meebo, the seven year-old chat service that morphed into a website toolbar and ad platform, is indeed selling to Google. The companyconfirmed the news a few minutes ago, and we’ve since dug up some more details.
– First, the amount. After raising some $70 million in four venture rounds, Meebo’s acquisition was in fact for around the rumored$100 million, we’ve heard from a source close to the matter.
– Second, we’ve learned that the product team will be using its expertise to help build out publisher tools for Google+. We don’t know if this means there’ll be some sort of new Google+ toolbar coming. But, presumably the existing Meebo properties will be morphed into G+ or otherwise closed.
– Finally, following the original tip we got today, we’ve confirmed that there are layoffs happening within the sales and marketing arms of the company.
25:40 – Google buys QuickOffice
– it has acquiredQuickoffice, a company best known for its mobile productivity suite for Android and iOS. Google plans to bring Quickoffice’s “powerful technology” to its own Apps product suite. Quickoffice allows its users to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on their mobile devices. The company says its software is currently installed on over 300 million devices in more than 180 countries.
– The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed by either Google or Quickoffice.
– Quickoffice CEO and co-founder Alan Masareknotes that he hopes that “by combining the magic of Google’s intuitive solutions with Quickoffice’s powerful products, our shared vision for anytime, anywhere productivity can only grow.”
– Given Quickoffice’s focus on building native apps for mobile devices, chances are that Google will use this acquisition to launch more of its own native mobile productivity apps as well.
26:59 – Airtime finally launched
– Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning — who are debuting their much-anticipated (and more family-friendly!) version of ChatRoulette today.
More than 15 years ago, Fanning and Parker were just teenagers trolling chat rooms. “We were both hackers,” Parker said in New York today. “We were interested in computer security. The goal was some sort of miscreant behavior…. We were basically cyber criminals.”
Today, their lives are a world apart. Parker is a multi-billionaire, even factoring in Facebook’s recent declines. Their launch in a Chelsea warehouse right now has Martha Stewart in the front row and Jimmy Fallon as the MC.
– Basically a family friendly chatroulette
– Got $35 million in seed funding
– Parker’s first call on Airtime during the demo was to television host and model Olivia Munn. The second was Snoop Dogg.
But the celebs didn’t save Airtime from an embarrassing five-minute stretch where the product didn’t work in demo mode (the real product hadn’t gone live yet). A call to Snoop Dogg took a few tries. When Joel McHale, a TV host came on, the product failed to work for several minutes. “Whose ass are you going to fire?” he asked Parker on-stage.
– Login via Facebook
– You could call it a more fun version of Skype, a one-on-one Google+ Hangouts with your Facebook graph, or the evolution of Chat Roulette. But what you’re going to call it is fun. Pull in a favorite YouTube video or select one you’ve already shared to Facebook and instantly you’re watching together. It feels simple, intimate, and casual — like you’re actually interacting in person.
– However your paired with strangers based on your social graph
30:34 – Microsoft at E3
– Halo 4 – new enemy (forerunner) and weapons, step change for multiplayer
– Splintercell
– Fifa and Madden with Kinect – swear and the ref could punish you
– Fable
– Gears of War – 2013
– Forza Horizon – End October
– New Kinect voice commands
– New sport TV options this year
– Xbox Music – Xbox, Windows 8, Windows Phone – doesn’t discuss features, 30 million tracks, analyst says coming to iOS and Android
– Nike Kinect training
– Xbox SmartGlass – http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/3064855/microsoft-xbox-smartglass-preview
– Works with Windows, iOS and Android phones and tablets. Makes TV more engaging and games more thrilling.
– Can resume video playback on different devices
– The SmartGlass app provides other, less obvious details. For instance, as Game of Thrones airs on the TV, the tablet shows a map of Westeros, showing where in the world a particular scene is taking place. Neat!
– SmartGlass will also extend to games. Developers can also harness it to create companion utilities for Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone smartphones.
– A Madden title is compatible with SmartGlass. Choose your plays, draw hot routes and control the players using a tablet.
– “And you can do that with any device.”
– Internet Explorer is coming to Xbox this year.
– “Xbox Web Hub” opens up the browser. Anything is a voice command or simple swipe away. Menu navigation is done with swiping and voice on the Kinect, but it looks like typing and other navigation features can be done on SmartGlass.
– Tomb Raider
– Ascend:New Gods – God of War for Xbox – tick
– South Park – game looked shit but loved the South Park creators taking the mick out of Smartglass
