The Digital Britain report and what it means to you

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The report we’ve all been waiting for is finally out but, now that the dust has settled, what’s actually changed and what does it mean for you? Have a read of the Tech Digest breakdown.

Broadband

What we’re expecting

Universal Internet program whereby at least 98% of the UK would be covered by broadband fast enough to stream live TV services, i.e more than 2mb/s – possibly funded by the part of the licence fee set aside to assist the nation with digital switchover which won’t be needed by the time the analogue signal has been switched off in 2012.

The freed up funds could be given to BT to help with the huge costs of supplying fixed line broadband to remote locations. It’s also possible that the remaining and most difficult to reach communities could receive broadband via satellite although this would mean subsidising subscriptions to services such as Sky.

Mobile broadband is also expected to be widened to much of the nation. Currently only a small proportion has 3G service from the big five mobile operators with large parts of Scotland and Wales ignored.

It’s hoped that the part of the electromagentic spectrum currently dedicated to the analogue TV service will be sold off to Vodafone, O2 et al and used as encouragement for them to expand their infrastructure and increase their speeds.

What we got

  • Small 50p levy on fixed telephone lines to build an independent fund to be used to maximise the spread of hard-wired, fast internet to as much of the UK as possible. Without this and left to private enterprise, only 2/3 of the country would ever receive quality service in the next 10 years.
  • Promise to modernise the UK wireless network to ensure we don’t fall behind in mobile internet services globally speaking
  • Upgrade of all national radio stations from analogue to digital DAB by 2015

What it means

By the sounds of things, a small increase in our telephone/broadband bills – a phone line tax – most likely raised at the ISPs and almost definitely passed on to the consumer. Not ideal but I can handle giving a little for the gift of decent broadband to my remote countrymen.

The commitment to mobile broadband sounds rather wishy washy and although the sentiment is good, I wouldn’t go expecting 3G coverage in Kinlochbervie any time soon. There’s plenty of wheeling and dealing to do with the big five over termination rates and bandwidth tenders before we get that far but at least the Government has a bargaining chip.

As for digital all national radio services. Well, hmm, still doesn’t sound like enough to warrant buying a DAB radio if you live in the sticks.

Piracy

What we’re expecting

A lot of toing and froing between ISPs, record labels, Ofcom and EU legislation about how the “problem” of piracy can be tackled without infringing the rights of the consumers in regard to be being monitored and shut off.

Likely that UK ISPs will be given some kind of power beyond idle threat letters to cut off persistent mass file sharers. Some thoughts are of a three strikes rule but the point is that there will be firm legislative backing to follow through on the threats

What we got

  • Development of legal download markets in the UK to provide a viable alternative to piracy
  • Ofcom handed task of reducing file sharing and powers to notify of unlawful activity as well as hand over the details of serial infringers to allow legal action to rights holders.
  • ISPs given the task of reducing file sharing by 70%. Given powers to throttle bandwidth of repeat offenders but no three strikes legislation.
  • Online piracy and the downloading and uploading of copyright material whether though peer-to-peer or otherwise to be considered civil theft.

What it means

Well, it’s a promise to get heavy on file sharing, and more to the point, a promise to get heavy on ISPs if they don’t. You’re probably still safe grabbing the odd TV episode here and there – don’t quote me on that – but expect to have your bandwidth cut and invitations to a court hearing from not so friendly record companies should you do so in any serious quantity.

Unclear how easy it’s going to be to police but expect the UK legal system to show you little mercy or offer you much protection. Watch your backs.

Channel 4

What we’re expecting

The short fall in profits and huge financial issue facing the public funded Channel 4 should be answered. There’s a good chance that part they’ll be helped out by the Government to make sure that the services don’t fold.

What we got

  • Talks between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4 to secure the future of the latter

What it means

Channel 4 will go on, seemingly as aided by the commercial arm of the BBC and perhaps after 2013 by the by the licence fee itself.

The License Fee

What we’re expecting

No rise expected for the consumer and nor do we think it’s going to be scrapped either. Universal Broadband should ensure that all licence payers receive equal opportunity to experience the services that we’re all charged for.

