At least the UK Government and Ofcom have made up their minds (and fought of legal battles) and announced that the 2.6GHz chunk of spectrum (all 190MHz of it) will be auctioned at the end of 2011.
At the same time they'll auction off the old 800MHz spectrum which comes from the digital dividend. It's all prime spectrum as it has extremely good propagation characteristics i.e. it goes through walls well.
Ofcom at the same time will allow refarming of the 900MHz and 1800MHz GSM/PCN spectrum so that it can be used for 3G (or 4G/LTE) services, which is currently not allowed under the GSM laws. The existing 3G licenses (which expire in 2021) will be made indefinite with the licensees paying a yearly fee post 2021 to Ofcom.
BT was expected to bid for the 2.6GHz spectrum when it was originally meant to become available (late 2007/2008) but now it's likely they'll just expand their WiFi and MVNO offerings as the cost of the spectrum is expected to be extremely high and they're already spending a fortune expanding their fibre roll-out to most of the UK.
It's likely the spectrum will be snapped up by the existing Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who will use it for high speed data services using LTE, though an outsider could come in and use it to offer wireless broadband or even 3G services of their own.
There's still a decision to be made on how the 900MHz spectrum (currently owned by O2/Telefonica and Vodafone) should be re-allocated and also the 1800MHz and 2.1GHz spectrum that Orange and T-Mobile own as they're now a single entity (in regulatory terms anyway) which means they own too much spectrum for a single network as per the 3G license.
So though it's a good move by the Government there's still a few issues to iron out, including the big issue of Ofcom itself as the Government is also trying to reduce spending on the Quangos that are currently in operation, Ofcom being a major one. Though licensing spectrum could be a big earner (especially the 2.6GHz and 800MHz chunks) which could pay for Ofcom for a few years.
2010/07/28
New 116 Numbers go live in the UK
Ofcom has announced that it is making two numbers in the 116 range live which are pan-European numbers.
116 006 which is a freephone number for victims of crime. The number will be free unless there is a pre-announcement stating that the number isn't free (which could happen from mobile networks).
116 117 is a freephone number for non-emergency medical help which is always free from any network.
More information can be found from Ofcom though this is another confusing number range where sometimes calls are free and sometimes they're not.
116 006 which is a freephone number for victims of crime. The number will be free unless there is a pre-announcement stating that the number isn't free (which could happen from mobile networks).
116 117 is a freephone number for non-emergency medical help which is always free from any network.
More information can be found from Ofcom though this is another confusing number range where sometimes calls are free and sometimes they're not.
2010/07/26
Don't try and recycle that stolen phone anymore!
In the UK each of the mobile operators maintain a list of stolen phones and that's shared between all the operators and is disseminated within 48 hours of the phone being reported stolen.
That has worked pretty well within the UK and has stopped a lot of stolen phones being reused and caused difficulties for a few people who've had their IMEI blocked by mistake as the only recourse is to complain to their operator as users have no direct access to the block list. However there's been a massive loophole and that's selling phones to a recycling company as they tend to sell them on to operators abroad and up until now, there's been no checks to see whether the phone is on any stolen phone list. It's believed that this has led to around 100,000 stolen phones going abroad a year.
That's now changing and Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire has stated "By joining forces with the police, the mobile phone industry is closing a multi-million pound loophole that has been exploited by criminals and the industry should be congratulated. Alongside the impressive work on blocking stolen phones, this code will make mobile phone theft an even less profitable crime."
The Telecommunications Fraud Forum known as TUFF has drawn up a code of practice alongside the Government and Police and TUFF will administer it. So far 20 mobile phone recyclers have joined the scheme which represent 90% of the industry and the others are expected to follow suit.
Now if anyone tries to sell a stolen phone, the phone will will not be accepted and they will be reported to the Police.
Now the Government just needs a way to somehow track gold items and regulate the on-line/postal gold services who will also buy pretty much any gold item and immediately melt it down before anyone can complain.
That has worked pretty well within the UK and has stopped a lot of stolen phones being reused and caused difficulties for a few people who've had their IMEI blocked by mistake as the only recourse is to complain to their operator as users have no direct access to the block list. However there's been a massive loophole and that's selling phones to a recycling company as they tend to sell them on to operators abroad and up until now, there's been no checks to see whether the phone is on any stolen phone list. It's believed that this has led to around 100,000 stolen phones going abroad a year.