– Dance Central 3
– Call of Duty:Black Ops 2
– Emphasising the ecosystem which is getting pretty strong. No new console…all next year?
40:28 – Nintendo at E3
– Pre-E3 demo showed many new things
– Wii-U gamepad
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/wii-u-gamepad/
– Nintendo has made some notable tweaks and revisions to the prototype version detailed last year at E3, adding a new NFC reader and writer, motion and gyroscope sensors, and fully-independent infrared TV remote functionality. The thumbsliders have been replaced by analog thumbsticks, which now support L3 and R3 inward depressions. Nintendo has also made adjustments to the controller’s ergonomics and dimensions, adding new handgrips on the bottom, making the Gamepad wider, and adjusting the button layout.
– Headphone jack and stylus
–
– Calling it the WiiPad? Wii U Gamepad?
– Wii U Pro controller
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/wii-u-pro-controller-unveiled-looks-awfully-familiar/
– Nintendo launch an Xbox Controller for the Wii U
– Miiverse for Wii U
– http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/03/miiverse-announced-for-wii-u/
– Miiverse is an online system planned for the company’s upcoming system that displays a Mii plaza on the Wii U GamePad – it’s looking like a much expanded version of the Wii’s Mii Plaza feature.
– The plaza will show Mii characters gathering around game icons and feature a messaging system for players to connect with players they both do and do not know, as well as a variety of other asynchronous functionality. The messaging system includes a “spoiler” checkbox to prevent players from wrecking a friend’s game experience (should they choose to use it), as well as the ability to send images and drawings to one another. Miiverse will also feature a social networking-style “wall” of sorts, where players can post screenshots from games.
– Miiverse will also inhabit the 3DS and mobile devices (Android, iOS) in the future, though it will not be available immediately at launch.
– Pikman 3
– Super Mario Bros U – classic 2D Mario game – friend can use gamepad to place blocks
– Batman: Arkham City – use touchscreen to control unique aspects in game
– Scribblenauts
– Darksiders II
– Mass Effect 3
– Tank, Tank, Tank
– Tekken Tag Tournament
– Trine 2
– Ninja Gaide 3
– Wii Fit U
– Sing – new music performance game – gamepad displays lyrics – gamers…sing
– Lego City Undercover – open world lego game, use gamepad to find…criminals?
– 3 games from Ubisoft – zombi u, rayman legends, something else, just dance 4
– Nintendoland – Wii U’s version of Wii Sports – 12 attractions
– No pricing or release date for Wii U
– 3DS
– Super Mario Bros 2
– Paper Mario:Sticker Star
– Luigis Mansion Dark Moon
42:20 – Sony at E3
– Beyond: Two Souls – live the life of a video game character – from creators of heavy rain – looking great and ‘stars’ ellen page
– Playstation All Stars Battle Royal – fighting using PS characters on Vita and PS3
– Playstation Plus – more free games coming to subscribers – this month Infamous 2 and Saints Row 2 – also free for a year to all those in the E3 audience
– Littlebigplanet 2 DLC – turn Vita into a controller
– Far Cry 3 – 4 player coop & free DLC on PS3
– Assassins Creed 3 – free DLC on PS3
– Vita – Call of Duty and Assassins Creed 3 this October, PSOne classics also coming
– Wonderbook – make books come to life with Eye and Move. Working with JK Rowling.
– HTC will be first Playstation Suite non Sony partner – now renamed Playstation Mobile – kick in the pants for Android gaming?
– God of War ascension – looks as good as ever but still with the QTE – March 2013
– The Last of Us – new from Naughty Dog (uncharted) – survival horror in post pandemic world – again looked very good
– Move – not much mention (unlike Kinect) although there is a racing wheel that yo plug the move controller into coming this year
– Also outed the gold controller – sums up everything wrong at E3
44:52 – Ubisoft at E3
– Just Dance 4
– Far Cry 3
– Wii U is coming out…so theres a Rayman game
– ZombiU – zombies…on the Wii U
– Assassins Creed 3 – looked very good
– Watch_Dogs – 2013 – GTA/Bladerunner/24/Rubicon – looked pretty amazing – http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-05-ubisofts-watch-dogs-unveiled-platforms-not-yet-disclosed
47:54 – EA at E3
– Dead Space 3 – Feb 2013
– Madden – control team from other devices
– Simcity – looked very impressive
– Battlefield – 5 expansion packs – new vehicle and maps – lots of new content
– Medal of Honour Warfighter – out October, uses Frostbite engine – environments are getting destroyed
– Fifa 13 – FIFA club getting a lot of attention, FIFA 13 on ipad, android connected to console game, new iPhone app connected to the social club – gameplay – updated impact engine, more dribbling
– Need for Speed Most Wanted – Open world driving game, where players race, chase and explore competing to become Most Wanted among their friends. That … sounds like Burnout Paradise – October 30th – video looks great 🙂
– Crysis 3 – 2013
48:42 – Missing at E3
– 3D
– streaming games (Onlives iOS client still in review…after 6 months)
– new consoles

