RIP Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs has died at the young age of 56 after years of fighting cancer.

He has affected many people in many ways, mainly good though in the early years at Apple he was thought of as a bully but mellowed after being kicked out and then brought back in.

He revolutionised the home computer market with the Apple I and then the Apple II (with Steve Wozniac) - after which it went slightly pear shaped and he got fired and went to start Next Computers.

The Next Cube was a design classic (and later Apple designs kept hankering back to it) and NextOS was way beyond its time (and computing capabilities).

After Microsoft had bailed Apple out with a $250m cash injection and saving them from bankruptcy (and MS being a monopoly in the desktop OS space), Apple purchased Next (which was a commercial failure) and took on NextOS which later evolved into MacOS X.

In the meantime Steve Jobs had purchased a small computer generated image (CGI) start-up (spun out of LucasFilm) called PIXAR which he eventually sold to Disney ...

Steve Jobs also took on board an unknown British Product designer (Jonathan Ives) who made technology fit what were to become iconic designs such as the iMac, iPod etc. Changing the face of computing to what it is now.

Apple's iPod dominated the music player market since it's inception (over 70% of all music players sold) which has continued with the iPhone and iPad.

Apple made a bold decision to move from IBM/Motorola with the PowerPC to Intel's x86 CPU, but IBM was concentrating efforts on consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PS3. Though Intel's CPU's weren't that special, Intel had the resources to support Apple and allowed them to produce the Macbook AIR which used the same silicon as normal Intel CPUs but on a new substrate allowing a much more compact design of the physical hardware.

The iPhone was also a radical move from the traditional smart-phone which was a phone that could sort of do apps. Apple changed that and made a small computer that could sort of make phone calls. When the iPad came out - they dropped the phone call bit altogether (well apps could make calls, but using data not voice circuitry).

Whether people are Apple 'fan boys' or not, Steve Jobs made a huge impact on the computing industry as we know it now and fundamentally changed the way music could be obtained and played, put design first and made the technology fit and made a computer into a phone.

He made some mistakes along the way like the Apple Lisa. The Newton was revolutionary but never had the software or hardware for it be useful. Apple also dallied in expensive printers (one of the first laser printers) and digital cameras.

He will be missed even by Windows die-hards.

There's currently a tribute on the Apple home page and a page dedicated to the man himself, which is simple yet poignant ...

Droidcon takes place on the 6th and 7th of Oct

Droidcon is the London Android conference and it's taking place at the Business Design Centre in Islington over 2 days (6th and 7th Oct 2011).

There's a great selection of speakers (including myself - I'll be talking about enterprise solutions - or not) and there's a lot of actual good speakers. There'll be a mix of techie and other talks.

Ofcom now looks after your post too

Ofcom the 'super' regulator that looks after the broadcast, media, radio and telecoms industries also now regulates the Post Office having officially taken over the role of Postcomm from Oct 1st 2011.

The Postcomm website will remain live until October 31st at which point it will be archived on the National Archives website.

Any Postal matters will be located on the Ofcom Website.

MeeGo is dead, Long Live Tizen

Intel has decided to drop Meego (the combined efforts of its own Moblin efforts and Nokia's Maemo) in favour of a new Linux mobile OS known as Tizen which comes out of the Linux Foundation and LiMo Foundation.

Tizen will support smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems and though Linux based will make use of HTML5 web apps. It will be jointly technically led by Intel and Samsung. Intel will help developers migrate from MeeGo to Tizen.

Samsung has already stated it will open source its BADA operating system in 2012, though it could now sit on top of Tizen.

Both companies hope that it will open up the market to another Linux like operating system that isn't Android thus reduce Google's dominance in the smartphone marketplace.

Qualcomm introduces new powerline and WiFi chips

Qualcomm (or to be exact Qualcomm Atheros) has announced severel new chips including the AR7420 which is Homeplug AV compliant and supports up to 500Mb/s wire speed over standard home electrical mains wiring. The chip uses frequencies from 2 MHz to 68 MHz (which may annoy a few ham radio enthusiasts). There's also a companion chip the AR1540 which is a line driver supporting multiple countries.

Also announced is a high performance WiFi system on chip (SoC) known as the AR9580 in co-operation with Mindspeed Technologies which incorporates Qualcomm's 802.11n multi stream WiFi chip in conjunction with Mindspeeds's Comcerto® 1000 broadband packet processors giving 1Gb/s bandwidth suitable for video over WiFi (VoW) solutions. The SoC is suitable for OEMs and end-user designs.

EDIMAX have launched a wireless access point known as the WV-A900APN based on the AR950 suitable for VoW solutions.

Amazon to release colour Kindle (Fire)

Amazon is expected to release it's new colour Kindle (Fire) tablet tomorrow (28th Sept 2011).

It's expected to be a 7" tablet (similar to the Blackberry Playbook) featuring a dual core Texas Instruments OMAP processor (ARM based). It will run a forked version of Google's Android operating system that does not come with any of the Google applications installed, including Android Marketplace.

Instead it will have its own applications and access to Amazon's Android store, obviously including access to eBooks through the Kindle eReader.

Though the current Kindle eReader supports their own proprietary .azw format, though moving forward they should support some form of HTML5/ePub3 interactive eBook format.

The device is expected to launch in November with a price tag between $250 and $300 (in the US).

Ofcom bans ARCs

Ofcom, the regulator that deals with broadcast, telecoms and radio has published a statement that will stop telecoms and broadband providers from automatically renewing contracts for those services.

Currently automatically renewing contracts (ARCs) come into effect at the end of a minimum contract period (MCP) and will then enter a new MCP automatically unless the customer explicitly terminates the contract. If they miss the termination period they may then may be subject to an early termination charge (ETC).

The regime comes into force in December 2011 for all new telecoms and broadband contracts for new customers and by December 2012 for existing contracts (that may be already ARCs).

This only affects consumer and small business contracts.

Ofcom to charge Communications Providers for number allocations

Ofcom, the super regulator that looks after broadcast, radio and telecoms has issued a statement about protecting number ranges and intends to charge for their use.

The initial exchanges affected are area code Bournemouth (01202) which is likely to need new supplies during 2012, followed by Aberdeen (01224), Bradford (01274), Brighton (01273), Cambridge (01223) and Milton Keynes (01908) by 2016.

The first stage will force local users to dial the full local number (including the geographic code) which will allow Ofcom to allocate number beginning with 0 and 1.

Ofcom is also proposing to charge 10p per allocated number for new allocation and for EXISTING allocations in those exchanges where numbers are running out.

This may not sound like a bad thing, but it's going to cause huge problems for communicatoins providers (CP) with customers using telephone numbers in these ranges, especially if they're a smaller provider (mainly affects VoIP providers).

Currently Ofcom allocates numbers in blocks of 10,000 normally or 1,000 in exchanges where numbers of running out. This is due to the way telephone calls are routed between telephone exchanges and is based on BT's inability to handle blocks less than 1,000 numbers (due to legacy telephony constraints). BT actually manually loads all number blocks into their exchanges so each time a CP gets allocated a block - they inform all the other CPs of the blocks and they put the information into their systems (telephony switches/exchanges). Though it affects all CPs, BT is still the main telephony network in the UK and by default they'll transit the calls through their network.

The big telephony providers won't really be affected by this as they have millions of customers, so the additional payments for handling blocks of 1,000 numbers is minimal, however the costs for a smaller VoIP provider can be significant.

As the charging applies to existing numbers allocated (to encourage providers to hand back unused numbers) smaller providers will be forced to pay (even if they've just reserved numbers just so they can offer local numbers all over the UK).

The problem is that say a CP has a couple of customers in one of the exchanges where numbers allocations are restricted, they will have taken a block of at least 1,000 numbers. They either have to give the whole block back and the customer loses their telephone number, or the CP keeps the whole block. It's also impossible to port the number as then there will be a whole in the block and again it can't be given back (unless it's ported to another provider who will take the whole black - which is only going to be possible to the larger CPs where the costs won't be significant).

So this new policy hurts all the smaller providers - who'll just have to discontinue offering numbers in protected blocks (and get existing customers to give-up their local numbers) while supporting the large incumbents.

There is a solution to this, Ofcom could maintain a central on-line database of numbers and what CP they belong to (and there's even an existing telephony protocol that supports this called ENUM). Then any CP wanting to route calls to a particular number would first consult the database and then route the call the relevant provider.

This would allow Ofcom to allocate SINGLE numbers rather than blocks and CPs would only need to pay for numbers they actually use, it would also mean they could return any numbers not in use. This would then allow the smaller CPs to maintain numbers even in the protected exchanges and they could return huge amounts of unused numbers in other exchanges too.

Many of the VoIP providers support ENUM now and it would be trivial for them to support a CP interconnect version of ENUm too. Unfortunately companies like BT and other incumbents don't and they control the market.

If Ofcom does implement this policy many smaller CPs will be financially constrained which might make their VoIP services uneconomical, so they'll have to stop offering VoIP which will just play into the incumbents and make them even more powerful and resistant to change.

Ofcom needs to support a central database of number allocation utilising ENUM and force CPs to use this for inter CP call routing and then allocate single numbers. This will encourage competition and ensure there is market choice for consumers in terms of CP choice and of course remove the current issues of numbers running out.