However, it’s likely that the BBC will have to put up with having their lions’ share cut down in order to fund institutions like Channel 4 and the implementation of the Digital Britain schemes.

What we got

  • No mention of BBCs exclusivity on the licence fee as such
  • No mention of the cost of the thing either
  • Slightly unclear references to the sharing out after 2013 but a clear knowledge that the BBC has no inherent right to it
  • Provision of spare switchover funds to aid local and regional news organisations to ensure their survival

What it means

It looks as if the BBC will lose their monopoly on the license fee come 2013. Very good chance that a lot of it will go to regional news and Channel 4.

Local newspapers and websites – often cited as the cornerstone of UK journalism – will not disappear into the ground. You’ll still receive your large, papery copy of the Maidenhead Advertiser complete with lollypop lady stories, cats up trees and completely outmoded cinema listing as well as local TV news, which ITV can no longer support, and local news websites.

Conclusions

If you live in Scotland and Wales, you don’t file share and you don’t work at the BBC, then it’s generally good news. Channel 4 and all that enjoy it – most of us, I asume – will breathe a sigh of relief.

In fact, it’s only really bad news for pirates and, even then, it’s unclear at the moment as to how well this 70% clampdown’s going to be enforced. Try switching to free streamed services. Ownership is so 90s.

All in all, it could have been a little stronger but then everyone would’ve complained. It’s the 50p levy that’s probably the most important and best move for the country as a whole. Great news that Channel 4 will be looked after along with local news organisations. Maybe not an Earth shattering report but good, solid important stuff.

(via music 🙂 ally)

Watch Wimbledon with IBM's mobile apps and Twitter

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IBM has been working at Wimbledon since the dawn of time and they’re upping their tech ante in 2009 with a trio of mobile phone apps to help you, me and everyone we know follow the comings and goings at SW19, mostly via Twitter.

Seer Aggregator

The pick of the bunch for me is the Seer Aggregator which is essentially a specific Twitter channel beaming straight to your phone. IBM will have a crack team of tweeters in and around the Lawn Tennis Association HQ offering real time info on the games, the scores and anything from queue lengths, seat availability and the general atmosphere too. Some of these sources will include the commentators and the players themselves and I can’t wait for the first “You cannot be serious!” tweet from Maccer.

Wimbledon iPhone app

The second is a little more “expected” shall we say, as we’ll expect a slew of World Cup 2010 themed bits and pieces next summer. No word on how much a Wimbledon iPhone app will cost – I’m thinking free – but it’ll bring all the scores and draws straight to your phone while you sit sweating in a hot city office all too far from the strawberries and cream of South-West London.

On the plus side, it’s probably not going to sing Summer Holiday at you when rain stops play – at least, you’d hope not.

Seer Android Beta

The most ambitious of the three is unlikely to be available to anyone but VIP guests this year. It’s an Android specific app designed to run on the G1. It uses the handset’s in-built compass, GPS and camera to identify buildings at Wimbledon and provide real time information on what’s going on inside them.

The footage of what you point it at will stream directly to a database which identifies the image and reports with all the kinds of detail you’d expect from the Seer Aggregator plus a little bit more too. It’ll work on everything from courts to restaurants.

Sounds a little on the gimmicky side but certainly worth a go if you’re lucky enough to have one thrust into your hand.

It’s probably too late to get tickets to the summer UK tennis extravaganza but, if you’d like info on where to stick your sleeping bag/jump the fence, you’ll find it all here.

Olympus EP-1 gets official – specs and prices

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I don’t know about you but I was blown away by the beautiful shots of the Olympus EP-1 we saw yesterday. So, today is the number crunching now that the official release is out.

There’s a 12.3-megapixel Live MOS sensor within that exquisite frame with an ISO range of 100-6400, and it’s not just there were it sounds like a proper DSLR. It shoots RAW footage, if you desire, onto SDHC cards and features both in-body dust reduction and image stabilisation. It’ll rattle off shots at an impressive 3fps using an 11-point AF system through live view onto a 3-inch, 230,000-dot LCD on the back. All very healthy stuff.

It records HD video at 720p and 30fps and despite its antiquated look you do get all manner of HDMI and USB ports. I’m very impressed to note the presence of microphones in the plural which makes stereo sound recording possible unlike most DSLRs which only offer mono.