That's now changing and Crime Prevention Minister James Brokenshire has stated "By joining forces with the police, the mobile phone industry is closing a multi-million pound loophole that has been exploited by criminals and the industry should be congratulated. Alongside the impressive work on blocking stolen phones, this code will make mobile phone theft an even less profitable crime."
The Telecommunications Fraud Forum known as TUFF has drawn up a code of practice alongside the Government and Police and TUFF will administer it. So far 20 mobile phone recyclers have joined the scheme which represent 90% of the industry and the others are expected to follow suit.
Now if anyone tries to sell a stolen phone, the phone will will not be accepted and they will be reported to the Police.
Now the Government just needs a way to somehow track gold items and regulate the on-line/postal gold services who will also buy pretty much any gold item and immediately melt it down before anyone can complain.
2010/07/22
BT rejects GPRS for meter reading
BT has plans to build a system that will allow companies to wirelessly read meters in tune with government recommendations.
BT is teaming up with Arqiva and consultancy Detica and plans to use US-based Sensus' FlexNet long range wireless solution that operates in the 400MHz band (which has good building penetration characteristics).
Unsurprisingly the UK mobile network operators aren't too pleased as the original plans were to use GPRS connectivity which would have meant at least 26m GPRS systems installed by 2020 which would be a massive boost to one or more of the networks.
BT may not be successful and another consortium may still win the contract.
BT is teaming up with Arqiva and consultancy Detica and plans to use US-based Sensus' FlexNet long range wireless solution that operates in the 400MHz band (which has good building penetration characteristics).
Unsurprisingly the UK mobile network operators aren't too pleased as the original plans were to use GPRS connectivity which would have meant at least 26m GPRS systems installed by 2020 which would be a massive boost to one or more of the networks.
BT may not be successful and another consortium may still win the contract.
2010/07/14
The night of 1000 flowers
Last night was the inaugural Flowery Tweetup organised by Stewart Townsend and Stuart Witts and kindly sponsored by Blaqua (a fine purveyor of floral attire). Music came from the Bikini Beach Band who provided various musical numbers ranging from The Beach Boys to Madness and back through New Order.
For once the event wasn't just the same tech people who normally attend this sort of thing, but a mixture of Londoners who seem to have a passion for things flowery. There's some Facebook pictures of the evening.
For once the event wasn't just the same tech people who normally attend this sort of thing, but a mixture of Londoners who seem to have a passion for things flowery. There's some Facebook pictures of the evening.
2010/07/13
Google makes developing Android apps easy-as-pie
Google has made available App Inventor for Android that allows anyone to develop an Android application with minimal programming (if any) knowledge.
The website has uses visual building blocks which are dragged on to the 'canvas' and these can link to other functions. Access to the lower level Android functions (like GPS location and SMS) are available.
There are basic functions like buttons, canvas, checkboxes, etc and then media, animation, social, sensors and screen arrangement functions allowing complex applications to be constructed. It uses the Open Blocks Java library, which is distributed by MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology's) Scheller Teacher Education Program which was used to develop the Scratch programming language. The compiler that converts the visual framework to a native Android app uses the Kawa language.
App Inventor for Android isn't openly available yet and potential users have to complete a form (using a GMail address) entering information about what App Inventor will be used for.
There are around 60,000+ apps in Android Marketplace, compared to over 200,000 in Apples app store, maybe this could redress the balance.
The website has uses visual building blocks which are dragged on to the 'canvas' and these can link to other functions. Access to the lower level Android functions (like GPS location and SMS) are available.
There are basic functions like buttons, canvas, checkboxes, etc and then media, animation, social, sensors and screen arrangement functions allowing complex applications to be constructed. It uses the Open Blocks Java library, which is distributed by MIT's (Massachusetts Institute of Technology's) Scheller Teacher Education Program which was used to develop the Scratch programming language. The compiler that converts the visual framework to a native Android app uses the Kawa language.
App Inventor for Android isn't openly available yet and potential users have to complete a form (using a GMail address) entering information about what App Inventor will be used for.
There are around 60,000+ apps in Android Marketplace, compared to over 200,000 in Apples app store, maybe this could redress the balance.
2010/07/12
New Storage service to compete with Amazon S3?
A new service has been announced called S4 or Super Simple Storage Service which promises to undercut Amazon S3 and other storage services by magnitudes. It's not clear what back-end S4 are using, but they are providing various interfaces to their system including direct web upload, http get and put methods and a SOAP and REST API for write-only access.