Ofcom offering a new digital channel

Ofcom is making available a 5th HD channel on the HD Digital Terrestrial TV multiplex. The existing 4 HD channels are BBC HD, BBC One HD, ITV1 HD and Channel4 HD (4HD). The HD multiplex uses MPEG-4 (compared to normal standard definition TV which is based on MPEG-2) and uses the DVB-T2 transmission standard (normal SD transmissions use DVB-T). Applications cost £15,000 payable to Ofcom (which is non-refundable whether the license is granted or not). There are also license conditions so only the following may apply for a license" -

the holder of a licence to provide a Channel 3 service. Channel Four Corporation. the holder of a licence to provide Channel 5. the Welsh Authority. the public teletext provider.

Applicants may apply here

Ofcom offers new spectrum for Transportable Earth Stations

Ofcom has opened up new spectrum in the C and Ka bands for use by Transportable Earth Stations (TES) i.e. portable satellite communications devices.

The spectrum has been made available immediately and users can apply for licenses on-line.

These licenses come with fees which Ofcom have also published.

This will allow satellite comms equipment to offer greater connection speeds by making use of the increased spectrum.

Ofcom opens Whitespace spectrum

Ofcom the super regulator that deals with regulation of broadcast media, radio and telecoms has made a statement about opening-up 'white space spectrum' and allow for devices to be deployed in a license exempt manner (in the UK there is no such thing as unlicensed spectrum and all transmission or reception equipment is covered by either a specific license or a 'blanket' license published by Ofcom and as long as the user/equipment abides by the conditions of the blanket license they don't need a specific license - bands like 2.4GHz which covers WiFi and Bluetooth devices are license exempt).

The equipment will have to connect to a central database (that Ofcom may actually subcontract to 3rd parties) which will note their geolocation and provide information about which frequencies are in use in that area. Ofcom may mandate a 'switch-off' mode such that if interference is detected in the area, white space devices may be forced to stop transmission.

This will be particularly suitable for rural areas as the 'white space' spectrum can be used to support wireless broadband and other services. This is significant as Ofcom are proposing that the TV bands can be used (as digital multiplexs use interleaved frequencies such that neighbouring transmitter sites don't interfere with each other) and TV bands have good propagation characteristics. Ofcom is also considering the UHF bands, though these may be more problematic longer term.

Ofcom also is considering use for WiFi like services (for localised high speed connectivity) and machine-to-machine communications which could cover things like meter reading.

Though Ofcom will have to consider European harmonisation so it make a while to implement (Ofcom is hoping for systems to be in operation by 2013), this is a bold step by Ofcom in making use of 'wasted' spectrum and being very proactive.

Ofcom will have to introduce an SI (Statutory Instrument) which is passed by Parliament to amend the WTA (Wireless Telegraphy Act) to make the spectrum license exempt.

Ofcom issues a notification to HomeServe

Ofcom the super regulator has issued a notice under section 128 of the Communication Act 2003 to HomeServe (HomeServe Plc) for persistant breaches pertaining to automated dialling equipment making silent calls and redialing within 24 hours when the call was answered by an answered by an answering machine.

Ofcom has the power to fine companies under Section 130 of the Act if they fail to remedy their actions once notified.

Previous companies to receive notifications and or fines for silent calling have been: -

RWE npower PLC ("npower") Ultimate Credit Services Ltd (“UCS”) Equidebt Ltd (“Equidebt”) Barclays Bank plc (“Barclaycard”) Abbey National plc (“Abbey”) Complete Credit Management Limited (“CCM”)

Ofcom puts TV companies on notice

The following companies have been put on notice for non payment of broadcast license fees: -

Licensee	Licence Number	Service Name
A&A Inform Limited	TLCS/680	Russian Hour
ARY Digital UK Limited	TLCS/290	Ary Digital
ARY Digital UK Limited	TLCS/924	QTV - Islamic Education Channel
ARY Digital UK Limited	TLCS/925	ARY News
Canis 103 Limited	TLCS/1109	FOBO Movies
General Entertainment & Music Limited	TLCS/1326	GEM TV
Middlesex Broadcasting Corporation	RTSL/034	Leicester TV Limited
Passion Broadcasting Television	TLCS/885	Passion TV Limited
Praise Channel Broadcasting Network	TLCS/692	Praise Channel Limited
Prime Plus Limited	TLCS/793	PTV Prime Plus

Ofcom makes a large percentage of its revenue from broadcast licenses and failure to pay those fees are considered to be a serious breach of license conditions - which can mean the license can be revoked.

Ofcom fines TalkTalk and Tiscali £3m

Ofcom has fined TalkTalk and Tiscali £3m each for mis-billing customers after they had been previously warned to get their systems in order.

Between 1 January and 1 November 2010 the companies billed 62,000 customers for services they did not received. They were then warned to fix their systems by December but billed another 3,000 customer between December and March.

TalkTalk and Tiscali have already paid £2.5m in compensation to customers for refunds and good-will payments.

Ofcom showing biting - or just publicly showing they have some teeth?

Nuance buys Loquendo

Nuance who are buying up everyone involved in text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) have just purchased Loquendo from Telecom Italia for $75m.

Many TTS companies have evolved out of telecoms companies as they have had to had speech engines in their telecoms switches to announce to users call issues etc and even services such as the speaking clock - which in some countries are completely automatic. Efficient natural sounding computer generated speech is difficult to achieve and Loquendo have been leaders in this area in Europe (anyone using a TomTom device will be familiar with a Loquendo speech engine).

This adds to Nuance's already large portfolio of TTS products.

Nuance were also famous for purchasing Spinvox (for around £64m) the Marlow based company that converted voicemails into text messages, but were the probe of a BBC journalists investigation after it was alleged that voicemails were sent outside the EU in violation of data protection law for manual conversion by agents. Nuance shut the consumer division of Spinvox down to utilise their carrier connections.

Google to buy Motorola Mobility

Google is buying Motorola Mobility their (ex) handset division for $12.5bn in cash, however Mobility also manufactures set-top boxes (and a lot of them) which fits in nicely with Google's TV plans.

The deal should complete in 2012 but there will be a lot of US and EU competition regulations to wade through, so the deal might actually a while to get final approval. Shareholders should be happy as Google paid $40 per share which was a 63% premium (on Friday's closing price).

Google will gain access to a large patent portfolio which may help them against the threat from other IP holders such as Microsoft and Apple, though it's unlikely to do much for the fight against Oracle and their Java legal issues.

Motorola are one of the major Android licensees and Google expect to keep them at arms length in terms of Android development. It's likely that Google will sell all or part of the division in the future - so a cash deal means it's easy to chop off the divisions without their being any legacy tie-ins to Google.

Google's Nexus One was manufactured by HTC, the Nexus S by Samsung, this deal probably means the next Nexus will be a Motorola unit.

Duedil - find information on companies for free

Finding information about companies has always been complicated, basic information is available at Companies House, but to get anything useful you have to pay.

If you really want detailed info, then someone like Dun and Bradstreet offer very complex information, but it's really geared to accountants and CFOs.

There's now a new service that offers all Companies House information, plus more in an incredibly easy to use format. You need to sign-up, but it's free i.e. due-dilligence for the masses.

The service can be used to look for suppliers, competitors and clients (who you may want to do business with) and displays a wealth of information. What's also useful is that the information is all cross-linked, so say searching on a company and listing the directors, clicking on the director will show all the companies they are (and indeed have been) involved with.

Duedil also shows if there are any CCJs or other outstanding litigation and even ASA complaints as well as financials and a host of other information that is constantly being added.

If you need company info, Duedil should be your first port of call.

Moshi Monsters invade New York

Though there are over 15m US Moshi Monster users, so far they've only been able to play on-line.

On 5th August 2011 that will change as Moshi Monsters launch their range toys including the 6 plush Moshi Monsters and 32 Moshling mini figures at Toys"R"Us in Times Square from noon through 3pm.

There will a range of 'special' appearances and activities including: -

• Moshi Monsters characters, Poppet and Katsuma, appearing live in the fur!
• Moshi Monsters themed face painting.
• Autographs by Mr. Moshi himself (Michael Acton Smith, founder of Mind Candy and creator of Moshi Monsters).
• While supplies last, attendees will receive a complimentary Moshi Code giveaway, created exclusively for the event, of a super sparkly Liberty trophy, used to decorate a user's virtual room on MoshiMonsters.com.

The first 250 attendees will also receive a special copy of Moshi Monsters Magazine

Ofcom publishes report on DEA site blocking compliance

Ofcom the super regulator that looks after radio, broadcasting, media and telecoms has published a report (PDF) about blocking access to sites that publish illegal (copyright infringing) material in-line with section 17 and 18 of the Digital Economy Act DEA).

The report is quite long and complex and goes into detail on the different ways that sites can be blocked i.e. IP address, DNS manipulation, uniform resource locator (URL) manipulation, simple packet inspection (SPI) and deep packet inspection (SPI). There are also potential hybrids of various of the above methods with varying degrees of cost and effectivenes.