So, the big question is – how much do you reckon this all costs? What would you pay for style, size and supreme functionality?

Well, you can pick up the body and the zoom lens for £699, the body and the fixed wide angle for £749 or the lot for £849, and all of it here. There’s also an optional flash which’ll bump it up too.

Take a look at the detailed spec sheet for the bits and pieces you’re looking for but, if you ask me, it’s very good deal – provided it actually takes good photos, of course.

i, stereo recording, WAV files, ,slot, HDMI out and 720p video recording at 30fps, n,, , AVI Motion JPEG(30fps) to 2GB,

Olympus

Samsung gets official with the Omnia II, Omnia Pro & Omnia Lite

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We saw the majority of the details on these little devils from Samsung a little earlier on today but it’s always nice to get the official.

Omnia II

Ladies and germs, meet the Omnias – the latest family to move into smartphone street. First up is the Omnia II (I800), successor to the original Omnomnomnia.comcomcomnia. It’s got a very pretty 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display, the same kind of 5-megapixel camera with CMOS sensor and the TouchWiz 2.0 interface to mask the joys of Windows Mobile 6.1.

There’s the same fantastic audio and video codec support as on the Jet, and the other Omnias too as it goes, as well as A2DP Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HSDPA too. All present and correct.

A-GPS is in the house, as is a 3.5mm jack, you get a much better 1500 mAh battery than on the Jet and it measures a very similar sounding 118 x 60 x 11.9 mm. It’s available in 2GB/8GB/16GB sizes all expandable with microSD and all in all sounds like a decent buy.

Omnia Pro

Next up is the OmniaPRO B7610, or what we called the Louvre not too long ago, and it’s designed as a work/play combo machine.

The hard QWERTY sets it out from the other handsets but there’s still a 5-megapixel CMOS camera and 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen to go with it. It’s compatible with all Office apps and works with Opera Mini 9.5.

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It still does all the tricks available on the Omnia II but there’s only the 1GB of expandable storage and the keyboard does make it a little chunkier at 12.6 x 57.8 x 16.2 mm.

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Omnia Lite

The Lite does what it says on the tin. It’s a slightly stripped down, and probably cheaper, version of the Omnia II. Again, generous on the codecs but a lower resolution and still impressive sounding 3-megapixel CMOS sensor camera to play with. Just a 3-inch WQVGA display this time around though.

There’s a smaller 250MB of expandable storage but the 107 x 51.8 x 12.9 mm, 103g phone has still got that big old 1500 mAh battery which should mean it lasts you a good while.

If you like a Samsung phone, then today has officially been your lucky day.

Samsung press releases

The Samsung Jet screams onto the scene at 800MHz speeds

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The Samsung Jet is going to seem like a silly name at the other end of your 18-month contract but, as of today, it’s the fastest handset available in the world right. The impressive 800MHz processor is at the heart of its creed, backed up by the Samsung Dolphin browser, an improved TouchWiz 2.0 interface and support for just about every kind of file and feature you could shake a stick at.

There’s a 5-megapixel camera with double LED flash, autofocus, smile shot, face detection, blink detection and armpit detection. (One of these is not true). But best of all is the undoubtedly stunning 3.1″ AMOLED display with the kind of resolution that makes my CRT weep. It’s WVGA, so that’ll be somewhere slightly beyond 800 x 480. Oh, and it’s touchscreen too, but you knew that, right?

It does support 3G and Wi-Fi, it does have a 3.5mm jack, in fact there’s very little it doesn’t do. It’s perfectly happy working with all your DRMed music files and the other usual audio standards – MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA. On the video side, it’ll play DivX, Xvid, WMV, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 formats. You’ll be able to record your own at a healthy 30fps too.

You’ll be able to beam all the sounds straight to your ears with Bluetooth 2.1, you can link it up and charge via microUSB (praise the lord) and you’ve got both mircoSD and 2GB of onboard storage to play with – or what we call in the business “enough”.

The most intriguing part of the package for me, though, is the Dolphin browser. Samsung has got some serious competition in the shape of Opera Mini and, well, Opera Mini really but they’re talking the talk with this software addition.