Picks
Chris
Input Output
– A new chrome experiment for Google IO 🙂

Tam
Productive Macs Bundle
– 8 great Mac app’s for $39.99 – closes in 10 days
– RapidWeaver, DEVONthink, Printopia and MailTags are really good app’s

Ian
MacUpdate Bundle
– 11 great Mac app’s for $49.99
– Parallels Desktop 7, Screenflow, Civ V and Busycal are excellent
– If you wanted just Parallels or ScreenFlow this bundle would save you money and get you some extra free app’s

DigitalOutbox Episode 72

DigitalOutbox Episode 72
In this episode the team discuss Gawker, Delicious and review 2010.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:54 – Gawker Hacked
– http://lifehacker.com/5712785/faq-compromised-commenting-accounts-on-gawker-media
– Gawker has released Gawker Media is under siege at the moment, fighting off attacks from a group of attackers that have been able to compromise the entire database of Gawker Media’s web properties.
– Sensitive information has been exposed, including staff conversations, their private passwords used within the network and passwords also used by people who have registered to comment.
– All of the above information has been outputted by Gnosis, a group who wanted to seemingly put Gawker back in its place, creating a 500MB torrent file, currently residing on the popular torrent tracker ThePirateBay.
– Inside the torrent file lies a file entitled Readme.txt. This file is potentially the most sensitive of them all, for it holds the usernames and passwords used by the entire Gawker staff, focusing particularly on Gawker’s founder Nick Denton.
– Gawker says it is working on an ‘Account Delete’ tool, which will be available soon. The only exception to all this is if you logged in via Facebook Connect, in which case you’ll be safe
– Worried that Gawker wasn’t quick enough to warn its users of the data breach by email, members of the popular Hacker News website have combined to draft an email warning 200,000 Gawker users about the data breach. If you receive this email, it is one off email that is purely designed to warn you about the breach and get you to change your password.
– Gawkercheck was also setup by Jed Smith – http://gawkercheck.com/
– Acai berry twitter attack related to Gawker hack – http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2010/12/13/twitter-acai-berry-worm-linked-to-gawker-hack/
– Make your password stronger – http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/13/how-to-tighten-up-passwords
– First, make it secure: two random words, preceded or separated by a number, make a memorable, hard-to-crack password (most people add a number at the end, making it much easier to hack). An alternative is to use the initial letters of the words that make up a favourite saying or song lyric – again, preceded or separated by a number.
– Second, don’t have a multipurpose password. On the grounds that no one could remember an entirely different password for every site, you could try having three basic passwords – one for things financial, one for things professional, one for things social. Then you could drop in two letters from the name of the specific site: if, say, your basic social media password was shock7asset, your Facebook password might be fshock7basset. Or your Twitter one might be tshock6assetr.
10:44 – Trouble for Delicious
– http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/now_yahoo_says_delicious_will_live_onsomewhere_els.php
– http://blog.delicious.com/blog/2010/12/whats-next-for-delicious.html
– Former Yahoo employee and Upcoming founder Andy Baio has tweeted out the Yahoo! product team meeting slide that seems to show that Yahoo! is either closing or merging the social bookmarking service as well as Upcoming, Fire Eagle, MyBlogLog and others.
– AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes is reporting that the Yahoo products will be in fact shut down and that the slide does in fact originate from an all hands meeting at Yahoo, following yesterday’s layoffs.Yahoo Product Manager Blake Irving has threatened to fire whomever leaked the slide.
– Then official post on their blog – No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.
– So looking for new home for service…
– I’ve found a new home – Pinboard – http://pinboard.in/
– Not big on social but fast, secure, integrates with twitter and instapaper well – uniquely funded – as users increase, so does cost of signup for new users
– Want to follow me – http://pinboard.in/u:iandick
15:45 – Film industry wants BT to block Newzbin2
– The Motion Picture Association, the trade body representing Hollywood studios outside the US, is attempting to force BT to block access to Newzbin2, an offshore website that allows users to access pirated content via its Usenet indexing service. Newzbin2 does not host the illegal content itself, but links to sites that do.