There is an existing system for blocking access to illegal material (such as child pornography) with a list maintained by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), though it can be effective for specific URLs, it can break (such as the incident when and entry on Wikipedia was blocked and most of the traffic from the UK to Wikipedia came from 6 proxies run by the dominant ISPs).

Amusingly where references to getting round several of the schemes are mentioned in the report, they have been redacted.

The report does indicate that existing methods of reporting copyright abuse (under section 97A of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988) are not going to be speeded-up by injunctions under section 17 or 18 of the DEA.

The report points out methods of encouraging site owners to co-operate in that if a blocking notice was put on the site, all of their site would be blocked, which might encourage the site to remove the offending content. There is also mention of co-operation of virtual private network (VPN) providers as pretty well all blocking can be undermined by utilising a VPN tunnel.

Ofcom are also keen to ensure the injunctions are not unduely punitive and there is accountability.

VoIP can be a dangerous game

Many businesses are starting to deploy or already have deployed IP PBX's (private branch exchanges) which are the guts of VoIP that route calls to local telephones or allow employees to make external calls.

Companies will either run the IP PBX themselves or even deploy remotely in a data centre (generally for a multisite company) or run a hosted system from a VoIP company.

Unfortunately if these systems aren't deployed carefully it can be easy for 'hackers' to connect to them and make out-going phone calls which can rapidly generate huge bills (they tend to target international premium rate numbers that they control, or just are used to route calls for 3rd parties).

Asterisk is a very commonly used open source IP PBX and in the past, the default SIP configuration allowed open access (this has been closed in newer releases). Many IP PBX's will also have open VoIP/SIP access (i.e. unauthenticated remote access - which allows remote users to dial internal extensions, however without having a sensible dial-plan these users can do outward dialling too).

In some cases the VoIP configurations will only allow secure connections, but the web configuration will have default credentials, so a remote attacker can just go in and create a new VoIP user which they then use to outward dial.

A company suffered such an attack over the weekend and was faced with a bill for £12,000+ worth of phone calls.

Though the company was to blame for not securing the web interface, the telephony provider (which could be a normal PSTN provider i.e. someone who provides traditional fixed line services or a VoIP provider) should have provision to check for unusual traffic patterns. So if normally calls are just made to the UK, they should block calls if there's suddenly a large volume to international numbers.

Any company getting a new phone system should check their provider offers such checks or they could be faced with large bills that they'll be liable for.

Worksnug goes live on Ovi

Last week (28/07/11) Worksnug announced their new iPhone app which includes all of HP's ePrint locations. The app offers an augmented reality display showing locations of workspaces and now also free HP ePrint solutions. The locations can also be viewed using a traditional map view. The app also providers addition tools for the mobile worker such as an integrated decibel meter in the mobile app, allowing users to assess and share noise levels inside working locations, and a unique ‘VoIP Checker’ tool, which assesses the ability of public WiFi networks to support VoIP calls.

Today (01/08/11) Worksnug have announced the availability of their Symbian app which has gone live in the Ovi store.

Worksnug also have a Blackberry client.

Worksnug was founded by Richard Leyland in 2009 to solve the problem of where to work when on the move and has now a growing database of public and public workspaces. The company has relationships with Plantronics, Cisco, Skype and HP.

New PhonePayPlus regulations affect all PRS providers

Ofcom has issued a statement concerning premium rate phone services (PRS) which come into force on the 1st of September 2011.

PhonePayPlus (PPP) is the industry regulator for PRS (and Ofcom have empowered PPP to handle all PRS regulatory issues). PPP will issue a new Code of Practice (12th edition) on the same date (12/10/11) and this will affect all PRS providers (not just the current subset).

The new code will tighten up issues left in the previous code and PPP is there to protect consumers (Ofcom have to power to ban companies and individuals from operating PRS if they misuse them).

Springboard gives birth to 10 promising companies

Friday 29th July was investor day for Springboard, the mentoring and accelerator program based out of Cambridge, where the 10 companies that had gone through the system did their final pitches to a packed audience made up of investors (in Springboard itself), mentors (including myself) and lots of VCs.

Springboard is loosely based on the TechStars program out of the US and was initiated by Red Gate Software in 2009 (this being the second incarnation). This year it was supported by Red Gate, angels and NESTA and took place in the Hauser Forum.

Compared to The Difference Engine (a similar program which took place in Sunderland last year) the teams and pitches were definitely more polished and all came out vastly improved (and some radically different) from when they started the program.

The teams were (in order of appearance)

Adwings - Lithuania - a ad publishing platform that allows tracking of campaigns to various destination media including print, digital and mobile.

Apiary.io - Prague, Czech Republic - A 'techy' service allowing companies to quickly build and deploy web APIs (application programming interfaces) while testing and monitoring and documenting them.

Arachnys - Cambridge, UK - a services for providing due-diligence on companies in emerging markets by consolidating all available information.

Hubflow - Bournemouth, UK - a service that converts existing training material into a mobile format (with tracking metrics to see how well the user is performing). This allows companies to offer training materials to their employees on their mobile device to be completed in dead time (such as when commuting) or at their own convenience.

Mayday - London, UK - a web based service that plugs into a company's .Net process to alert the company to errors in the process, hopefully before customers start complaining.

MiniMonos - Wellington, NZ - a virtual world for children (male) between 8 and 12. A Freemoim service with subscriptions and virtual goods. The site has been around for 2 years, but the new site launched last month and now has around 300,000 users. Membership packs will be available from Sainsbury's in Oct (next to Moshi Monsters etc).

Playmob - London, UK - a platform allowing games developers to easily integrate charitable payments into games (i.e. for virtual goods) and for Charities to easily sign-up to the service which should fully launch in October 2011.

Publification - Tartu, Estonia - a web based HTML5 authoring system and browser based eReader that works across multiple platforms (i.e. desktop and mobile). Once books have been downloaded they can be read off-line. The platform can be white-labelled for publishers and authors can also self-publish.

Tastebuds - London, UK - dating site based on music likes where matches are made based on music preferences. Users can just add artists they like or the service will import from Last.fm and/or Facebook.

Total Gigs, Newcastle, UK - a web service allowing disparate users to share content from events they have attending (making them into groups). After the event has taken place users can relive the event from the group content.

The program was driven by John Bradford with day to day organisation help from Jessica Williamson.

John's next accelerator program is Ignite100 and if the quality improves every time he runs one, it should produce some amazing companies.

RIM releases BBM v6

RIM have released Blackberry Messenger version 6, which allows application integration so say a BBM connected game will allow the user to invite a BBM friend to play.

The first wave of BBM connected applications will go live on Blackberry World today.

There are around 45m monthly active users of BBM and RIM hope to increase this by adding functionality to BBM such as location services and VoIP.

If Apple and Google can offer a competing messaging system that really competes with BBM, then it really may be the end of RIM.

Skype for Windows offers deeper Facebook integration

Skype have released version 5.5 for Windows which now allows checking the availability of Facebook friends without leaving the Skype client.

There are also improvements to the group chat functionality and the video quality.

Though Skype currently dominate this space, Vonage are releasing mobile clients that will allow VoIP calls, there is already a Vonage client for iPhone which integrates with Facebook chat (but doesn't allow access to other Vonage users).

Mozilla plans mobile OS

Mozilla is joining the mobile operating systems bandwaggon and plans to launch Boot to Gecko (B2G) an open operating system designed to run web applications in the cloud.

Google has already gone part of the way with ChromeOS which so far has only been deployed on Netbooks (while Android boasts native apps). HP's WebOS is also out there, on both phones and tablets.

Intel are also trying with MeeGo - though the loss of Nokia (who have migrated to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 or WP7) might have slowed things down.

The B2G will support Firefox (Mozilla's open source browser), they're are not tying the OS to it and will support 3rd party browsers if they wish to support B2G.

Another mobile OS may just confuse the market more, though the Mozilla product is likely to be completely open source (as far as any OS can be that supports closed parts such as the GSM/2G/3G stacks).

RIP Steve Lacey

This weekend turned out to be a weekend of carnage, a right wing fanatic killed lots of people in Norway and Amy Whitehouse died. However the most depressing thing turned out to be the death of a good friend Steve Lacey, who was killed instantly when a road-rage driver lost control of his car which went over a central reservation barrier and ploughed into Steve's car.

Steve was a a lovely guy and made a lasting impression on everyone he met, definitely a geek but a nice guy too.

He leaves behind his wife and 2 young children, he will be sorely missed. Thoughts are with his family.

TIM is 75 on Sunday 24th July

TIM is affectionate name for the BT speaking clock (or as it's now called Timeline), which was the first 3 letters of the T.I.M.E on the old telephone pad.

It's now accessed by dialling 123 and it still gets around 30m callers per year.

It was originally designed at the Post Office Engineering Research Station at Dollis Hill in North London (which is also where Collossus the code breaking 'computer' was conceived) and introduced on July 24th 1936. It was only available to London callers, only going national in 1942.

There have been 4 permanent voices the first being Jane Cain 1936 - 1963, followed by Pat Simmons 1963 – 1985 and Brian Cobby 1985 – 2007 (the only male voice) and finally Sara Mendes da Costa 2007 to present.

