May 8th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Net TV | 
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BBC iPlayer uncovered
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of the BBC’s iPlayer; that’s why I named it as one of the top ten Digital Lifestyle products of 08.
And I’m not alone.
In a fascinating interview conducted by CNet UK’s Nate Lanxon, the BBC’s iPlayer head honcho Anthony Rose reveals that, at its peak, the service delivers 12.5 gigabytes per second of video, totaling about 7 petabytes of data transfer a month!
Other key stats… Continue reading »
May 7th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | 4 Comments
Yahoo and Intel's 'Yahoo Widget Channel'
Take this for what it’s worth considering who paid for the research, but according to a recent survey 76 percent of US consumers who are in the market for a new HDTV would value having access to Internet widgets on their television. The research was carried out by the Diffusion Group on behalf of Intel, who in partnership with Yahoo are pushing the idea of Internet-connected televisions in a big way through the launch of the Yahoo Widget Channel (see video below), a platform designed to make it easy for developers and television manufacturers to add a ‘widget bar’ to HDTVs.
Unsurprisingly, of the 2,000 respondents who took part in the online survey, more than half (54.8 percent) said they “value being able to link to TV program websites while watching a favorite show so they can simultaneously interact with Web-based content while viewing the show.” Continue reading »
May 6th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile, Social | 11 Comments
(Credit: Jamie Gonzalez via twitpic)
I’ve written many times before that social networking, and Facebook in particular, is the killer application for mobile phones. It’s what’s driving take up of mobile data and the adoption of higher end so-called smartphones. The mobile networks have taken notice and jumped on the social networking bandwagon, heavily promoting access to Facebook as a key feature, and handset makers are doing the same.
RIM has been targeting consumers with an ad campaign that features the Blackberry’s Facebook application.
Ditto Apple with the iPhone.
And there’s INQ, a new entrant whose first device, the INQ1, has been dubbed ‘the Facebook phone‘ based on its deep integration with the social networking site. Continue reading »
May 5th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | 2 Comments
It seems like everybody and their dog wants to be a platform these days, and media center software Boxee is no exception. (That’s a good thing by the way.) However, providing the hooks needed to write third-party applications is probably the easy part (relatively speaking), while attracting developers to the platform can be a little harder. Build it and they will come hardly ever applies.
On that note, Boxee have announced the ‘Boxee app challenge‘ in an attempt to provide a little extra incentive for developers. Not only are a bunch of prizes up for grabs for the best apps created up, but the Internet TV startup also promises to shine a little light on entrants along the way. Continue reading »
May 5th, 2009 | Posted in Net TV | 1 Comment
Vudu on Entone
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em
We already knew that Vudu’s future lies outside of its own set-top box. The Internet TV startup said as much in what looked like a change of strategy following a recent round of layoffs. Rather than punting the online video store via its own hardware alone, Vudu announced plans to “piggyback” third-party devices, including Internet-connected TVs, DVD players and other kinds of set-top boxes. And today, the first of those partnerships was unveiled. Continue reading »
May 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Audio, Mobile, Review | 3 Comments
LG Arena KM900 web browser
I’ve had just over a week to test out LG’s latest flagship phone – the LG Arena KM900 – a device that I first set eyes on at last month’s The Gadget Show Live. The touch screen phone has a lot going for it, but like many post-iPhone offerings, doesn’t quite live up to the promise based on technical specs alone and at times has the potential to frustrate. Continue reading »
May 3rd, 2009 | Posted in last100 weekly wrapup | 2 Comments
Here’s a summary of the last 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.
Featured post
Hands-on review: Flip Mino HD “point and shoot” camcorder
Flip’s (Pure Digital in the US) Mino HD is the follow up to the popular Mino “point and shoot” camcorder – a product category that the company practically invented – this time upgrading the video quality to High Definition or 720p MP4 to be precise. From the industrial design alone, however, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference.