– The move represents a new legal avenue being used by copyright owners’ in their battle to force UK ISPs to co-operate in cracking down on internet piracy. ISPs such as BT and TalkTalk are opposed to parts of the Digital Economy Act, which could force them to hand over the IP addresses of suspected illegal filesharers to rights holders, once they obtain a court order.
– In March the MPA won a high court copyright infringement case against Newzbin, a UK-based Usenet indexing website that was ordered to pay damages and to filter out all links to pirated movies and TV shows owned by the companies represented by the MPA.
– Newzbin went bust however Newzbin2 launched, a site that appears to be a copy or clone of the original, but is now based overseas with anonymous operators and is charging for premium subscriptions. The new site is hosted in Sweden and apparently registered in the US.
17:56 – Vodafone mademesmile
– the mobile phone operator would give away free handsets to lucky Twitter users who used the tag #mademesmile to tell the company what made them beam.
– Thousands used the tag to express their displeasure at the company’s alleged accounting procedures, egged on by the the anti-cuts group UK Uncut, which has triggered dozens of protests outside Vodafone stores over the last two months.
– In addition to appearing on Twitter, all tweets containing the hashtag were posted, unmoderated, on to Vodafone’s website, compounding the negative publicity and showing campaigners’ sentiments to people who might otherwise have been unaware of the controversy.
– Social media fail
20:30 – Online Deliveries Halted in Scotland
– Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Amazon, Boots and Parcelforce have all suspended deliveries to Scottish customers using their online services. In some cases, customers have been warned that orders may not be ready in time for Christmas.
– Impact of bad weather – pretty big backlog of mail and parcels
– Disappointing but not a surprise with more cold weather forecast
– Yet I get 2 posters shipped from Texas to Glasgow. Ordered on Monday 13th – delivered by FedEx before lunchtime on Wednesday 15th
25:23 – Mac App Store to Launch Jan 6
– Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ will open for business on Thursday, January 6. By bringing the revolutionary App Store experience to Mac OS® X, the Mac App Store makes discovering, installing and updating Mac apps easier than ever. The Mac App Store will be available in 90 countries at launch and will feature paid and free apps in categories like Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity and Utilities.
– “The App Store revolutionized mobile apps,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can’t wait to get started on January 6.”
– I like this idea. I think it’s a logical step from mobile based stores… But surely if an app is available on the app store, and Apple is getting its cut, then it will be cheaper to buy direct from the developer? Use the app store as a search/popularity facility, then go to the biggest app store there is (the internet) and google the app direct. I’m also not sure that the concept of pileit high/sell it cheap that works on mobiles will work on desktop. You don’t really want to clog up you computer.
29:58 – Gorillaz Free iPad Album
– Damon Albarn has recorded and produced a new Gorillaz album entirely on the ipad
– It will be released, for free, on Christmas day
– No studio equipment has been used…
30:49 – Word Lens
– Augmented reality – translates in real time
– Video says it all
– Free app but you then buy the translation you want
– £2.99 for each translation – 50% off until end of december on spanish to english and vice versa
– Doesn’t do hand written text
– That’s voodoo. Someone sold their sole to make that happen!
33:09 – PS3 Adds more on-demand content
– New tie with ITV and Channel 4
– Joins iPlayer which is already available via PS3
– MS falling behind…
– Sarah Rose, director of commercial business development at Channel 4, said Channel 4 was “not saying no” to a tie-up with Microsoft’s Xbox, which only carries TV shows from BSkyB’s SkyPlayer on its subscription package. But she said Microsoft was “not coming to our door” actively looking for deals with other TV companies. And the other main games console player, Nintendo Wii, which only has the BBC iPlayer, is unlikely to be a partner any time soon because it does not have the facility to carry advertising, she said.
35:39 – Spike VGAs
– New games for next year announced
– Forza 4 – Fall 2011
– Uncharted 3 – 11/1/11
– Mass Effect 3 – Holiday 201
– Batman: Arkham City – Fall 2011
– Resistance 3 – September 6, 2011
– Red Dead Redemption won game of the year