There have also been celebrity voices (Lenny Henry for Comic Relief in 2003 and Alicia Roland for ChildLine. Mae Whitman the voice of Tinker Bell in 2008 for the release of the movie and Gary Barlow, Cheryl Cole, Chris Moyles, Kimberley Walsh and Fearne Cotton for Comic Relief 2009).

The speaking clock used to be accurate to 1/10 of a sec on, but is now accurate to 5/1000's of a second (and Big Ben's time is checked against the speaking clock).

Intel's Museum of Me

Though it's been around for a while, Intel have developed an application called the Museum of Me which takes your social graph (by logging in with Facebook Connect) and then uses data from your feed and places it on the "wall" of the virtual museum.

It's almost creepy as it's as though you're looking at your life in the past, but it's visually very impressive.

Here's an intro video

Viral video by ebuzzing

This also shows how much information is available to applications when utilising Facebook Connect, that's more scary.

Ofcom reduces BT's wholesale broadband charges

Ofcom the super regulator today has published a statement which means that BT will have to drop its wholesale broadband prices by 12% below inflation where they are the only broadband provider. Ofcom believes this will lead to better competition as resellers can provide a better quality of service.

The price controls come into effect on 17th August 2011 and remain in effect until March 2012.

Ofcom also published a statement on charge controls for 08 and 09 number ranges as BT has significant market power for call origination and also number translation services.

SeaMicro puts 768 cores into a 10U system

The new SeaMicro SM1000-64HD is an evolution of the SM1000-64 offering 1.5 times the speed but only consuming 1.25 times the power.

Each unit packs 384 dual-core Intel Atom processors and each processor can have 4GB RAM (i.e. 1.5TB in total) and can support 64 SATA hard drives for storage.

A base unit costs $237,000.00 which sounds a lot, but it's relatively cheap for that amount of compute power.

A standard 42U rack can hold 4 systems allowing 3072 cores per rack.

SeaMicro have said eHarmony and Mozilla are both using their systems.

They are open to using ARM CPUs when the right server processors are produced.

BBC launches a crowd-sourced 3G mapping app

The BBC has launched an Android application that measures 3G signal strengths in the background (along with location data), so that real-time UK coverage maps can be produced.

The app is available from the Android Marketplace (a free download).

The app was developed by Epitoro for the BBC.

Though it's a nice idea, there are other solutions out there and OpenSignalMaps have been around for a while and are mapping 2G and 3G signals worldwide, their app is available from the Android Marketplace too.

It's a shame as the OpenSignalMaps app has been around for a while but not had the traction that the BBC can make happen, maybe they should combine forces to aggregate the data.

Neither the BBC or OpenSignalMaps has an iPhone app (it's much harder to do and may go against Apple's T&Cs), though OpenSignalMaps say they're working on one.

Spotify launches in US today

Any current Spotify users can invite their friends from across the pond to use the service while anyone in the US can sign-up to apply for membership.

It's taken a while, but Spotify US is a go-er and they've beaten Apple with their new iCloud service and others.

It's yet to be seen how popular Spotify will be in the US as there are existing music streaming services.

Ignite100 applications close 17th July

Ignite100 is a new incubator program based in Newcastle that gives teams up to £100K in funding. It replaces the Difference Engine incubator.

Initially teams get £5,000 per founder (up to £15,000) and move to Newcastle for a 13 week intensive program and after completing the program (and achieving certain agreed milestones) then they gain the rest of the £100,000 as a convertible loan note.

The program is supported by Finance for Business North East Technology Fund, managed by IP Group plc, and from the Finance for Business North East Proof of Concept Fund, managed by Northstar Ventures, together with a group of angel investors including Hotspur Capital Partners and Green Lane Capital.

Ignite100 is accepting applications now and applicants my apply here.

Skype releases v5.2 for MacOS X

Skype have just released version 5.2 for Mac, it now supports group video calling (and sharing screens when in a group video call). Unfortunately these features require a Skype Premium subscription, though a seven day trial is available - a day pass costs £2.99 +VAT while or £4.99 +VAT per month.

There's also a few new features that allow easier multi-tasking so if you move to another program, controls are still available in the video control bar to mute or end the call. The history and contacts areas have also been decluttered making Skype more manageable.

Skype will upgrade via the program itself or directly from here.

Skype brings video calling to Android

Skype has announced that Skype for Android 2.0 now supports video calling which will work with Skype for iPhone, Mac and Windows. Video will work both over WiFi and 3G.

Support for handsets include the HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia neo, Sony Ericsson, Xperia pro and the Google Nexus S.

Facebook are going to announce a 'major new service' next week and it's rumoured that Facebook video calling will be based on Skype (though the rumour is recent, Skype has been working with Facebook for some time and precedes the Microsoft acquisition). The video calling will be in browser, though it's not clear whether the user has to have the Skype client installed too. This should give Skype a major boost as Facebook has 750m users compared to Skype's 170m (active), it should also help Facebook and Microsoft head off Google's voice service.

Alcatel-Lucent develops 400Gb/s processor

This isn't a normal CPU that comes in a general purpose computer, but a network
compute engine and 400Gb/s is high speed. As mobile data and Internet data incre
ase the core backbones have to support more and more traffic.
LAN speeds have been increasing over the years and while a few years back everybody was happy with 10Mb/s Ethernet, now home (wired) LANs are 100Mb/s or even 1000Mb/s (1Gb/s).

At the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) they have to cope with much higher speeds and LANs might run at 10Gb/s or even 40Gb/s and very shortly 100Gb/s (the 100Gb/s standard was only ratified last year and it takes a while for vendors to produce equipment based on the standards). The next speed increase takes the LAN up to 400Gb/s.

It's all very well running high speed LANs but they need to connect to other things (just like a home router with multiple LAN connections) and the equipment needs high speed network processors to be able to move data around and work out where it should be going in real-time.

Traditionally the high speed core router market has been dominated by Cisco followed by Juniper and more recent Huawei from China. This now put Alcatel-Lucent back in the race for providing the next generation of Internet systems.

Alcatel-Lucent's processor is known as the FP3 and can handle 70,000 simultaneous HD video streams or 8.4m cloud sessions and it's these types of services which are expanding rapidly and the core networks need to stay ahead of consumer demand.

Ofcom simplifies Spectrum Trading

Ofcom today has published a statement on simplifying spectrum trading which includes sub-leasing and other enhancements.

Currently Ofcom tend to be heavily involved in the process of trading, now a licensee does not need the consent of Ofcom to trade their spectrum, though some bands such as 2G and 3G bands are still covered by existing requirements.

Ofcom is also allowing leasing and sub-leasing if spectrum so if a licensee has excess capacity they may lease part of their spectrum to a 3rd party, now that 3rd party may also sub-lease part of their spectrum (though the originating licensee must keep accurate records of all sub-leases.

This should allow new innovative services to be launched as there's a lot of spectrum that's been licensed and not being used efficiently.

Microsoft makes more from patent licensing than WP7 licenses

Microsoft (MS) has a huge patent portfolio and a lot related to mobile technologies used in mobile operating systems such as Android and others.

It recently added General Dynamics Itronix division (who make ruggedised systems running both Windows and Android), though a small player it is going after companies like this to show that it may be better to license Windows Phone 7 (WP7) rather than use Android and pay MS patent license fees.

MS has already reached agreement with large companies such as HTC (one of the largest manufacturer's of smartphones again running Android and WP7) and has lawsuits against Motorola and Barns and Noble.

It is thought MS are trying to destabilise Google's mobile power base and get manufacturers to use WP7 as it's protected against any other kind of licensing in terms of intellectual property.

It's alleged that Microsoft make more money from Android IP royalties than they do from WP7 licenses - so though they'd like more vendors to adopt WP7, they're winning on both sides.

Ofcom mandates battery back-up for FTTP services

Ofcom the super regulator that covers media, broadcast and telecoms is holding a 10 week consultation about proposals that operators of FTTP (fibre-to-the premises) must provide battery back-up for the service which is located in the premise. This is to ensure that phone calls can still be made during a power cut (and thus still provide access to the emergency services) which is a condition of the Communications Act (General Condition 3).

The initial idea was to mandate 4 hours battery back-up which has now been reduced to 1 hour as the majority of power cuts in the UK are less than 1 hour. 1 hour back-up also means smaller batteries that are easier to obtain, install and recycle and are more likely to be accepted by consumers.

Ofcom does recognise that some premises will require longer back-up times, but these will be examined on a case by case basis.

The Ofcom summary is available here and the consultation closes on 10 Sept 2011.

Ofcom fines Satellite Entertainment Ltd

Ofcom, the media regulator, fined Satellite Entertainment Ltd (SEL) who run Essex Babes, Northern Birds and Live XXX Babes £90,000.00 for failing to provide recordings of what was transmitted on 9 occasions. The fine is payable to HM Paymaster General.

SEL also lost editorial control of what they broadcast for 6 weeks by allowing another company to transmit using its license.

It seems SEL refused to provide recordings and frustrate Ofcom's regulatory process which Ofcom found unacceptable. SEL were fined as a breach of condition 11 of their license.

The full Adjucations may be seen here.