S4 will store as much data as you throw at it and they offer a full money back guarantee, though at only $1 per TB per month even if they do make a few mistakes, it's not as though it's cost you much. Amazon on the other hand would charge around $153 per month for the same storage (but then you do get read access to the data too).
S4 could be the long term storage solution for those long term (and forgotten) back-ups that your company so desperately needs.
S4 will store as much data as you throw at it and they offer a full money back guarantee, though at only $1 per TB per month even if they do make a few mistakes, it's not as though it's cost you much. Amazon on the other hand would charge around $153 per month for the same storage (but then you do get read access to the data too).
S4 could be the long term storage solution for those long term (and forgotten) back-ups that your company so desperately needs.
Palm releases WebOS 1.4.5
Palm has release an update to their WebOS taking it to version 1.4.5 which will run on Palm Pre and Pixi devices. Though only a minor update which mainly fixes bugs, it does add 3D support to the Pixi range (and stabilises 3D for the Pre). It also adds supports for the PDK (plug-in development kit) which Palm released a while back. The update will be available immediately to US users on Sprint and French users of SFR. Palm have not said when O2 other other users will be lucky and get their new versions, but generally updates are quickly (within a few days) sent to all operators.
This is the first release since Palm was acquired by HP for $1.2bn and HP has confirmed that WebOS will be used as a future OS for tablet based computers, though it has not confirmed for which tablets or when. HP was going to produce a tablet (known as the Slate) which was going to run Windows 7, but HP pulled it when Apple announced the iPad. Having WebOS will allow HP to develop their own Operating System suitable for the enterprise market and reduce their reliance on Google (for Android or Chrome OS), Microsoft or even Intel/Nokia for MeeGo.
This is the first release since Palm was acquired by HP for $1.2bn and HP has confirmed that WebOS will be used as a future OS for tablet based computers, though it has not confirmed for which tablets or when. HP was going to produce a tablet (known as the Slate) which was going to run Windows 7, but HP pulled it when Apple announced the iPad. Having WebOS will allow HP to develop their own Operating System suitable for the enterprise market and reduce their reliance on Google (for Android or Chrome OS), Microsoft or even Intel/Nokia for MeeGo.
2010/06/30
Apple still leading the smartphone market
Apple managed to get 1.7m iPhone 4's out the door on launch, that's pretty impressive for any phone let alone one that costs £499 or £599 for the 16GB or 32GB versions respectively (admittedly unlocked versions). It's even more impressive considering it took them 3 days to sell 1m 3GS phones in 2009, while the original iPhone took 72 days to sell 1m units.
Though Google recently made a big song and dance about operators selling 160,000 Android based phones per day and though they did grow in terms of market share to 10.6%, Apple grew to 15.4%.
Whatever pills Apple are taking, they seem to be on the right medication and can still push out a world leading product even if the signal reception drops when holding the phone.
Though Google recently made a big song and dance about operators selling 160,000 Android based phones per day and though they did grow in terms of market share to 10.6%, Apple grew to 15.4%.
Whatever pills Apple are taking, they seem to be on the right medication and can still push out a world leading product even if the signal reception drops when holding the phone.
Product Placement about to hit a TV near you?
Ofcom the regulator which deals with broadcasters amongst its many remits has today (28/06/2010) published a consultation on product placement in television. Currently no product placement is allowed at all, but it's likely this will change.
There are still various type of programming where product placement will be not allowed (such as news programs) and some factual programming, but pretty much any other type will be allowed. The separation between editorial and advertising will become more blurred in line with EU legislation. When a program contains product placement, there will be an audio and visual cue (a neutral logo) to indicate it. Ofcom have not yet decided how they should handle story lines that are written specifically to promote products.
Ofcom recently published a statement on VoD players and this implies that they will subject to the same product placement conditions.
The consultation closes on 17/09/2010 and stakeholders may respond on-line (which doesn't seem to be working) or via Email.
There are still various type of programming where product placement will be not allowed (such as news programs) and some factual programming, but pretty much any other type will be allowed. The separation between editorial and advertising will become more blurred in line with EU legislation. When a program contains product placement, there will be an audio and visual cue (a neutral logo) to indicate it. Ofcom have not yet decided how they should handle story lines that are written specifically to promote products.
Ofcom recently published a statement on VoD players and this implies that they will subject to the same product placement conditions.
The consultation closes on 17/09/2010 and stakeholders may respond on-line (which doesn't seem to be working) or via Email.