– Looking around (very non-scientifically) – game of year across most sites between Mass effect 2 and Red Dead Redeption
– And Mass Effect seems to edge it (although if it were my decision, RDR would win. My favourite ever game)
40:29 – Year in Review
– Apple Top Apps – http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/09/apple-top-apps-2010/
– Hipstamatic, Plants vs Zombies, Flipboard, Osmos
– Apple Top iPhone and iPad Apps – http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/09/top-iphone-ipad-apps-2010/
– Twitter Year in Review – http://yearinreview.twitter.com/
– Facebooks 2010 Memology – http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=466369142130
Chris
Looking forward to in 2011
– LA Noire Game… Looking freekin awsome.
– Portal 2… Bring it.
– Chrome OS (You can now apply in UK BTW) – different address for uk or same? Looking on forums it says google isn’t distributing to anywhere outside US at this time but hopes to in near future? Meh. It was showing up on my chrome homepage so i clicked it!
Likely purchase 2011…
– Nexus S – very likely at the moment
– Wouldn’t mind a macro lens
Bet 2010 Purchase?
– Hmmmm Have to think on that one.
– Xara Designer Pro 6
– Mac Book Pro
– Camtasia Studio
– Kindle 3G
– Logitech C930 HD Webcam
– PS3
– SuperTooth Buddy Handsfree Visor Car-Kit
– Kinect
– Apple TV (Although I didn’t buy that)
Ian
Looking forward to in 2011
– LA Noire
– Portal 2
– Uncharted 3
– Lion
– iPad 2/iPhone 5
Likely purchase 2011…
– New iMac
– iPad? try to resist iPhone
– New lens
Best 2010 Purchase
Options
– iPad
– iPhone 4
– Canon 550d
– Mac Mini
– Drobo
– Withings
– Sony Bravia
– Rode podcaster

Picks
Ian
Flipboard update – awesome – free
– World of Goo – £5.99
– Amazon Windowshop – free
– Vevo HD – free – american only

Chris
Cortex
– Chrome extension. Share what your looking at across different online services (social/blogging etc). Click and hold mouse over item on the page and a wheel appears. Slide the mouse over the provider you want to share the item to and let go… A whoosh sound means that the content has posted sucessfuly. Simple. Effective. Clever.
Only gripe being that sometimes the wheel appears when you don’t want it.