O2 prepares for Glastonbury

O2 (the subsidiary of Telfonica) has been working in the background for the Glas
tonbury Festival that opened yesterday, by installing 6 cell sites around the fe
stival site.
By the time the festival closes, O2 will have spent 200 days with a team of 20 people making sure everything has been set-up and kept working smoothly so that the 150,000 or so revellers can keep calling or textting each other.

O2 expect that festival goers will talk for over 3.4m minutes and use up 1088GB of data (that's over 1TB) which is a lot of traffic for a 5 days event. O2 will also be monitoring the network and ensuring it will be tuned for peak periods such as when a band finishes when everybody uses their phone to find out where their frends are.

Orange are also associated with the festival and are known to add extra cell sites to increase coverage, but this year they are offering an app (Apple, Android and Nokia) that allows punters to see who's playing on what stages and the acts that follow. They will also be providing a charging station suitable for hundreds of people to simultaneously get a boost, however this year they are also trailling t-shirts that have a piezo-electric film that converts audio into electricity and each shirt should be able to charge two phones over the 5 days.

Glastonbury is now really becoming a 'techno' festival, maybe next year robots will be seen in the crowds.

Ofcom allows Spectrum Trading for 2G and 3G spectrum

Ofcom today published a statement that will mean from the 4th July 2011 2G and 3G licensees will be able to fully or part trade spectrum in the 900MHz, 1800MHz (2G) and 2.1GHz/2100MHz (3G) bands.

This may allay some issues arising from the 800MHz / 2.6GHz forthcoming auctions.

UK Broadband to offer LTE/4G services as early as 2012

UK Broadband (a subsiduary of Hong Kong based PCCW who are owned by the same people that run Hutchison Wampoa who own 3 in the UK) have announced that they will be rolling out an LTE (Long Term Evolution) or 4G network this year and it will be ready for use by next year.

UK Broadband recently acquired Pipex Wireless so now they own a large chunk of spectrum in the 3.5 and 3.6GHz bands. Initially, both UK Broadband and Pipex Wireles, were offering WiMAX based networks but the current trend is for LTE as mobile networks will support this as their 4G systems (effectively killing off WiMAX, at least in Europe).

The aim is to offer MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) services i.e. wholesale mobile services to other operators such as Virgin Mobile (who is already an MVNO of T-Mobile). LTE will support both voice and data, though it's the high speed data services that will be attractive to operators especially if they can off-load data from the existing 3G networks which are suffering capacity issues.

It's not all going to be plain sailing as mobile phones only look in certain bands (currently 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2.1GHz and 2.6GHz for EU GSM/3G) though 850 / 900 MHz is used in the Americas, so UK Broadband or PCCW will have to persuade handset manufacturers to support the 3.5/3.6GHz bands which is likely to be difficult, though specific LTE data equipment could be another option (as in a 4G dongle).

Ofcom were meant to be auctioning the 800MHz analogue TV spectrum next year and the 2.6GHz IMT-2000 reserved band, both being suitable for LTE services, unfortunately BT and O2/Telefonica have now challenged Ofcom's decision to cap the sub 1GHz spectrum available to any network and this may cause further delays in both the auction and actual availability of the spectrum which was neant to be made available after the 2012 London Olympics.

BT Whitespace spectrum trials "encouraging"

Spectrum is a valuable commodity and in the UK it's pretty well all allocated (well there are certain bands that are hopefully going to be auctioned soon). It's either been taken up by (mainly) the MOD, commercial TV/radio, mobile and even some space for public use like the 2.4GHz band which is used by WiFi.

The lower the frequency of the radio wave, the better propogation characteristics it has (i.e. it travels further in air and penetrates buildings well) so even though higher frequencies can carry more data, it can be hard to get the signal to users without building very dense radio networks so the signals don't have to travel very far.

Current analogue TV uses the 800MHz band which obviously has very good propogation characteristics as pretty well anyone in the UK can receive an analogue TV signal. During 2012 all analogue transmitters will be turned off and everything migrated to digital.

Therefore there's a lot of interest in using these lower frequency bands for wireless broadband for remote areas as a single big transmitter can be dumped into the middle of the remote area and it connected back to civilisation, but everyone in the area will be able to get a signal from it - i.e. they'll be able to get a broadband connection.

This is a very attractive proposition, except for the fact that frequencies in the range of 400 - 800MHz are currently being used or have planned use which slightly scuppers its use for broadband.

BT are trialing a system known as white space transmission and it's really quite clever. The transmitting and receiving systems listen to the relevant bands that they want to use and only pick sub-bands that aren't already being used. Since modern radio equipment can be very selective and use specific frequencies, there's actually a lot of white space spectrum around (older radio systems were noisy and though bands were allocated, there are always gap-bands in between so that the real radio bands wouldn't "bleed" into each other causing interference - those gap bands contain valauable - now usable - spectrum). Also not all areas use all the sub-bands. The trials are being conducted on the (very) remote Scottish Island of Bute, so even if BT get things wrong, there's not going to be a lot of people to upset, but the trials are going well and BT is going extend to coverage to another 12 users July.

If the trials are successful this could offer a glimmer of hope in getting broadband to rural communities who are not going to be covered by BT or other operators fibre (or even 3G) roll-outs.

The Inspire Conference, but was it inspiring?

It seems everyone who organises anything these days must also put on the obligatory conference which is "the" conference to go to.

On June 7th and 8th at the organisers of Launch48 put on the Inspire Conference at UCL's Senate House in the centre of London. Even if the conference failed, Senate House is one of the most inspiring buildings in London, it doesn't quite fit, looking more like something out of a US skyline.

The conference was located on the ground floor with the exhibition in the main hall and coffee/lunch opposite with WiFi (supplied by UCL) present everywhere (the WiFi required a login, but remained available even at peak usage with no drop-outs or reduced bandwidth - other venues should take note).

If there's any comparison, the organisers probably would like to compare "Inspire" with TED and if it continues it may well develop into something similar, though there a lot of very good talks, they weren't particularly inspiring (for example Nick Halstead of Datasift/Tweetmeme gave a very impressive talk on Big Data - but was it inspiring?).

Some products that people talked about are inspiring (i.e. Angry Birds), but the actual talk (or interview with Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio) again wasn't.

Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy was probably the exception and gave a brilliant talk which was also inspiring.

It was a good idea to change the exhibitors for each day (well most of them) and the stands were quite busy.

Many people prefer using a mouse rather than a trackpad or the "it's not quite right" system built into their laptop, but using a "normal" mouse means finding a work area that's large enough for it to move around. That generally means no mouse for mobile workers who want to use their laptop on a plane or on train (or even in a car, but probably not a good idea while driving).

Now a New Zealand company called Swiftpoint have come up with a solution, the Swiftpoint Mouse, which is a tiny wireless mouse that works with Apple Macs and Windows PCs. It's about 5cm long and 4cm at it's widest with contoured sides so that your fingers sit comfortably. There's a space to rest your thumb (coloured red) and your index finger sits on the top operating the mouse buttons or scroll wheel and your 3rd finger tucks on to the other side and rests in a little nook.

It's been designed so that it will work on the surface of a laptop next to the touch pad (or even on a touch pad) even on the metalic surface of a Macbook.

Cleverly the mouse detects when your finger is present on the thumb grip and turns off the power when your finger isn't there.

The two buttons on the top of the mouse correspond to left and righ buttons on a standard mouse for Windows or Click and Control-Click for Macs. The scroll-wheel can go back or forwards, but is stepped so you know you're moving it and it's pretty precise.

The mouse also performs some clever tricks, if tilted to the right so the scroll-wheel is then in contact with the surface, moving the mouse will then scroll the window you're in rapidly up or down (in-line with what the mouse is doing), which is useful for rapidly moving though documents. If the front button is pressed and the scroll-wheel moved, then the screen will magnify i.e. zoom in and moving the mouse backwards then zooms-out. Pressing the back button while moving the scroll-wheel will mean a document will move a page at a time.

It's a wireless mouse and it comes with a USB adapter that is just under 3cm long and just over 1cm wide (including the USB connector) so it protrudes about 1 1/2cm out of the socket. Unfortunately that's just wide enough to block other USB devices (at least on a Macbook) unless they're very thin. The adapter has three little metal connectors on it and acts as a mouse charging station with the mouse sitting on the adapter. That also means it will only work on USB ports that are on the side of a laptop (or similar) and not say on the USB ports on a Mac keyboard which are slightly under it. The device is plug-and-play and is recognised by pretty much any version of Windows and MacOS X 10.4+. The USB adapter magnetically attaches to the mouse when not plugged in, so it's harder to lose when not in use.

On MacOS X the operating system initially thought a keyboard has been plugged in, but just exit from the keyboard set-up utility (which automatically pops up) and the mouse just starts working.

The mouse has a 1000dpi (laser tracking) resolution and requires very little movement to move things around on screen, both the buttons and scroll-wheel are easily accessed and though initially fiddly, you rapidly become accustomed to using them and then it's actually very easy to drive the mouse and use all of it's features.

Placing the mouse on the USB (connected) dock for 30s will charge the mouse for around 1 hour's use, while a full 90 minute charge will power the mouse for between 2 to 4 weeks.