2010/06/19
Freedom4 gets sold to UK BroadbandFreedom4 was one of the two operators in the UK with licensed spectrum that were trying to operate a WiMAX network who were sold to the second operator UK Broadband (a subsidiary of PCCW which is owned by Hong Kong Telecom) for £12.5m. The sale came about as Freedom4 was involved in a reverse takeover of Vialtus which later became part of Daisy Telecom, but WiMAX was not part of Daisy's core business.
Freedom4 was one of the two operators in the UK with licensed spectrum that were trying to operate a WiMAX network who were sold to the second operator UK Broadband (a subsidiary of PCCW which is owned by Hong Kong Telecom) for £12.5m. The sale came about as Freedom4 was involved in a reverse takeover of Vialtus which later became part of Daisy Telecom, but WiMAX was not part of Daisy's core business.
Freedom4 used to be what was known as Pipex Wireless, which was separated from the Pipex group when Pipex was sold to Tiscali and became Freedom4 (with some cash from Intel Capital). Freedom4 has two blocks of 84MHz of spectrum in the 3.6GHz t0 4.2GHz bands while UK Broadband has spectrum in the 3.4GHz band.
WiMAX has not faired particularly well in the UK. It was meant to be the saviour in terms of rural broadband but backhaul costs have limited the size of the WiMAX wireless roll-outs (combined with BT installing wired broadband to most parts of the country) so the costs of wireless have tended to be greater than those of wired broadband and the wireless speeds have not been that great.
UK Broadband may be able to leverage the assets of both companies and now use WiMAX for both end-user connections and for wireless backhaul reducing their need for expensive wired connectivity between sites.
The great hope for WiMAX was the auctioning of the 2.6GHz band which was initially meant to take place in 2007 but has been hampered with regulatory issues and is now unlikely to be available before 2011. There was speculation that BT would bid for this spectrum to offer 3G services in urban areas and WiMAX wireless broadband to the rural areas. This is now less likely to be attractive in terms of WiMAX anyway as LTE (a 4G technology) is likely to be prevalent before the spectrum is actually made available.
Freedom4 used to be what was known as Pipex Wireless, which was separated from the Pipex group when Pipex was sold to Tiscali and became Freedom4 (with some cash from Intel Capital). Freedom4 has two blocks of 84MHz of spectrum in the 3.6GHz t0 4.2GHz bands while UK Broadband has spectrum in the 3.4GHz band.
WiMAX has not faired particularly well in the UK. It was meant to be the saviour in terms of rural broadband but backhaul costs have limited the size of the WiMAX wireless roll-outs (combined with BT installing wired broadband to most parts of the country) so the costs of wireless have tended to be greater than those of wired broadband and the wireless speeds have not been that great.
UK Broadband may be able to leverage the assets of both companies and now use WiMAX for both end-user connections and for wireless backhaul reducing their need for expensive wired connectivity between sites.
The great hope for WiMAX was the auctioning of the 2.6GHz band which was initially meant to take place in 2007 but has been hampered with regulatory issues and is now unlikely to be available before 2011. There was speculation that BT would bid for this spectrum to offer 3G services in urban areas and WiMAX wireless broadband to the rural areas. This is now less likely to be attractive in terms of WiMAX anyway as LTE (a 4G technology) is likely to be prevalent before the spectrum is actually made available.
2010/06/02
Open WIFi is already problematic without any DEAct implications
There's been varied article and Twitter coverage of Ofcom warning that people offering free WiFi are going to be classified as 'subscribers" under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) so they will have copyright infringement notices sent to them rather than their users.
Ofcom's code of practice for the DEA says that they will only regard an ISP as someone with more than 400,000 customers i.e. only covering the big players which cover over 90% of the UK's broadband users. ISPs have to deal with sending notices to users and if necessary cutting them off.
Ofcom have chosen the figure of 400,000 as it makes life easier for everyone, however they can reduce that figure to 1 if smaller players are also consistently having users that share copyrighted data.
Therefore people have seen offering WiFi services as a get-out so that they're classified as an ISP rather than a subscriber as by offering a service to a 3rd party, the DEA defines you as an ISP.
Ofcom have obviously seen the whole in the definition, so they are saying WiFi must be offered as part of a service to be classified as an ISP. So say a coffee establishment can offer WiFi as part of their service as they are charging for the coffee (as could a pub or anyone charging for services including those charging for WiFi services).
Charging for WiFi makes life a lot easier as then you generally know who your users are (or at least have a billing relationship with them, which means Ofcom or the Police have somewhere to start if the user does something wrong).