DigitalOutbox Episode 37

DigitalOutbox Episode 37
In this episode the team discuss Google and your friends, sitting in a tree, b-u-z-z-i-n-g. Plus, Chris and his jowls.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:17 – Warner Stops Streaming
– Warner music will not continue to licence free streaming services.
– Not clear whether this affects existing licences with Spotify / Last.fm etc.
– CNET UK report Warner bands include “Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Talib Kweli, Green Day, Biffy Clyro, Marina and the Diamonds, and that nice Michael Bubble. Warners stalwarts Metallica already refuse to stream their music, the grumpy gets.”
– Warner Music want to see subscription models. They don’t like downloads or add supported free services which they see as not returning enough money. They believe a subscription model could reach a far wider audience than downloads… even for people not interested in buying music….
– What? More than a free, ad supported service? He’s deluding himself. As ever, they are looking at the music being listened to and trying to monetize every last bit – not taking into account that people will just not listen if they charge – or just as likely, listen to stolen copies instead – just because to them it’s not worth the money.
4:44 – Google Social Circle
– If you have a Google profile and are logged in, search results form social circle now displayed at bottom of first page of search results
6:34 – Google Buzz
– Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting
– Built into gMail
– Key feature #1: Auto-following
– Key feature #2: Rich, fast sharing experience
– Key feature #3: Public and private sharing
– Key feature #4: Inbox integration
– Key feature #5: Just the good stuff
– We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences).
– Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.
– On your phone, Google Buzz is much more than just a small screen version of the desktop experience. Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location.
– Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context — the answer to the question “where were you when you shared this?” can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place.
– Webapp for android and iphone
– Facebook in gmail or is it more like Friendfeed?
– We’ve relied on other services’ openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system
– Any item in Buzz can become a conversation.
– We put these Buzz conversations into you Gmail inbox. And if someone comments while you’re looking at it in your inbox, comments come in in realtime.
– Things go to your inbox when people comment on your stuff, or when they comment on your comments.
– Also when someone @replies you – just like Twitter. When you type @ and an initial, you get an autocomplete to see who you want to send it to from your contacts.
– Will be rolled out to gmail users across the world in the next few days
– Google Buzz was presented as a destination site, but a look at its APIs and developer roadmap indicate that it may actually intend to be a platform – the central hub for a world of distributed social networking
– Google Buzz data can be syndicated out to other services using the standard data formats called Atom, Activity Streams, MediaRSS and PubSubHubbub
19:10 – Google Fibre Network
– Up to 1gbps at prices US are used to paying for normal BB
– Are we scared of Google yet 🙂 Google Earth less of an application, more of a mission statement.
20:43 – UK Video Games Sales Drop
– Over-the-counter unit sales of console games were down six per cent compared to 2008’s figure.
– Sales of games for handheld devices dropped a whopping 25 per cent, according to GfK Chart-Track.
– partly due to last year’s 62 per cent drop in PlayStation 2 game sales.
(Yes but you can buy 8 PS2 games at £5 compared to 1 PS3/Xbox360 game at £40. No wonder unit sales are down. Revenue’s still quite healthy – Henry)
– software sales for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were up last year, while Wii game sales were down about ten per cent on 2008.
– Console sales dipped by 24 per cent between 2008 and 2009.
25:40 – Glitch
– Glitch is a massively-multiplayer game, playable in the browser and built in the spirit of the web.
– The game will launch by the end of 2010
– From co-founder of flickr
– For starters, it’s all one big world. Which means everyone is playing the same game and anyone’s actions have the ability to affect every other player in the game.
27:30 – iMac Fixes
– Production halted
– The Apple Discussions forum on the topic now has some 271 pages (up from 191 a couple weeks ago) of comments/complaints and over 500,000 views (up from 400,000 a few weeks ago). It has more views than all the other threads combined — by far.
31:50 – Opera for iPhone
– to be launched next week
– We plan to reveal Opera Mini for iPhone in an exclusive press and partner preview during the 2010 Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona
32:57 – SeeSaw
– Invites now going out
– TV from BBC, C4, C5
– Limited range, not new progs
– Adverts before watching
– So so quality
– Can’t see why I’d use this over iPlayer or 4OD – less ad’s on 4OD for same content
– Looking to add more content through the year, mulling over subscription model
37:24 – Vodafone does a Ratner
– On twitter says…is fed up of dirty homo’s and is going after beaver
– Hacked?
– We’re really sorry. A severe breach of rules by staff in our building, dealing with that internally. Please keep your faith in us.
– I guess not.

Picks
Ian
Movist
– Alternative to VLC
– Minimal
– Crap icon
– Excellent keyboard support
– fast and great file support
– Movist it’s a beautiful, minimal player, with great support for codecs and, most of all, huge room for improvement.

Virtual Revolution
– 4 part series on the internet and web
– First two parts have been excellent
– Catch series on iPlayer
– Web site allows you to view episodes, clips, twitter and flickr feeds, blog – very nice

Henry
Inkscape
– Opensource drawing package.
– Cross platform
– SVG files

Shakeel
Tripit
– FREE!
– forward your individual trip detail confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and your whole trip, from flight, car hire and hotel details are saved so all the details can be viewed and accessed from one location.
– very useful for frequent flyers/travellers
– TripIt Pro – 30 day free trial, $69 per year
– gain itinerary monitoring and mobile alerts
– track frequent flyer points

Chris
AnyDVD
– AnyDVD SlySoft (79€)
– Enables copying of copy protected content you own.
– Also enables region free viewing.