It's not that cheap, retailing at £49 in the UK. But if you're the person that prefers a mouse to a laptop trackpad, this could be just the right device for you.

It can be bought on-line from Swiftpoint.

Digium release Switchvox version 5

Digium the company that maintains the open source Asterisk IP PBX have released version 5 of Switchvox. Switchbox is based on the core Asterisk product, but with a nice Graphical User Interface (GUI) to configure it.

Switchvox is designed to fit into SME sized companies and v5 adds FMC (fixed mobile convergence) options so that up to 6 devices can be added to an extension which includes mobile (smart) phones.

The system also supports advanced APIs (application programming interfaces) so that external systems such as help desk or CRM applications can be integrated.

A new install will cost $3,195.00 for up to 30 users. Existing Switchvox users can upgrade for no cost.

Ofcom says LTE800 operators have to fix Digital TV

Ofcom will be auctioning the 800MHz band and it's expected that licensees will use the spectrum for LTE (Long YTerm Evolution)/4G services.

Unfortunately there may be interference issues with terrestrial digital TV broadcasts which may affect around 3% of the population which is around 760,000 homes.

Many interference issues will be resolved with the simple fitting of an RF filter between the aerial and the digital TV receiver, however around 0.1% of viewers will still have issues and Ofcom want those effected to have digital satellite receivers installed. It's expected that the LTE licensees will be burdened with the cost of the filters of digital satellite equipment which could cost around £100m on top of any spectrum auction fees.

Ofcom are now going to hold a consultation to see the real extent of the problem.

Techpitch 4.5

On the 25th May 2011 2Pears held a pitching competition at Pinsent Mason LLP (located between Old St and Liverpool St).

The judging panel was chaired by Danvers Baillieu (who happens to work for Pinsent Mason) but is maybe more famous for the illustrious Bootlaw series of workshops that he organises.

Other members of the judging panel were Eric van der Kleij CEO Tech City Investment Organisation, Glenn Shoosmith CEO BookingBug, Megumi Ikeda Comcast Interactive Capital, Amine Laouedj goetzpartners Corporate Finance, Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson Huddle and Silicon Stilettos and Grace Yusuf or Kyubid.com. Some of the panel might have been slightly worse for wear having just returned from the eG8 conference (or should that be party) in Paris.

There were 9 pitches from start-ups: -

Gabriel Ortiz presented Clickslide - a platform allowing both developers and end-users to rapidly produce websites or mobile applications.

Sue Green with Dancetothis - aiming to be the central resource for dance in the UK i.e. linking how to videos, local events etc. Crowded market.

Tom Harrow with Findababysitter.com - pretty much the name says it all.

Ian Pickard with Gigaboxx - a system allowing artists and record companies to directly sell to the fans at a gig or event. Can produce a mobile app (music store) which is customised to the artist.

Dupsy Abiola with Intern Avenue - a site that is trying to get employees to pay interns.

Anil Stockner with Marketinvoice Ltd - A trading (auction) platform for companies to trade their invoices and get paid immediately (so the bidder will offer a price for the invoice and their fee).

Josh Liu with Minutebox - Minutebox is a platform allowing people with skills to sell them to other people using Red5 as a media server. The user sets their price and what skills they have and other users can buy their expertise on a per minute basis.

Matthew Scherba with Plancentric - a new approach to project planning (well enterprise resource planning or ERP).

Simon Phillips with Tools of Directing Ltd - a way for content creators to add meta data to video in the production process.

In terms of presentation Josh Liu's was by far the most succinct as he presented in time and got the all his points across and everyone understood what Minutebox did.

Dupsy Abiola's also stood out as she obviously understood the intern problem and was trying to address things in a positive way.

Anil Stocker's Marketinvoice has the potential to be very large, one to watch.

Some of the other ones were flakey (as in presentation or the business itself), but that's to be expected at a random pitching event.

All in all a great event and the Pinsent Masons auditorium is actually a great space to hold these kinds of events as the speakers can be heard and the presentations seen on the two screen set-up.

There are some pics of the event on Facebook

Ofcom publishes possible 4G capacity gains

Ofcom the super regulator today published its report into what capacity gains that 4G networks could provide compared to existing capacity on 3G networks.

In summary compared to existing HSUPA 3G networks, there will be an increase of 3.3x which will increase to 5.5x by 2020 i.e. 3.3 to 5.5 times as much traffic can be put over the equivalent spectrum which will be opportune as data usage increases.

However network operators will need to manage the topology of their 4G networks more carefully than current 3G networks.

The statement may be found here.

Microsoft-Skype kills Skype for Asterisk

Many will know Asterisk the open source IP PBX (IP telephony system) that is commercially supported by Digium.

At Astricon in 2008 Digium announced a partnership with Skype that would allow an Asterisk system join the Skype network as a Skype client, though commercial (costing $66 per channel i.e. each concurrent call the Skype network requires a channel) many people used this to connect their internal VoIP systems to the outside world taking advantage of free Skype to Skype calls and cheap calls to the normal telephone networks using Skype-out.

Unfortunately the partnership is now dead as Skype (or now Microsoft Skype as Skype is to be known after their acquisition by the software giant) have decided to discontinue the licensing of Skype proprietary code that is included in the Skype for Asterisk product.

Customers can still purchase Skype for Asterisk until 26th July 2011 and Skype will continue to support the product until 2013 (and Skype "at their discretion" may continue support beyond that).

Though Skype for Asterisk only represents a small proportion of the Skype population, is this indicative of the way that Microsoft is taking the company as Asterisk and other open source solutions directly compete with some of Microsoft's offerings? If so it's a shame as it it's likely that only MS products will work with Skype and thus further locking customers into Microsoft's solutions.

Though to be fair, rumour has it that Skype was already looking at ways of ending the relationship with Digium.

Everything Everywhere and BT trial LTE800

BT and Everything Everywhere are trailing LTE (Long Term Evolution or 4G) on the 800MHz band in Cornwall. 100 mobile and 100 fixed users will take place.

800MHz is part of the spectrum that Ofcom are planning to auction this year which will is currently being used by analogue TV, though some areas have already switched over to digital so the frequencies are already clear. The whole of the UK will switch by 2012.

The trial will actually use 2 x 10MHz channels in the upper band (which Ofcom are considering how to license) and though LTE can theoretically speeds of up to 150Mb/s, Everything Everywhere have stated that users should expect between 2 and 40Mb/s.

The 800Mhz band is being auction in conjunction with the 2.6GHz band (with caps depending on what portions are being bid for) and there is expected to be considerable interest from both the existing mobile network operators and broadband providers (some of who will be new entrants).

Ofcom makes changes to telecoms law to benefit consumers

Ofcom the Super regulator that has responsibility for media, telecoms, radio and broadcasting has announced changes that telecoms companies will have to adopt in-line with European telecoms law.

Contracts

From May 26th 2011 telecoms operators are limited to providing 24 month contracts for telecoms services. Businesses and consumers must also be offered shorter 12 month contracts.

This will allow consumers to switch providers more easily which will allow users to chose beneficial pricing and services.

Emergency SMS


Ofcom plans to mandate the emergency SMS schmeme in the UK which allows users to text (or use the Short Message Service) to the ermgency services to 999 (or 112 the pan-European emergency services number).

Currently there is a registration scheme in operation with about 14,500 registered users. From May 26th 2011 all mobile operators will be obliged to make the scheme available on a permanent basis for hearing and speech-impaired users.

Porting Phone Numbers

On April 11 2011 Ofcom mandated all mobile operators to port numbers between networks in under 1 (working) day. This only applied to individual consumers. Now the same rules apply to businesses and other customers who may wish to port many numbers at one time.

Fixed numbers should also be ported with 1 day, though other measures have to be completed first to ensure that slamming doesn't occur (where a customer is switched to another provider without their permission).

Providers also have to pay reasonably compensation to customers if the port doesn't happen in 24 hours (or there is an abuse of the porting process).


This is all good news for the consumer and it's nice to see Ofcom mandate these changes.

Calibre an eBook tool

Calibre is available in versions for Windows, MacOS X and Linux, it's an eBook reader and a lot more, really an eBook toolbox that allows conversion of one eBook format to another. It can also manage an eBook library and supports lots of eBooks readers such as the iPad, Nook, Kindle etc.

If you happen to have downloaded an eBook, but the metadata is wrong or missing it's possible to enter the data yourself or get Calibre to search various sources (Google, Amazon, Overdrive) and find matching books, you then get the choice of what data to use and even choose the cover if there are variants.

You can even search for eBook on-line and Calibre will show which are available, their price and whether they have DRM or not. You can click on your choice and be taken directly to the eBook on the source website.

Calibre is an invaluable tool for all eBook owners.

Chop a SIM and fit in an iPad

The new iPad2 (or any old iPad or iPhone) requires what's known as a micro SIM or uSIM. These have the same electrical connections as a normal SIM but are slightly smaller.

There's a problem in ordering uSIMs as the mobile network operators (MNOs) know that it's going to be stuck into an Apple device and therefore they'll want to stick you on a nice long (and expensive) iPhone or iPad contract. It is possible to get a normal SIM on a much more suitable (i.e. cheaper) contract, but the SIM wont fit in the iPad.