Offering free WiFi was thought to be another way to get out of the DEA, unfortunately Ofcom have chosen to take the opinion that then the WiFi isn't part of a service which means the ISP excuse cant be used and any copyright infringement notices will be sent to the WiFi operator themselves.
The last section is what's causing people to get upset. However it has ALWAYS been an issue. Altruistic WiFi may sound good on paper, but not knowing who your users are has implecations under the law.
Imagine an open WiFi access point and someone uploads child porn to a known site which the Police monitor. Child porn is illegal (rightly so) and the Police take a dim view of it. So they track where the porn was uploaded from and lo and behold it's appeared from the user running the open WiFi access. The user in question denies all knowledge of the offence as they have an open access point. The Police on the other hand don't quite see their point of view, all the know is that child porn was uploaded from the user's network so the confiscate all their computer hardware - EVERYTHING.
Eventually, after it's gone into the queue of a Police forensics lab (many months), the Police may drop the charges as they find no traces of the child porn on the computers and have discovered the access point is configured as open. Of course they may decide there's other content of a suspicious nature and the user must be good at erasing their data as they are technical, so it may go the other way.
As a technical household there may be many computers, media units, servers, hard drives etc. They will ALL be confiscated and the more there are, the longer the case will take.
(The above has actually happened to an acquaintance)
Now that's just part of it, it's not just the process of uploading child porn (though that's a worst case scenario) the Communications Act covers WiFi etc. It's just that using WiFi as an excuse to get around DEA issues isn't going to work and copyright infringement is probably going to happen more than child porn offences and Ofcom are rightly showing that it's an issue.
Going back to the Communications Act, ANYONE offering communications services is classified an Electronic Communications Network or ECN under the Act. An ECN has obligation under the Act (everybody offering communications services has read the Act and knows their obligations of course - ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law).
If the communications services are offered to the public, they are then considered an Public Electronic Communications Network or PECN which has even more obligations than an ECN.
Mostly it doesn't matter, as Ofcom are never going to go around to everyone who is an ECN and ensure that they're compliant. However they could. Currently only big telcos or ISPs pay fees to Ofcom (they have a turn-over greater than some point set by Ofcom), but if WiFi operators become an issue, they can just say that they'll impose a fee on all ECNs or PECNs or those that meet whatever criteria.
So the issues of open WiFi have been understood for a long time, it's just now Ofcom saying "that under this new law we're not exempting open WiFi users and they have to take responsibility for their networks as the law says they should anyway"
Ofcom's code of practice for the DEA says that they will only regard an ISP as someone with more than 400,000 customers i.e. only covering the big players which cover over 90% of the UK's broadband users. ISPs have to deal with sending notices to users and if necessary cutting them off.
Ofcom have chosen the figure of 400,000 as it makes life easier for everyone, however they can reduce that figure to 1 if smaller players are also consistently having users that share copyrighted data.
Therefore people have seen offering WiFi services as a get-out so that they're classified as an ISP rather than a subscriber as by offering a service to a 3rd party, the DEA defines you as an ISP.
Ofcom have obviously seen the whole in the definition, so they are saying WiFi must be offered as part of a service to be classified as an ISP. So say a coffee establishment can offer WiFi as part of their service as they are charging for the coffee (as could a pub or anyone charging for services including those charging for WiFi services).
Charging for WiFi makes life a lot easier as then you generally know who your users are (or at least have a billing relationship with them, which means Ofcom or the Police have somewhere to start if the user does something wrong).
Offering free WiFi was thought to be another way to get out of the DEA, unfortunately Ofcom have chosen to take the opinion that then the WiFi isn't part of a service which means the ISP excuse cant be used and any copyright infringement notices will be sent to the WiFi operator themselves.
The last section is what's causing people to get upset. However it has ALWAYS been an issue. Altruistic WiFi may sound good on paper, but not knowing who your users are has implecations under the law.
Imagine an open WiFi access point and someone uploads child porn to a known site which the Police monitor. Child porn is illegal (rightly so) and the Police take a dim view of it. So they track where the porn was uploaded from and lo and behold it's appeared from the user running the open WiFi access. The user in question denies all knowledge of the offence as they have an open access point. The Police on the other hand don't quite see their point of view, all the know is that child porn was uploaded from the user's network so the confiscate all their computer hardware - EVERYTHING.
