DigitalOutbox Episode 301

Chris and Ian discuss Samsung, Assange, Google and Sky

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Shownotes

Picks
Ian
Fiery Feeds
– £9.99
– Great and fast feed reader for iPhone and iPad
– Works well with InoReader and NewsBlur

DigitalOutbox Episode 71

DigitalOutbox Episode 71
In this episode the team discuss Google, Google, Google and that man Jeremy Hunt.

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Shownotes
3:21 – Google Ebooks
– Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore on 6th Dec. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale
– the Google eBook store there will be 2.8 million books available to download free of charge, since they are in the public domain, and the rest will have a “buy” button next to them that takes readers directly to the eBook store.
– Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud.
– In addition to a full-featured web reader, free apps for Android and Apple devices will make it possible to shop and read on the go. For many books you can select which font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing suits you—and pick up on the page where you left off when switching devices.
– Google lets consumers buy books either from its store or any other online vendor that sells books in EPUB and PDF formats. You can choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them.
– So same as Kindle – software everywhere except they’ve provided a web front end as well
– UK launch not mentioned but eBook service is expected to launch in Europe in 2011.
7:13 – Google Nexus S and Gingerbread
– Nexus S is the lead device for the Gingerbread/Android 2.3 release; it’s the first Android device to ship with the new version of the Android platform. We co-developed this product with Samsung—ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest advancements of the Android platform. As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers what we call a “pure Google” experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates.
– Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a 4” Contour Display designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face. It also features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware that lets you read information from NFC tags. NFC is a fast, versatile short-range wireless technology that can be embedded in all kinds of everyday objects like movie posters, stickers and t-shirts.
– The 4 inch Super AMOLED 480×800 touchscreen has very deep blacks and viewing angles and is, as we said above, second only to the slightly smaller but higher resolution iPhone 4 display.
– Techcrunch – The bottom line is this. If you are an iPhone user this isn’t going to make you switch. If you’re an Android user you will want this phone more than any other. If you’re currently neither, we recommend that you go with the Nexus S.
– Things Android has that iOS needs – http://brooksreview.net/2010/12/android-helping-ios/?isalt=0
– Mobile hotspot, home screen customisation, keyboard apps, notifications, multi tasking
– Gingerbread – Android 2.3 – support for NFC, refinements to GUI (but not a re-write which is Honeycomb), imporved keyboard and cut/copy/paste and gyroscope sensor support, improved power and task/app management,
– Will launch in December for £550 unlocked or £35 per month
– Carphone Warehouse is taking orders for the phone from today, but could not be definite about when it will be able to sell it – although it hopes to be able to begin deliveries before Christmas.
– The phone will be available unlocked for £550 (compared to £500 for Apple’s iPhone 4) or for free from £35 per month, according to Graham Stapleton, CPW’s chief commercial director, who says that the retailer is talking to networks in the UK to set up deals.
14:13 – Android Tablet Prototype