Mobile news
Samsung’s first Google phone: Android 1.5, OLED screen, thinner than iPhone
At last there’s some real competition among phones running Google’s Android OS, with Samsung announcing its first “Gphone”, the unimaginatively named i7500, which should see a European release in June (no word yet on U.S. availability).
PR wars: Palm Pre could go on sale 24 hours before next gen iPhone unveiled
The latest rumored release date for Palm’s comeback device, the Palm Pre, is June 7th, one day before Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC). If true, this would be an audacious move from the handset maker, and one that, at first glance, carries a lot of risk.
Rumor: New PlayStation Portable betting on Sony PSP App Store
If reports are to be believed, a new version of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) will ditch the handheld games console’s UMD disc drive in favor of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage.
Nokia admits mistakes over UK launch of “Comes With Music”
Nokia and I are in agreement over at least one thing: the company made mistakes when launching its all-you-can-eat music subscription offering “Comes With Music” in the UK. The service whereby you purchase a qualifying Nokia handset and then get access to the entire library of the Nokia Music Store for 12 – 18 months and get to keep any downloaded tracks once the subscription ends, was launched in the UK on two aging phones and with the backing of only one carrier and one retail chain.
That’s a wrap. Thanks for reading!
May 2nd, 2009 | Posted in ZNF | No Comments
A periodic roundup of relevant news from our friends at Zatz Not Funny…
Has TiVo, Inc lost its way?
Dave Zatz: The New York Times is out with a piece covering a number of TiVo’s advertising initiatives. Which I was ready to let go, until I came upon this beauty: “TiVo is not the only company devising a solution to commercial-skipping.”
Hands on with Eye-Fi Explore Video
Dave Zatz: The Eye-Fi folks recently shipped me their new 4GB ‘Explore Video’ WiFi card ($99) for review. Unfortunately, the higher capacity SDHC card is incompatible with my aging SD-only digital cam (and I no longer own a Zi6). So we’ve kept it in the family, and Brent’s posted a hands on review over at Geek Tonic using his more capable camera.
Cablevision breaks the speed barrier and more
Mari Silbey: Cablevision is going renegade. Unlike many other operators, the company has come out against bandwidth caps. And now to add to that rebel stance, Cablevision is introducing a new speed tier at $99.95 per month with 101 Mbps downstream.
A non-geek look at Moxi’s HD DVR
Dave Zatz: I’m still getting familiar with my loaner retail Moxi HD DVR ($800, no fees). The Moxi UI is high def lusciousness and it offers some compelling features beyond requisite DVR functionality – such as the ticker, media streaming, and web browsing (!). And not an ad in sight. However… The interface does take a bit of getting used to.
April 29th, 2009 | Posted in Audio, Mobile | No Comments
Nokia and I are in agreement over at least one thing: the company made mistakes when launching its all-you-can-eat music subscription offering “Comes With Music” in the UK. The service whereby you purchase a qualifying Nokia handset and then get access to the entire library of the Nokia Music Store for 12 – 18 months and get to keep any downloaded tracks once the subscription ends, was launched in the UK on two aging phones and with the backing of only one carrier and one retail chain. Continue reading »
April 29th, 2009 | Posted in Mobile | 2 Comments
New PSP mock-up (credit: 1UP.com)
If reports are to be believed, a new version of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP) will ditch the handheld games console’s UMD disc drive in favor of 8GB or 16GB of internal storage. Games would then need to be purchased as downloads rather than housed on physical media, likely locking the PSP’s future software eco-system to Sony’s equivalent of Apple’s iPhone App Store.
… since the UMD is going away, Sony will have over 100 classic and new PSP titles available for download at launch (Gran Turismo Mobile is said to be one of the premier launch titles). As for the hardware itself, the redesign will include a d-pad, analog nub, and face buttons as part of a sliding unit sticking out below the screen (as seen in our mockup above).
Furthermore, 1UP speculates that the new PSP could build on features found in Sony’s Mylo 2 Internet device, a product that hasn’t exactly set the world on fire. “This could provide an 800×480 pixel touch screen for the system, as well as a camera on the system’s backside”, suggest the site.