When the uSIM first appeared there were lots of "hacks" around which showed how to get a knife and physically cut the SIM into uSIM form (including the now famous John Benson "Meat cleaver" blog) and then a plethora of cutting devices appeared which allows a SIM to be inserted, pressure applied and out pops a uSIM.

This seemed a bit drastic, but there's several companies who offer free SIMs and once snuggly inserted in the SIM cutter, chop and a uSIM pops out. When placed in the iPad it nicely seemed to work too.

Ofcom announces plans for 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum auctions

Ofcom the communications regulator has announced how it intends to auction the 800MHz band (which is currently used to deliver analogue TV signals) and the 2.6GHz band (which was reserved for future 3G use). The amount of spectrum available for auction is 250MHz which is equivalent to 3/4 of all the mobile spectrum available today and 80% more than the spectrum awarded to the 3G licensees.

Though the spectrum will be made available in a technology neutral manner (i.e. the winner of the spectrum can use it for whatever they want - as long as they meet the technical criteria and don't do anything silly), it's expected that it will be used for 4G services such as LTE or WiMAX and deliver mobile broadband services.

800MHz is considered prime spectrum as it has very good propagation characteristics i.e. it can travel long distance and penetrates buildings well (so anyone who can receive analogue TV services could get broadband), Alcatel-Lucent are already trialling LTE-800 (i.e. LTE services on 800MHz) in Wales as reported in a previous article.

2.6GHz can carry more data (and there's more spectrum available) but it's better for localised high bandwidth services as it doesn't carry as far (it's worse then the existing 3G coverage). However a licensee could use the band for 3G services as 3G phones should scan this band when looking for 3G signals.

Ofcom are proposing to put both spectrum caps and spectrum floors when auctioning the spectrum so that the existing 2G operators cant get too much spectrum sub 1GHz (i.e. 1000MHz) - this really only affects O2 and Vodafone, who's 2G network was provisioned on 900MHz (Orange and T-Mobile got 1800MHz or 1.8GHz which again doesn't propagate as well as 900MHz which is slightly worse than 800MHz). The floors are there to ensure there's enough spectrum to run sensible broadband services over. Ofcom plan to offer at least 4 licenses of which some are expected to be new entrants (by capping the amount of spectrum owned in total the existing MNOs are restricted in grabbing all the new spectrum).

There's a slight fly in the ointment as when T-Mobile and Orange combined to form Everything Everywhere, they had to give back some of their 1800Mhz spectrum to comply with EU competition rules and Ofcom have thrown this excess spectrum in the pot too.

The Ofcom consultation closes on 31st May 2011 and stakeholders are invited to comment here.

The spectrum cant be made available prior to the digital switch-over as the 800MHz band will still be used for analogue TV until then and also Ofcom has made the 2.6GHz band available for use by wireless cameras in the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.

Ofcom forces mobile operators to reduce termination rates

Ofcom published a statement that the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) would have their mobile termination rates reduced from April 1st.

Everything Everywhere, O2 and Vodafone will have their current rate of 4.18p per minute reduced to 2.66p per minute on the 1st of April, while 3 (3UK) will have their rate reduced from 4.48p per minute to the 2.66p per minute rate. Next year the rate for all 4 MNOs will drop to 2.66p per minute then 1.70ppm, 1.08ppm and by 2015 0.69ppm.

This should be reflected in call charges by the MNOs and fixed line operators such as BT.

This doesn't affect data charges which the MNOs can still charge a premium for (though Ofcom will surely cap these too, especially for roaming customers).

This is in-line with European policy as the EU Commission expects mobile termination rates to be between 1.5 and 3c by 2015.

Shipboard mobiles now license exempt

Ofcom today made the use of handsets on boats license exempt (while connected to a basestation on the the boat).

Mobile handsets are already license exempt when connected to a fixed basestation in the UK (which are run by a mobile operator). Both shipboard and land based basestations are covered under the mobile operators' 2G or 3G licenses.

The full statement can be seen here and is in-line with European directives.

Really sneaky Facebook "bug"

It's not really a bug, but if you go into a Facebook event page and then paste the following: -

"javascript:elms=document.getElementById('friends').getElementsByTagName('li');for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === 'object'){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}"

Without the first and ending double quote into the browser's address bar (i.e. not into Facebook, but the browser viewing Facebook), it should select ALL your Facebook friends and invite them to the event.

Scary ...

Spotify get's early content

R.E.M's new album "Collapse Into Now" will be available today to Spotify Premium users one week prior to the official album launch. This will be available to premium users in UK, Spain, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands and Finland.

Spotify are also running a competition to go with the launch where users can win: -
* A Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar, signed by Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck
* A Sonos S5 – a high-performance wireless music system
* A signed photograph of the band
* A special Spotify playlist compiled by the band, which will be automatically added to their Premium account

User can enter here by answering a simple question and entering their details and Spotify account name.

Government gives cash to program makers

The Government has agreed to making grants available to the Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) sector as they currently use equipment which wireless transmits and the spectrum used is being re-allocated and they have to migrate from channel 69 to channel 38.

66% of PMSE licensed users have registered claims in the scheme and those that haven't need to register with Equiniiti (the administrators of the scheme) as soon as possible.

PMSE users will then have to return equipment using the old frequencies within the timescales they have agreed (though these may extended by agreement with Equiniiti).

Ofcom will auction 2010 - 2025 MHz band

Ofcom has decided to auction the 2010 - 2025 MHz band instead of using for Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE). The band is currently unused.

This follows a consultation held in May last year after which it was decided that the opportunity cost of reserving the band for PMSE use was higher than expected. Also in Germany the band was auction and only achieved €5.7m. There was also little support for making the band license exempt.

The auction will not take place before Q1 2012 and Ofcom will hold a further consultation.

In the meantime the band can be used for PMSE and will be licensed under standard PMSE regulations from JFMG. The band will also be made available for PMSE during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ACS:Law turn themselves off

ACS:Law the legal firm that has become infamous due to their actions of trying to prosecute alleged illegal file sharers (and more infamous due to their exposing files containing lists of said filesharers). MediaCAT (the client of ACS:Law involved in the alleged file sharing cases) has also ceased trading.

In the past ACS:Law had said it had "ceased this type of litigation" as it had suffered a series of unfavourable court hearings.

ACS:Law was under investigation from the Information Commissioner's Office after the company allowed files containing alleged downloaders of pornography and file sharers to be made available on-line (though not deliberately it has to be said).

In the past it is alleged that ACS:Law offered cash to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for data on their subscribers.

The latest action may be as a result of recent court action where ACS:Law tried to discontinue the case against file sharers. However Judge Birss QC wasn't happy to do so and stated "I want to tell you that I am not happy. I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny". Judge Birss is expected to rule on his finding this Thursday and many suspect that ACS:Law and MediaCAT ceased trading to avoid judicial scrutiny.

Ofcom wants to allow mobile operators to trade spectrum

Ofcom is holding two related consultations, the first is to allow mobile operators to trade spectrum in the 900MHz, 1800MHz (1.8GHz) and 2100MHz (2.1GHz) bands, the second is to vary the Wireless Telegraphy Act so that the 3G licenses can be changed to support a new coverage obligation, a change to licence duration, a revocation notice period of 5 years (such revocation not to be capable of taking effect before the period for which the licences were auctioned expires), a provision for Ofcom to charge annual licence fees from the end of 2021 (when the period for which the licences were auctioned expires) and a provision relating to spectrum trading.

The are many reasons to allow spectrum trading which benefit the UK as a whole especially financially as spectrum licenses generate around £40bn per annum for the UK (and account for around 3% of the GDP). Spectrum trading has also been directed from Government.

This will also allow Everything Everywhere (the combined Orange and T-Mobile) to effective get rid of 2 x 15MHz pairs of spectrum from their 1800MHz allowance, which was agreed with the EU as part of the merger conditions. Everything Everywhere will be able to trade directly, as part of the digital divide spectrum (800MHz and 2.6GHz) or give it back to Ofcom who can re-award it.

This is likely to have a major impact when the 800MHz and 2.6GHz licenses are awarded as some entities may have a large chunk of additional spectrum (though companies such a 3 are hoping that there will be sub 1GHz spectrum caps) and can therefore free-up existing mobile spectrum.

The spectrum trading consultation may be responded to here and the WTA variance consultation here.

Ofcom proposes WBA charge controls

Ofcom the super regulator is holding a consultation on placing charge controls on BT for their Wholesale Broadband Access (WBA) services in areas where they are still a monopoly.

This should see price reductions to ISPs of between 10.75% and 14.75%. As part of the consultation Ofcom have also proposed changes to the cost of capital estimates for BT.

Stakeholders can respond on-line and the consultation closes on 31 March 2011 and Ofcom want to implement the changes after that.

Ofcom delegates PMSE to Arqiva

Ofcom (subject to terms) has awarded Arqiva the contract to handle all Program making and special events (PMSE) licensing following a tender process.

Ofcom has not yet set pricing or amended the Wireless Telegraphy Act (WTA) and has deferred the decision as even though the current pricing regime was due to change at the end of 2011.