– On stage at D: Dive Into Mobile, Google’s Andy Rubin has brought with him a prototype Android tablet from Motorola.
– Video chat
– New version on Google Maps – vector based, infinite loading, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map.
– no more tiles, building outlines, shadows and 3d via touch – very impressive – android only at the moment – other devices in the future
16:56 – Apache Wave
– Google Wave now Apache Wave
– Wave now handed to Apache, codebase to be migrated to Apache control
– Hope to kickstart development as there’s still some big active users
18:38 – Google Chrome Event
– Chrome Browser
– 70m active users (6 months ago) – now 120m active users (active means they use it often as primary browser)
– Adding Google Instant to omnibox
– Added PDF reader for speed
– Hardware acceleration via GPU
– Chrome Web Store
– Rich, visual and interactive
– Installed NPR
– Interactive app, different from web page, but viewed and ran within the browser
– Sports Illustrated
– Visual gallery running in tab
– Rich interactive app, not what your used to on web
– Games
– Purchase easily, hooked to google account, downloads in seconds
– Has monthly subscription options and also demo’s
– NYTimes for Chrome
– HTML5, CSS3 etc
– Skin your news, headlines, print view, photo view etc
– Works offline as well
– Nice
– EA
– Converted PoppIt to HTML5 in 48 hours
– Performance is great
– This game will be embedded in new Chrome 9
– Also available today on Google Chrome Web store
– Amazon
– WindowShop
– Now available on store
– Fluid interface to Amazon
– Needs Flash…fail
– Kindle
– Kindle for the web (early next year)
– HTML5
– Access books via browser
– Link to books from own site
– Web store – chrome.google.com/webstore
– 500 apps as they are partners
– Now open – expect a large growth in apps
– From q1 rolling out around world
– Chrome OS
– Nothing but the web
– Simpler, safer, secure experience
– Chrome OS looks like iOS
– Login, take a pic, check for updates, then desktop
– 0-60secs for above and all your apps and links are available
– Resume is very fast
– Laptop in standby
– Instant resume – milliseconds – very impressive
– Changes on OS propagate across machines in seconds – looks good
– Sharing – pick up notebook, and login with your credentials
– Sharing with friend – guest mode – full incognito session for friend
– Everything he does in this mode is private and removed on exit
– Google Docs bringing an offline mode
– Lots of apps will work offline – game cached locally
– If no wifi, enable cellular connectivity – every chrome netbook will have a cellular option
– Google cloud print – print on any device connected on network without drivers
– In beta, rolling out shortly
– Partnered with Verizon in US
– 100mb free data every month for 2 years
– No contracts – pay for what you need
– Plans for $9.99
– Security – auto updates, sandboxed, data encrypted, verified boot – most secure consumer O/S
– Citrix receiver demo’d
– Cloud print, USB support and speed need working on
– Acer, Samsung Chrome notebooks powered by Intel – mid 2011
– Other OEM’s will follow
– Chrome OS Pilot Program
– Beta
– Reference hardware – CR48 device – 12.1” display, Oversized touchpad + full keyboard, 3g built in, 8+ hours active use, 8+ days of standby, web cam
– No caps lock, no function keys, no hard drives, jailbreaking mode built in
– Businesses part of pilot program
– Consumers – new tab page of chrome – offer to users
– Quiz a few days ago for a sticker – sticker ships with notebook
– Youtube comp
– Everyone at demo
– google.com/chromenotebook – fill in the form
– Still not answered – why choose this over a netbook, ipad or laptop
– Think the pilot program is a really good move
38:22 – Google Earth 6
– Integrated street view
– 3D trees
– Easier to discover historical imagery in new version
39:23 – Watch That Twitter Name
– User @theashes went from 300 to 6100 followers in a couple of days