Eventually, after it's gone into the queue of a Police forensics lab (many months), the Police may drop the charges as they find no traces of the child porn on the computers and have discovered the access point is configured as open. Of course they may decide there's other content of a suspicious nature and the user must be good at erasing their data as they are technical, so it may go the other way.
As a technical household there may be many computers, media units, servers, hard drives etc. They will ALL be confiscated and the more there are, the longer the case will take.
(The above has actually happened to an acquaintance)
Now that's just part of it, it's not just the process of uploading child porn (though that's a worst case scenario) the Communications Act covers WiFi etc. It's just that using WiFi as an excuse to get around DEA issues isn't going to work and copyright infringement is probably going to happen more than child porn offences and Ofcom are rightly showing that it's an issue.
Going back to the Communications Act, ANYONE offering communications services is classified an Electronic Communications Network or ECN under the Act. An ECN has obligation under the Act (everybody offering communications services has read the Act and knows their obligations of course - ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law).
If the communications services are offered to the public, they are then considered an Public Electronic Communications Network or PECN which has even more obligations than an ECN.
Mostly it doesn't matter, as Ofcom are never going to go around to everyone who is an ECN and ensure that they're compliant. However they could. Currently only big telcos or ISPs pay fees to Ofcom (they have a turn-over greater than some point set by Ofcom), but if WiFi operators become an issue, they can just say that they'll impose a fee on all ECNs or PECNs or those that meet whatever criteria.
So the issues of open WiFi have been understood for a long time, it's just now Ofcom saying "that under this new law we're not exempting open WiFi users and they have to take responsibility for their networks as the law says they should anyway"
2010/06/01
It's all go with MeeGo (for netbooks anyway)
Nokia have announced the availability of MeeGo v1.0 for netbook type devices. MeeGo is the Linux based OS that is the combined efforts of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's MobLin.
The main features are: -
* Visually rich Netbook user experience, building on the latest open source technologies.
* Instant access to your synchronized calendar, tasks, appointments, recently used files and real-time social networking updates through the home screen.
* Aggregation of your social networking content. This allows you to see your social networking activities on one screen, easily interact with your friends, and update your status and site information.
* Easy to use applications for email, calendar and media player.
* Highly optimized for power and performance.
* Languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, English, British English
The release comes in two version, one fully open source using Google's Chromium browser and one where the end-user has to agree to Google's EULA for Google Chrome.
The core platform (which is common to all releases) contains: -
* Kernel based on 2.6.33
* DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
* Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
* Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
* Qt 4.6
* Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
* Media frameworks
* Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system
Nokia have also quietly released a version for the N900 smartphone, though Nokia will continue to support Maemo as the "officially" supported N900 OS. It also seems there are ports of MeeGo to the N8x0 units too.
The main features are: -
* Visually rich Netbook user experience, building on the latest open source technologies.
* Instant access to your synchronized calendar, tasks, appointments, recently used files and real-time social networking updates through the home screen.
* Aggregation of your social networking content. This allows you to see your social networking activities on one screen, easily interact with your friends, and update your status and site information.
* Easy to use applications for email, calendar and media player.
* Highly optimized for power and performance.
* Languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, English, British English
The release comes in two version, one fully open source using Google's Chromium browser and one where the end-user has to agree to Google's EULA for Google Chrome.
The core platform (which is common to all releases) contains: -
* Kernel based on 2.6.33
* DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
* Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
* Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
* Qt 4.6
* Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
* Media frameworks
* Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system
Nokia have also quietly released a version for the N900 smartphone, though Nokia will continue to support Maemo as the "officially" supported N900 OS. It also seems there are ports of MeeGo to the N8x0 units too.
2010/05/28
Online Infringement of Copyright and the Digital Economy Act 2010 | Ofcom
Online Infringement of Copyright and the Digital Economy Act 2010 | Ofcom
Ofcom has published a consultation about the Draft Initial Obligations Code that Ofcom had to produce under the Digital Economy Act 2010.
Ofcom has had to make various statements as to definitions of what is considered an ISP (i.e. an ISP will only be covered if they have more than 400,000 subscribers) and if a someone offers WiFi access then they are considered the subscriber (even though they should be considered an ISP).
The consultation closes on 30th July 2010 and people should respond (it's possible to respond online here
Ofcom has published a consultation about the Draft Initial Obligations Code that Ofcom had to produce under the Digital Economy Act 2010.