DigitalOutbox Episode 33

DigitalOutbox Episode 33
In this episode the team discuss Google vs China, MS Word Banned and Apple Rumours.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
0:45 – Google vs China
– “highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on their corporate infrastructure that occurred last month.
– The attack originated in China and resulted in the “theft of intellectual property from Google.”
– Attack, as confirmed by MS, was through IE (one of the vectors) and MS is working with Google and partners and developing a patch for the hole
– In light of the attack Google is making sweeping changes to its Chinese operations
– The company says that a minimal amount of user information was compromised, but has come to the alarming conclusion that the attacks were targeting the information of Chinese human rights activists
– In light of the attacks, and after attempts by the Chinese government to further restrict free speech on the web, Google has decided it will deploy a fully uncensored version of its search engine in China.
– This is a major change: since January 2006, Google has made concessions to the Chinese government and offered a censored (and highly controversial) version of its search engine at Google.cn.
– Should the Chinese government decide that an uncensored engine is illegal, then Google may cease operations in China entirely
– Huge, huge step. Massive corporate switch in strategy
– Should be applauded – too often corporations chasing the lucrative untapped chinese market have made concessions to the regime that they would never contemplate anywhere else
– Was this done, as some blogs are stating, due to google losing in China? Google says no – best quarter ever was the latest quarter
– One more thing…..Google hacked the hackers – PC in Taiwan, gathering evidence the attacks originated from mainland China, possibly orchestrated by the government. Hacked 33 other companies including Adobe.
6:08 – Nexus One Support Issues
– It seems that Google / T-Mobile (America) / HTC don’t really know who is supporting the Nexus Phone.
– Google have no dedicated support line and are only offering support through a forum and via email.
– Good product but bad support = fail.
– Google have said they are now working with their partners to offer support via a number of channels.
– Early termination cost greater than cost of full hardware cost. (Google claim back as do T-Mobile…)
11:45 – GDrive but not in name
– soon upload any file type at all to Google Docs, not just the dozen or so Office formats that the service allowed as of yesterday. Video files. Images. Audio Files. Even Zip files. As long as those files are 250 MB or smaller, you’re good.
– The new feature will roll out over the next several weeks, says Google.
– Like other documents in Google docs, files can be kept private, made public or shared with a few users.
– Google Viewer can be used to view many file types, with the notable exception of video.
– Regular users have 1 GB of free storage and can purchase more for $0.25/GB.
– Enterprise customer pay higher prices, starting at $17/year for 5 GB. There are no bandwidth charges.
15:38 – MS banned from selling Word and Office
– The US courts upheld the initial judgement that MS has infringed i4i’s “Custom XML” patent in their Office suite and Monday 11th saw that start of the ban on selling the products.
– As it happens, MS has now produced a version that no longer violates the patent and so “This process will be imperceptible to the vast majority of customers”.
– MS also had to pay i4i damages of £183m.
– MS are planning to appeal further.
22:56 – Free laptops for low income families
– A new scheme to give free laptops to some 270,000 pupils from low income families has begun.
– The Home Access Scheme will follow similar eligibility criteria to those offered free school meals and will see a grant for a computer and also funding for a broadband connection for 1 year.
25:05 – OINK Admin Acquitted on fraud charge
– Alan Ellis, 26, was the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing.
– He operated the site, called Oink, from his flat in Middlesbrough from 2004 until it was closed down in a police raid in October 2007.
In that time Oink facilitated the download of 21 million music files.
– At the end of the two week trial the jury returned a unanimous verdict (12 to 0). Alan Ellis is not guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud the music industry. He walked out of Teesside Crown Court a free man today, his name cleared.
– The verdict cannot be appealed and Ellis can finally put the past behind him and move on.
– So, crack on with torrenting then….
28:59 – Blippy goes live
– Social network for your spending
– Hook up your iTunes account, Amazon account, audible, godaddy, netflix, blockbuster, credit card or bank account
– Blippy will then broadcast your purchases
– People can follow you and see/comment on your purchases
– Step too far?
– It’s got lots of investors – I just don’t feel comfortable putting my accounts into this service.
35:14 – Marks and Spencer Netbook Range
– What the hey!
36:36 – Binged.it
– URL shortener
– Longer than bing?
39:38 – Tablet Rumours
– Orange exec confirms it and a built in webcam….then denies it
– Lots of 10.1 inch oled screens ordered,
– Gruber – no camera, webcam or otherwise on The Tablet
41:25 – iPhone Rumours
– oled, video chat, removable battery, twice the battery life and mobile tv
– touch sensitive back ala magic mouse – why – does that solve the game controller problem Chris mentioned?
– go figure
– Question – what would you want in os 4.0?
47:29 – Vodafone launches sat nav app
– Vodafone Navigation
– The application promises turn-by-turn navigation, with voice instructions and speed camera alerts, for any location in the UK.
– While the application is currently free, at the end of April 2010, customers can decide to keep the application for the length of their contract for just £3 a month, or choose to take it month by month for £5 a month.
– Only works with iPhone and a Vodafone SIM card
– They also sold 50,000 iPhones on first day

Picks
Ian
Readability
– Cleans up cluttered pages
– Great for reading long form stories – run through readability first then store to Instapaper or Evernote

Henry
Appzapper 2
– The uninstaller that Apple forgot
– Easy to use – keeps your mac clean of old apps

Chris
Dragon Age:Origins