Ofcom wants numbers to be easier to use

Ofcom the Super Regulator is holding a consultation on non-geiographic numbers and making them easier to understand and fixing the several issues that exist i.e. 0800 numbers not being free from mobiles (companies should also publish 03 numbers which are always local and can be included in call bundles).

The full ranges in question are 03, 05, 070/076, 080, 0845, 0870, 083/4, 0871, 09, 116 and 118.

Ofcom wants charges made clearer and so premium rate numbers would have to state something like "this call will cost £1.50 per minute plus your network operator's charges".

More information is available from the Ofcom site. The consultation closes on 10th March 2011 and stakeholders may respond on-line.

Ofcom reservers 2.6GHz for wireless cameras during Olympics

Ofcom the Super Regulator has published a statement on the 2.6GHz (2600MHz) band which is being reserved for use by wireless cameras during the London Olympic Games.

The 2.6GHz band has been contentious as Ofcom initially wanted to auction it in 2007 but were blocked by the mobile operators. The auction has now slipped until late 2012 at the earliest, especially now since the Olympics are taking place from 27 July until 9 September 2012.

There has been some worry about interference to Civil Aviation Authority radars that operate in 2.7GHz from wireless mobile camera, but Ofcom deemed that they only transmit at low power so interference issues are minimal.

Canon's EF lenses can suit everybody

Canon have a wide range of lenses available that can be used to suit every occasion and situation. All the EF lenses will fit every model of Canon EOS cameras and Canon have produced a video to show what's available.

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Canon probably produce the widest range of lenses from multipurpose cost-effective ones through extremely expensive dedicated lenses that professional photographers use.

Ofcom to start charging for number allocation

Ofcom, the super regulator is holding a consultation on the future of number in the UK. There's nothing too exciting about that, except that in certain areas numbers are running out and (there's 680 regional codes in the UK and 58 of those have less than 100 blocks available - numbers are allocated in blocks of 1,000).

Though many other countries have charged for number allocation, the UK has remained the exception. Now Ofcom intends to pilot charging in these number restricted areas and will charge 10p per number per year. That's above the European average of 7p pa (pricing varies from 0.06p to 27p).

Ofcom has seen a large rise in the allocation of number blocks with the likes of VoIP providers and other new entrants who can request numbers directly from Ofcom in-line with the Communications Act which allows anyone to become a Communications Provider.

Unfortunately Ofcom has to allocate 1,000 number blocks as the UK has not migrated to NGN's (next generation networks) as fast as Ofcom had hoped and old equipment can only take these large blocks (Ofcom used to allocate 10,000 number blocks, so there's some improvement).

If everyone had adopted ENUM then numbers could be allocated individually, but that's a long way off and unlikely to ever be adopted by everyone.

Though currently this is only a consultation, it's likely to be implemented and then there's no reason they wont expand this to all areas and even implement retrospective charges for existing number blocks, which could be expensive for providers holding large blocks of numbers.

The consultation is available from here, it ends on 18 February 2011 and it's possible to respond on-line.

Ofcom wants mobile phone license exempt on boats

Ofcom is holding a consultation to make mobile terminals (phone) license exempt when used on boats.

Generally the boat (like a cruise liner) will have one or more pico cells on-board and then connect back to a base station. Ofcom will license the mobile base-stations and then the phone licenses are part of that. This is in-line with harmonise European legislation on marine communication service on board vessels.

The consultation is available on Ofcom's site and runs from 19/11/10 to 22/12/10.

Stakeholders can respond on-line.

HTC Wildfire fired into the wild

HTC have released their new Wildfire phone running Android 2.1 (Eclair) and HTC Sense with a suite of social networking tools built in (Facebook, Twitter and Flickr) and many more on Android Marketplace.

The CPU isn't brilliant (only 528MHz) and the display is only QVGA (240 x 320) and os 3.2", but it does have a 5MP auto-focus camera with flash, 512MB ROM and 384MB RAM. It supports 3G, EDGE, GPRS and WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 2.1 and an FM radio.

There's a multitude of sensors, including G-Sensor, digital compass, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.

Here's a video of what it can do

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More info can be found at the HTC site.

Qualcomm Snapdragons pack more byte for buck

Yesterday Qualcomm announced their new Snapdragon MSM8960™ chipset. Though based on the original (ARM) Snapdragon system, the new chip is dual core with the new micro-architecture that delivers 5 times the performance while using 75% less power.

The processor has a built-in mult-modem support all 3G modes as well as LTE, new graphics that operate at 4 times the speed and built-in support for WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM.

The chip is based on a 28nm process and will be available in early 2011.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon is already used in many high-end smart-phones and tablets and the new chip should really give them a lead in the high end market against rivals such as Samsung and even Apple.

Ofcom consultation on "whitespace" use and Gelocation

There's lots of spectrum around, but it's a crowded space and so much of it is licensed by Ofcom i.e. in order to utilise equipment that transmits or receives data in that spectrum a "use" license is required. This is why a TV license is required. Mobile phones also require a license, but that's paid as part of the license that the mobile network operators have (and have paid for).

Various parts of the spectrum have been made license exempt such as 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth and other systems like Zigbee. Licenses exempt status means that a user doesn't need to get a specific license if they use the equipment in accordance with the rules that Ofcom have published (i.e. Ofcom publish a "blanket" license and as long as the equipment in use doesn't get used outside the licensing framework, then the use doesn't need to get a license themselves). Any WiFi or Bluetooth systems will comply with Ofcom's licensing regime.

In the past Ofcom has bowed to public pressure and made certain equipment license exempt such as low power FM transmitters than can connect to MP3 and other music devices and transmit a short range to a radio (usually in a car). As they're low power, they wont interfere with the commercial radio stations (at least to other users) who have paid a lot of money for the licenses to transmit in the commercial radio bands.

Another big chunk of spectrum is in the TV bands and some of this is reserved so that interference between bands doesn't happen. The TV bands have much better propagation characteristics than say 2.4GHz which is used by WiFi and Ofcom are looking at ways of using the "dead" space for short-range low power devices which could be used say to transmit video signals between systems in the home. The whitespace could also be used for higher power rural broadband access.

They would work by looking at the bands and finding these dead areas known as whitespace and then those frequencies would be potential candidates for local transmission. However this could rapidly lead to interference between neighbouring systems (say in a neighbours house), so Ofcom wants the systems to consult a geolocation database (hosted by Ofcom) that the system could register with and ensure the whitespace was suitable for use in that area.

There would be a "master" device that would communicate with Ofcom's database and report the power and frequencies it was using and any connected devices (slaves, that wouldn't need to connect to the database themselves). The whitespace devices will be license exempt. Though Ofcom will initially run any database required, they don't evisage running the database in the future as that is best left to commercial organisations and Ofcom would like interested parties to contact them.

Though Ofcom are consulting now (the consultation runs from 09/11/10 to 07/12/10) they don't expect whitespace devices to appear until 2014.

Interested parties can respond to the consultation on-line.

Ofcom issues new spectrum for Transportable Earth Stations

Due to the demand for extra capacity for Transportable Earth Stations (TES) i.e. mobile satellite systems, Ofcom has made available more spectrum for its use.

The following frequencies may be used for satellite uplinks

C band: 5925 - 7075 MHz

Ka band: 27.5 - 27.8185 GHz, 28.4545 - 28.8265 GHz, 29.4625 - 30 GHz

The pricing for licenses will be equivalent to those in the Ku band (13.78 - 14.5 GHz).

This follows a previous Ofcom consultation and though most responses were favourable, there were some objections from fixed earth station users, though Ofcom felt that opening up the C and Ka bands was more favourable than doing nothing with them.

The full statement may be seen on Ofcom's site

Nokia releases MeeGo v1.1

Nokia has released version 1.1 of the MeeGo Operating System (OS) which contains Linux Kernel 2.6.35, X.org server 1.9.0, Web Runtime, Qt 4.7, and Qt Mobility 1.0.2. It's available in several versions optimised for the devices that they run on i.e. MeeGo for Handsets, MeeGo for Netbooks, MeeGo for In-Vehicle Entertainment.

The Netbook version is actually 2 versions, one with the completely open source Google Chromium browser and the other with Google's Chrome browser which requires the suer to agree to Google's EULA.

Though the handset version supports Nokia's N900, they say it works but it's not really for end-users yet and the the user interface (UI) isn't ready for prime-time.

The IVE release supports text-to-speech using the open source Festival speech engine and speech recognition using PocketSphynx (which is based on the open source Sphynx speech-to-text system).

Though Nokia are developing MeeGo (which is the combination of Nokia Maemo OS and Intel's Moblin OS) it may be another dead-end OS as Android is starting to dominate the smart-phone market and Google will release their ChromeOS for Netbooks (though Android is already being used on tablets).

Qt (the cross-platform toolset that Nokia acquired with Trolltech) is the key technology that Nokia want to push (it sits on top of MeeGo and Symbian as well as MacOS and Windows) and MeeGo may just be a way to ensure they have an in-house development platform that's use don live devices, but that cant be a long-term strategy (MeeGo is only officially supported on the N900 and Aava devices in terms of handsets).

MeeGo version 1.2 can be expected in 6 months i.e. April and will include a more polished UI and other new features.