Ofcom has had to make various statements as to definitions of what is considered an ISP (i.e. an ISP will only be covered if they have more than 400,000 subscribers) and if a someone offers WiFi access then they are considered the subscriber (even though they should be considered an ISP).
The consultation closes on 30th July 2010 and people should respond (it's possible to respond online here
2010/05/27
Spoonfed shoots for the Bullseye
Spoonfed who produce listings of events happening in the London area are launching a new product Bullseye.
Bullseye is aimed at events organisers who can target customers via a variety of channels such as Email, SMS etc. and offer them promotions, through an easy to use web based system. Customers responses can be tracked as well as non-deliveries of Email/SMS/etc.
This compliments the existing free Spoonfed service which is aimed at consumers, while Bullseye is a commercial B2B revenue generating system.
Bullseye is aimed at events organisers who can target customers via a variety of channels such as Email, SMS etc. and offer them promotions, through an easy to use web based system. Customers responses can be tracked as well as non-deliveries of Email/SMS/etc.
This compliments the existing free Spoonfed service which is aimed at consumers, while Bullseye is a commercial B2B revenue generating system.
2010/05/21
iPad's are naked without one
A San Francisco company called Dodocase has released what looks to be, THE, case for the iPad and iPad 3G.
It has a leather exterior and bamboo interior that snuggly holds the iPad. With the case open and flipped on its back, it positions the iPad at a good angle to type.
When closed it looks very similar to a traditional Moleskine journal.
At $49.95 they're not even in the silly bracket, every discerning iPad owner needs one now.
It has a leather exterior and bamboo interior that snuggly holds the iPad. With the case open and flipped on its back, it positions the iPad at a good angle to type.
When closed it looks very similar to a traditional Moleskine journal.
At $49.95 they're not even in the silly bracket, every discerning iPad owner needs one now.
Yahoo and Nokia in bed together
Nokia will announce 'Project Nike' on Monday (Nike being the Goddess of Victory rather than anything shoe related). Though it's all rumour, it's expected that Nokia are working on offering services based on Yahoo Mobile.
Microsoft have their mobile OS and that ties into Microsoft's back-end services such as Bing and such like, Google obviously has Android that ties into Google's back-end services (and the phone doesn't really work nicely unless you tie it into Google).
Nokia has err, Nokia which comprises of the Ovi store, Ovi maps and maybe some Ovi email. Yahoo might just give them the back-end mobile services they need to compete in the very competitive smart-phone arena.
Coincidently Gary Gale who was Director of Geo at Yahoo is leaving on Friday and moving on, is it just a coincident, or are the two related?
Microsoft have their mobile OS and that ties into Microsoft's back-end services such as Bing and such like, Google obviously has Android that ties into Google's back-end services (and the phone doesn't really work nicely unless you tie it into Google).
Nokia has err, Nokia which comprises of the Ovi store, Ovi maps and maybe some Ovi email. Yahoo might just give them the back-end mobile services they need to compete in the very competitive smart-phone arena.
Coincidently Gary Gale who was Director of Geo at Yahoo is leaving on Friday and moving on, is it just a coincident, or are the two related?
The Future of Web Design has past
Last week saw the return of FOWD to London (May 17th to 19th). The first day consisted of workshops at Wallace Space (which I didn't attend) then 2 days of conference at the Brewery in Chiswell St.
Compared to last year, well there was no comparison. The venue was great and could easily accommodate the number of attendees (600 plus), even the supplied food was pretty good. Every usable room also had wired or wireless networking that worked throughout the conference, though it slowed a bit at peak times (though being reasonably stable with the number of users was an accomplishment in itself).
There were companies demo'ing their products and all had a hosting/prototyping bent.HammerKit showed their prototyping system which allows a user to rapidly develop a prototype site with working elements, unfortunately you cant take the finished product off their hosting platform, maybe that will come in time. HotGloo have a nice wire-framing on-line system that again allows prototypes to be built on-line to test usability with some sophisticated actions for objects. Adobe were also there with Business Catalyst their on-line web building tool that allows designers to delegate authority to various aspects of the site, so copy writers can add text, but not play with the style etc. Adobe have some sensible pricing plans for the service as they allow an organisation to host their site and their customer sites.
Though there were some excellent talks, some were disappointing such as Paul Boag's which just seemed to be a rant, and not even a rant giving out useful information just a rant with some incorrect information.
Carsonified launched their Think Vitamin Membership service whereby customers subscribe and get access to at least 4 on-line conferences per annum, on-line tutorials and discounts to Carsonified conference such as FOWA/FOWD etc all for $25 per month. Allegedly 1,000 people signed up at FOWD.
Anyway overall definitely recommended even though it's an expensive event, there's always a good glass of speakers and generally a better class of audience where most of the value comes from. Looking forward to next year's event and also FOWA which takes place in the same excellent venue in Oct 2010.
Compared to last year, well there was no comparison. The venue was great and could easily accommodate the number of attendees (600 plus), even the supplied food was pretty good. Every usable room also had wired or wireless networking that worked throughout the conference, though it slowed a bit at peak times (though being reasonably stable with the number of users was an accomplishment in itself).
There were companies demo'ing their products and all had a hosting/prototyping bent.HammerKit showed their prototyping system which allows a user to rapidly develop a prototype site with working elements, unfortunately you cant take the finished product off their hosting platform, maybe that will come in time. HotGloo have a nice wire-framing on-line system that again allows prototypes to be built on-line to test usability with some sophisticated actions for objects. Adobe were also there with Business Catalyst their on-line web building tool that allows designers to delegate authority to various aspects of the site, so copy writers can add text, but not play with the style etc. Adobe have some sensible pricing plans for the service as they allow an organisation to host their site and their customer sites.
Though there were some excellent talks, some were disappointing such as Paul Boag's which just seemed to be a rant, and not even a rant giving out useful information just a rant with some incorrect information.
Carsonified launched their Think Vitamin Membership service whereby customers subscribe and get access to at least 4 on-line conferences per annum, on-line tutorials and discounts to Carsonified conference such as FOWA/FOWD etc all for $25 per month. Allegedly 1,000 people signed up at FOWD.
Anyway overall definitely recommended even though it's an expensive event, there's always a good glass of speakers and generally a better class of audience where most of the value comes from. Looking forward to next year's event and also FOWA which takes place in the same excellent venue in Oct 2010.
2010/05/19
Google buys GIPS, Skype quakes?
Google has acquired GIPS (Global IP Sound) a vendor of high quality voice and video codecs used by many VoIP players (except Skype).
Skype have over 600m users and developed their own HD voice codec known as SILK.
Google bought Grand Central and then based their Google Voice service on top of it. Google already had their Google Talk service which is just their implementation of Jabber (or the XMPP protocol). It was possible to 'talk' to other users on Google Talk with their Jingle extensions (which Google published). Google Voice is their preferred and proper VoIP service. Unfortunately they didn't have a nice front-end for Google Voice so they acquired Gizmo5 the service from Michael Robertson. Gizmo5 had a reasonable user base and it was standards based using SIP as the VoIP protocol, though the back-end was meant to be based on Asterisk and other open source technologies. Google Voice has a very good back-end and so the tie-up with Gizmo5 gave them a nice front-end and Google could drop the Gizmo5 back-end stuff.
Now with the purchase of GIPS giving Google 'free' access to high quality voice codecs, they look to really threaten Skype's dominance of the VoIP market, especially if the launch Google Voice outside of the US.
Skype have over 600m users and developed their own HD voice codec known as SILK.
Google bought Grand Central and then based their Google Voice service on top of it. Google already had their Google Talk service which is just their implementation of Jabber (or the XMPP protocol). It was possible to 'talk' to other users on Google Talk with their Jingle extensions (which Google published). Google Voice is their preferred and proper VoIP service. Unfortunately they didn't have a nice front-end for Google Voice so they acquired Gizmo5 the service from Michael Robertson. Gizmo5 had a reasonable user base and it was standards based using SIP as the VoIP protocol, though the back-end was meant to be based on Asterisk and other open source technologies. Google Voice has a very good back-end and so the tie-up with Gizmo5 gave them a nice front-end and Google could drop the Gizmo5 back-end stuff.
Now with the purchase of GIPS giving Google 'free' access to high quality voice codecs, they look to really threaten Skype's dominance of the VoIP market, especially if the launch Google Voice outside of the US.
Ofcom propsoes to reduce Earth Station regulation
Ofcom is proposing to reduce the regulation on Satellite (Earth Station Network) licenses.
The power limit of a VAST terminal will be increased from 50 to 55dBW EIRP, though limitations still apply within airport boundaries and 2 specific areas (in the UK).
Current applications should be made in the normal way.
The power limit of a VAST terminal will be increased from 50 to 55dBW EIRP, though limitations still apply within airport boundaries and 2 specific areas (in the UK).
Current applications should be made in the normal way.
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