It’s got a built-in ad blocker, offers multiple downloads and you can have five pages open at any one time. They’ve also got around the multitouch barrier with one finger zooming, Interesting to see how well that works.

The whole package measures a really quite neat 108.8 X 53.5 X 11.9 mm with perhaps the only question mark for me the 1,100 mAh battery. It’s often hard to say how well it preforms because of the nature of the processor and how effiicient a piece of engineering the whole handset is, but all I know is that that’s less than all the super smart phones I compared the other day and even less than the G1 which’ll barely get you through a single day of proper use.

That said, I’m pleased to say that I’m liking what Samsung’s come up with; the fastest handset in the East and West, at least until Toshiba gets its act together.

Samsung Jet

Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 and friends hit the web

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The clock may be ticking on Samsung’s Unpacked global launch today but it looks like the cat’s out of the bag already. The Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 has appeared on their official Korean website – in Korean, before you look

It’s got a 3.5-inch OLED, of the kind LG feels is too expensive, with an impressive 800 x 480 resolution. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 (soon with 6.5), it’s got a 5-megapixel camera and, apparently, comes in both Pro and Media specific interfaces whatever that turns out to mean.

There’s all the usual Blueteeth and Wi-Fi, a slide-out QWERTY and expandable internal storage of 1GB. Not bad at all. In fact, it appears to be what we called the Louvre a few days ago.

The nice ladies also appear to be holding a Pixon12, which we know something about already too, and also the 3.2-inch, Android OS, Samsung i7500 with the 5-megapixel camera and staggering 32GB of internal memory. Eat your heart out N97.

You’d have to presume it’s the same bunch that’s about to touch down all over the world. Speaking of which, that gives me around 45 minutes to get myself down to Battersea to find out. See you down there.

(via PC World)

Beautiful Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera leaks onto net

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Word was that the Olympus EP-1 was to launch tomorrow but the internet has had other ideas about that one and images of the gorgeous little snapper have leaked onto our screens this afternoon. Whoops. Still, I’m sure they can impress us with the specs in the morning.

For now, what we have is rather stunning Micro Four Thirds camera designed in homage to the old Rangefinder film cameras. Of course, instead of 35mm stock, there’s a full size DSLR image sensor in that little body and a choice of one or two lenses. The standard is a 17mm wide angle chap with a 14-42mm 3x zoom by its side.

Doubtless it’ll cost a bomb but we have one night to dream. Sleep well, my friends.

(via Engadget)

Five ways to protect yourself on Twitter and other social media

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An American gentleman by the name of Israel Hyman had his house burgled while he was away on holiday. Nothing particularly new there. However, there’s a serious suspicion that the thief had all the information he/she needed through Mr Hyman’s own posts on Twitter.

He’d tweeted that he was “preparing to head out of town” and that he had “another ten hours of driving ahead”. Combined with links to Mr Hyman’s Flickr page containing photos of his computers, bicycle and flat screen TV, all of which were geo-tagged with their location at his home address, and suddenly you’ve got a pretty good picture for a would-be criminal.

Naturally, there’s a lot of scaring the bejesus out of people in the press on this one and, quite naturally, there’s probably a few of you out there wondering whether or not it’s a good idea to be posting all sorts of bits and pieces on Twitter and other social networks. In fact, you may not be sure that it’s safe to use social media at all.

Let me allay your fears first of all by saying, it is. In the great words of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, Don’t Panic. Twitter is safe, Facebook is safe but, perfectly understandibly, there’s a few uncertainties and teething problems because, relatively speaking, it’s all rather new. Even if you’re an early adopter, the game changes slightly when you’ve got the whole world using these things, including potential burglars.

So, here are a few bits of advice that’ll keep you feeling free and uncensored on Twitter and other social networks without ending up like Mr Hyman:

1) Protect your updates

If you haven’t seen, there is an option on Twitter that means you can protect your updates so that only people you allow can see your tweets. It’s indicated by a little padlock. Any time anyone clicks to follow you, you’ll be sent an e-mail asking if that’s ok by you. You can then take the time to check out their profile, look at their Tweets and generally have a good Google of them if you like before you decide whether or not they’re kosher.