– She finally complained by tweeting that she was “not a freaking cricket match”.
– Ashley Kerekes, from Massachusetts, tweeted that “this is not the account of the cricket match. Check profiles before you send mentions, it’s incredibly annoying and rude”.
– In spite of her initial anger over the cricket tweets, she told the Brisbane Times that becoming an overnight Twitter celebrity was “amazing”.
– She has also started to sell T-shirts with the slogan: “I am not a freaking cricket match.”
– Same for users @justin and @gordon – lot of justin bieber tweets and gordon brown hate last year
41:59 – Wikileaks under attack
– Releases biggest leaks so far – American diplomatic papers
– Leaked by American soldier who also leaked the Apache helicopter attack
– Embarrassing for America and many of its allies
– As the site is being hammered they move to partial hosting with Amazon – a day later and Amazon removes them from their hosting due to the content they host
– EveryDNS, wikileaks DNS provider, cuts off it’s main domain, wikileaks.org – wikileaks.ch is still running
– Paypal blocks Wikileaks funding via it’s services – State department said wikileaks was illegal
– They have now moved away from any American infrastructure so that America cannot easily tamper with the service
– So, are the leaks correct? Is this freedom of speech? Future of journalism?
– Universities advising students not to link to Wikileaks articles – http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201048/6509/Talking-about-WikiLeaks-cablegate-can-hinder-job-placements – wow. Just wow. So much for freedom of speech.
– Swiss post office has now frozen Julian Assange accounts – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11929034
– Extradition paper served and now in custody until Dec 14th in UK – refused bail
– Hackers linked to 4chan DOS Paypal, Postfinance and Mastercard
49:37 – UK to get super fast broadband everywhere by 2015
– Extra 50m to take total to £830 available for firms to help roll out ‘super fast’ network
– Some of that (£300 million) comes from BBC
– Ministers say they aim for the UK to have Europe’s best broadband network.
– Mr Hunt said the strategy would give the country Europe’s best broadband network by 2015 and will be central to economic growth and the delivery of future public services, dependent on quick, reliable access to the internet.
– Really.
– Really?
– What the heck is super fast? the government does not define the minimum speed it hopes super-fast services will achieve.
– If it was at the centre of those plans it would be afforded more money even in these times of austerity
– Every community is to get a digital hub – a green cabinet? WTF is a community?
– Of course, Jeremy Hunt was called something else on Radio 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JpNravrwZc
54:52 – About that subsidised iPad
– Orange selling 16gb 3G ipad for £199 assuming you sign u for monthly contract for two years
– £27 a month for 1Gb of data – thats £848
– Buy an iPad for £529 and pay O2 or Vodafone £10 a month and you pay £769
– And you can get 3GB 90 day Three sims off ebay for £9, so bringing cost down even more
– Three offering same price and £25 a month
57:21 – Windows Phone 7 Not a hit
– Belfiore refused to talk sales numbers when interviewed by Walt Mossberg of the WSJ. And when asked if WP7 might be a ‘real’ rival to Google’s and Apple’s mobile platforms in a ‘couple of years,’ Belfiore reportedly answered ‘Maybe’.
59:28 – Lastpass acquires XMarks
– Xmarks has been acquired by LastPass, makers of a leading cross-platform password manager
– Free option remains
– Users can opt to purchase Xmarks Premium for $12 per year, which includes new enhanced features like Android and iPhone mobile phone apps, priority support, and more.
– The Xmarks and LastPass Premium offerings are also available bundled together at a reduced subscription rate of $20 per year.

Picks
Ian
Printopia
– App for your mac that enables AirPrinting
– Can also print to PDF…and send to Dropbox or Evernote

DigitalOutbox Episode 56

DigitalOutbox Episode 56
In this episode the team discuss Wikileaks, Apple and Microsoft Quarters and Flipboard.

Playback
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Shownotes
2:36 – Broadbands Broken Promises
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/07/ofcom_broadbands_broken_promis.html
– No surprise to UK broadband users, ofcom’s report is pretty damning
– Its analysis of broadband speeds in the UK shows that, for some services, 97% of consumers do not get the advertised speed.
– It also shows a growing gap between the claims ISPs make for broadband and the speed being delivered.
– average residential broadband speed in the UK has risen in the last 12 months from 4.1Megabits per second (Mbps) to 5.2Mbps
– Virgin closest – 8.6 to 9 Mbps for it’s 10meg service
– Best adsl – O2, 4.3 to 5 Mbps for it’s up to 8 service
– the advertising of broadband speeds in Britain is scandalously misleading
– BT’s copper is incapable of delivering decent speeds
– Virgin Media is showing that fibre is the future
– the digital divide between town and country is bound to get wider
– Whenever I’ve looked at BB packages, I would say that they have been pretty clear that they would connect at the fastest possible speed up to a maximum possible. Also, BT offer an estimated line speed that other sites hook into. I don’t think it’s particularly misleading.
7:23 – Wikileaks Afghan War Diary
– 90,000 leaked coalition documents from the Afghan war
– Biggest leak ever
– Quote from Julian Assage, Wikileaks founder:
– This situation is different in that it’s not just more material and being pushed to a bigger audience and much sooner … but rather that people can give back. So people around the world who are reading this are able to comment on it and put it in context and understand the full situation. That is not something that has previously occurred. And that is something that can only be brought about as a result of the Internet.
– Old reports, not future plans
– The Afghan War Diary was simultaneously given to reporters from The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel several weeks in advance so those reporters could study the documents and provide context with their public release. It was also given to those three publications so that no one national government could censor it.
– WikiLeaks removed data that could implicate its sources, but the U.S. military already has an alleged WikiLeaks source in custody: 22-year-old intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, who The Guardian says is suspected as the source of the video that depicted U.S. soldiers killing civilians. So far we’ve seen no evidence for or against any connection between the Afghan War Diary and Manning.
– Guardian has mapped the 300 major incidents – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/interactive/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-events
– Created a glossary for understanding those pesky TLA’s
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2010/jul/25/wikileaks-afghanistan-war-logs-glossary
– Every IED attack with co-ords – map and spreadsheet – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2010/jul/26/wikileaks-afghanistan-ied-attacks
– US says it is irresponsible- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10758578
13:25 – EFF Victory Against DRM
– US only but major major legal victory
– Electronic Frontier Foundation had applied to the Copyright Office to grant exemptions permitting the cracking of DRM in three cases
– “jailbreak” a mobile device, such as an iPhone, where DRM is used to prevent phone owners from running software of their own choosing
– allow video remix artists to break the DRM on DVDs in order to take short excerpts for mashups posted to YouTube and other sharing sites, as long as it’s use is non-commercial or educational
– EFF got the Copyright Office to renew its ruling that made it legal to unlock cellphones so that they can be used with any carrier
– So apple and others can say your voiding your warranty, but they can’t say your breaking the law..but, thats not what the ruling says. the ruling says your not violating copyright law
– So still might not be legal…yet
– Of course, Apple isn’t very happy with this
– Biggest is probably the mashup ruling – fair use of material you have bought, but of course it will be ‘you can legally jailbreak your iphone’ that will be most reported as that drives traffic – see leak of iphone 4 and antennagate for example
– in theory, should put a stop to many of the DMCA (1998’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act) removal requests sent to services like YouTube
17:03 – Android Updates
– Sales of Android-based phones more than quadrupled in the UK during the most-recent quarter.
– According to GfK, Android’s share of UK smartphone contract sales sales was a mere three per cent in the first three months of 2010, but skyrocketed to 13.2 per cent in the second quarter.
– Apple, conversely, saw its UK market share decline from 75 per cent to 64 per cent during the same period. And it wasn’t only Android phones that took a bite out of Cupertino: RIM’s UK share rose from two per cent to seven per cent from January through April.
– Samsung S is the new hotness in Android phones
– Were sending out free phones to twitter users complaining about iPhone dropped calls
– Also running Facebook competition
– Best mobile add for a while
22:25 – Apple Quarterly Results
– Boom
– Over 3 milllion iPads – almost outsells Macs, and that was their biggest Mac quarter ever
– Great sales for iphones which is only 2 days of iPhone 4
– They made billions…
– Can’t make enough iPhone 4’s and ipads – LG can’t make enough iPad screens – says it will do better
– Few days later, white iPhone 4’s are delayed again, just a few days after saying end of July:
– White models of Apple’s new iPhone® 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.
– Coupled with September 30th limit on free bumper, iPhone 4 ver B later this year?
– Creating a version B probably raises more questions than answers… if it fixes aerial, won’t all “version A” users want one?
29:46 – Microsoft Quarterly Results
– Boomer
– revenues were up 22 percent, to more than $16 billion
– bigger quarter than Apple
– Strong Windows 7 sales + Office 2010 and a strengthening economy helped
30:57 – Facebook Hits 500 Million Users
– To celebrate, we’ve put together a collection of stories you’ve shared with us about the impact Facebook and your friends have had on your lives.
– We’re launching a new application called Facebook Stories where you can share your own story and read hundreds of others, categorized by themes and locations around the world.
– 5 1/2 months since they hit 400million – around same time to go from 300 to 400 million
– Details of 100m Facebook users collected and leaked
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10796584
– The personal details of more than 100 million Facebook users have been harvested and published on the net.
– Ron Bowles, an online security consultant, used a simple piece of code to collect the data from Facebook.
– The list, which has been shared as a downloadable file, contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user’s profile, their name and unique ID.
– In a statement to BBC News, Facebook said that the information in the list was already freely available online.
– “People who use Facebook own their information and have the right to share only what they want, with whom they want, and when they want,” the statement read.
– “In this case, information that people have agreed to make public was collected by a single researcher and already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook.
– “No private data is available or has been compromised,” the statement added.
33:54 – Flipboard
– Personalised social magazine
– It turns your Facebook and Twitter account into something that looks like a magazine.
– It also lets you build a custom magazine, either by choosing from Flipboard’s pre-built curated “boards” or by importing Twitter lists.
– You can also turn a single person’s Twitter account, or a single brand’s Twitter account, into a Flipboard. For instance, you can follow Techcrunch on Twitter with it and it will turn Techcrunch into a beautiful magazine-like interface that’s easier to read than any other reader.
– Massive buzz, unusabale (for Ian) on day one. Creating invite system to manage demand. Sigh.
– iPad killer app?
– Why does it need to sign into Facebook and Twitter via their own servers?
– May be controversy over how they deliver content – not using RSS, scraping from source websites – http://gizmodo.com/5594176/is-flipboard-legal
– Revenue not from users but from content owners
40:24 – Skype
– http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/07/iphone_multitasking_3g.html
– Supports calls over 3G
– More importantly, works in background – you can now receive Skype calls, and instant messages, while running any other application.
– Even more importantly – scrapped their planned move to charge for calls over 3G
41:32 – BBC News App Launched
– http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/news/press_releases/july/mobile_apps.shtml
– iPhone News and Sports app’s approved
– Launched on Friday 23rd
– News will add regional news in future
– News will come to blackberry, android and other devices later in the year
– Looking at findings, why did this take 3-4 months to review?
– To appease “industry”? Doesn’t matter though, correct consumer decision.
43:44 – Daily Star Lies
– The Daily Star has today expressed its “fury” at news that a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto is in production.
– Apparently “gaming websites” (though obviously not the ones we read) have shown the cover of “a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto”, supposedly called GTA Rothbury, that’s based on the recent Northumberland shootings that dominated the news earlier this month.
– “It is sick – it’s blood money,” the sister of Moat’s ex-partner Samantha Stobbart told the paper. “The game is beyond belief.”
– Journalist, Jerry Lawton, defends his story
– http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40124/Journalist-defends-GTA-Raoul-Moat-story
– “Baffled by the fury of adult gamers,” he wrote, as reported by Destructoid. “These are grown (?!?) men who sit around all day playing computer games with one another who’ve today chosen to enter the real world just long enough to complain about my story slamming a Raoul Moat version of Grand Theft Auto!
– “You would think I’d denied the Holocaust!!! Think I’ll challenge them to a virtual reality duel….stab….I win!!!”
– Cue Apology
– http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/145880/Rockstar-Games-Grand-Theft-Auto-An-apology/
– Grovel grovel grovel
– We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.
– It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.
– We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity.

Picks
Chris
Limbo
– Limbo is a truly stunning looking (and feeling) game. Xbox Live Arcade.
– Eerie, dark, mysterious, funny, scary, frustrating, satisfying.
– No colour, very little sound, no dialogue, largely silhouettes

Ian
Camera+
– Great camera app for iPhone
– Faster than built in app with a lot more features
– Filters, borders etc
– Now my goto app for taking pictures – can also share on the Camrera+ website or to flickr, e-mail etc