Weekly wrapup, 9 – 13 July 2007

Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.

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Before we begin this wrapup, I want to welcome our new writer, Daniel Langendorf. Dan will be a regular contributor here on last100, and brings a wealth of experience, both as a journalist and as someone who has spent over 10 years in product design and development. He’s currently studying for a master’s degree in fine art at the University of Texas (in the arts and technology program), where he also teaches a class on emerging media and communications.

Top digital lifestyle news

This week’s digital lifestyle news was dominated by the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). First up, Microsoft announced that that Video Market place, which enables users to download paid-for television shows and movies to the XBox 360, will finally launch in Canada and Europe by the end of the year. The second big announcement was that Disney content is now available on Xbox Live, including new and classic titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films.

The following day it was Nintendo and Sony’s turn to take the stage. The former led with the theme that “Everybody is a gamer“, and whilst Daniel noted that this isn’t quite true just yet, the company’s Wii console continues to make impressuve strides in attracting non-traditional gamers.

Sony had two digital lifestyle-related announcements: first introducing a new PSP, which looks like the first PSP, except it’s 30 percent lighter and 19 percent slimmer. What’s “new” is a video output that allows you to play PSP games, movies, photos and other PSP applications on your television. The company also showed off a version of its PlayStation 3-based virtual world, PS Home, working on a Sony Ericcson cellphone. It’s not 3D, but it does have communication and chat features working on the phone, as well as the ability to send photos you take in the real world and place them into PS Home’s 3D environment like a picture on a wall in your apartment.

More digital lifestyle news:

Features

We opened the week with a provocative post, titled: “Does live TV over the net make sense?“. With two services recently reviewed on last100, Zattoo and LiveStation, both of which are designed to deliver live (rather than on-demand) TV over peer-to-peer networks, we questioned whether in fact live programing was still relevant in an Internet age. Last100 editor, Steve O’Hear, thinks so, but many readers, along with NewTeeVee’s Om Malik, disagree.

Guest writer, Mack D. Male, wrote an excellent history of Microsoft’s Internet TV strategy, covering everything from Web TV, MSN, Windows Media Center, Media Room, to Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

Two reviews this week: Jalipo, a browser-based Internet TV service which offers on-demand (TV shows and movies) and live broadcasts on a minute by minute “pay as you go” basis. And, Simplify Media, which enables you to share your iTunes music collection with friends, over an Internet connection.

Video of the week: “Bad Sinatra”

In a new feature we’ve introduced, we’ll be reviewing an online video show or podcast every Friday. This week, Daniel took at look at veteran tech journalist, Steve Gillmor’s new video show: “Bad Sinatra“, which has been described as “Silicon Valley cinema verite.”

That a wrap for the week. Have a nice weekend!

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

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