It’s really a Twitter version of the Facebook rule of thumb that states “Don’t make friends with people you don’t know” or that warning of wisdom stitched onto our hearts from a very young age – don’t talk to strangers.

2) Watch your words

Don’t write on Twitter and Facebook the kinds of information you wouldn’t shout from the rooftops anyway, eg: bank details, phone numbers, car registration, home address. It’s all fairly indelible once it’s up there and it’s quite easy to piece it all together.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t worry too much about saying what a lovely time your having on holiday or how much you’re looking forward to going or in fact just about anything else at all. If you’ve got your updates protected then you’ve vetted everyone who’s following you in the first place and, if you haven’t, it’s still next to impossible to be get all the other pieces of the puzzle together so long as you have in mind the general expanse of your digital foot print.

So, if you really must put your home address on your profile, then don’t start saying when and for how long you’re going to be away from the the fort.

3) Don’t geo-tag everything

…or at least if you do, it might be worth removing the meta data when you upload your images to Facebook, Twitpic or Flickr. It’s probably worth taking a look at your phone or camera to see whether your pictures auto-tag. As it goes, most compacts and DSLRs don’t have in-built GPS anyway, so you’d probably know about it if there was geo-tagging going on. Most mobile phones these days will offer you the option, so make sure you take a look at the image files before you upload from your handsets.

Of course, for 95% of your photos, it’s not really a problem anyway but worth bearing in mind that everything you snap at home and upload will pinpoint exactly where you live. That may not be a big deal on its own but if you’re not going to protect your updates and if you are going to tweet about when and where you’re going and how long for, then make sure you’re not geo-tagging all your home snaps.

4) Keep your personal away from your business

The real thing that rumbled Mr Hyman, if indeed the burglar did use Twitter and Flickr to case the job, was the fact that he’s got over 2,000 followers and he’s got that many because he’s mixed his personal life and business life in one account.

Quite sensibly, Mr Hyman uses Twitter to promote his online video business but what he hasn’t done is split his personal and business interested into two separate user names. So, on the one hand he wants to be followed by as many people as possible as an advert for his professional services and, on the other, he’s telling them all the more intimate details of his personal life.

Not a good idea if you’re then going to combine that with tweeting about your whereabouts and tagging all your home snaps too.

5) Don’t click on every single link that comes through

Last of all is just an extension of what we should all have learnt by now with regards to safety online. It applies to Twitter as much as it does to Facebook and e-mails too. Just don’t go clicking on every single line of hyperlinked URL that comes your way. Make sure you know who it’s from is probably the best piece of advice here.

If you know who sent it to you, 99% of the time they’ll be no issues at all, and on that 1% of the time when it’s some auto-sent piece malicious link, your friend from whom it came will probably have warned you already.

Generally, you can get away with ignoring one or two of these rules of thumb but if you do them all together, you’re open to running into problems. The overall message is just to be aware of the scope of all the info you put on line. There’s no need to worry about using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or any other social media. They’re perfectly safe applications. Just be aware of how much of your life you put online.

At the end of the day, houses have been getting burgled for years and there’s only anecdotal evidence even in the case of Mr Hyman that social media was used at all in the invasion and theft of his property. On the plus side, if it was through Twitter, at least there’s a very traceable list of suspects.

Archos 9 Windows 7-based mini PC out in September

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Queston: When does a media tablet become a mini PC?
Answer: When it’s an Archos 9.

Another year, another two inches and a Windows 7 platform for everyone’s favourite PMP. The Archos 9 sounds more like a netbook with its Intel Atom Z515 800/1200Mz CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB HDD and other assorted capped up letters. In fact, it basically is, minus the keyboard.

Word has it the 8.9″ display is multi-touch with a nice new Li-polymer battery for maximum power efficiency. Connectivity-wise it’s got all you could need with 3G, ‘tooth 2.1, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and the whole thing weighs under 800g; stereo speakers, a VGA out and 1.3-megapixel webcam and that’s about your lot.

It should be available early autumn for 500€. Not cheap but then these things never are.

UPDATE: Just received the official on this and it also has a DVB-T tuner and will be followed by a 12″ version in 2010.

Archos (via UMPC portal)

Archos 7 preview: