TechAddress

A Data Cap Might be Technically Bearable, But it’s Consciously Limiting

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 20:30:09 +0000

An interesting statement emerged on NewTeeVee today. Post author Chris Albrecht quotes Roku VP of consumer products “It’s unfortunate that the limitless possibilities are being capped by an ISP [Comcast], but it has no direct business impact on us.” Roku, for those unaware, is in a partnership with Netflix to deliver streaming movies on a $99 buy-in deal fully subsidized through one’s monthly rental subscription cost. Comcast, meanwhile, will be initiating a bandwidth limit of 250GB for residential broadband users per month starting in October.

Let me say that 1) the limits to be enact could have a direct business impact on Roku, and 2) of course the company will say otherwise. The reason being that it is in Roku’s interest to disregard changes at Comcast. If it were to complain in ways that prospective users would notice, it might risk cutting into sales by dissuading shoppers concerned about hitting the data limit. And at this point in time, Roku likely doesn’t need such disruptions to its output.

VP Tim Twerdhal says that consumers’ choice of downstream video bitrates allows Roku to safely stay within the bounds set by Comcast. A valid point. Equally valid is his explanation that visual quality will be sustained while bitrates drop as the technologies involved improve and advance. But such progress is a relative unknown to Comcast’s very real “cut-off.”

Furthermore, it only takes knowledge of existence a limit - not too big or too small - to influence consumer decisions. Give a user warning of what might be if he/she were to seek the full potential (or close to it) of modern conveniences like high-quality media downloads, and that tricky thing known as deliberation creeps into the picture. A user might begin to weight the pros and cons of his/her situation. And that eventually eats into interconnected economies. With the movie/TV download sector being one of the hungriest around today.

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German Security Office Smells Stink on Google Chrome

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:30:06 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Germany’s Office for Information Security, also known as the BSI, has apparently looked at Google’s Chrome browser and felt a pinch of uneasy déjà vu (a la Microsoft), only this time sensing that the company behind the software wants to know too much about you, too often. As a result, the BSI is advising anyone who’ll listen to steer clear of the crayon invader’s brand new beta. At least for anything other than experimental tasks.

Though this isn’t a warning stretched to the whole EU, the fact is that the BSI’s red flag has been shown by a number of German media stalwarts, including Berliner Zeitung and Tagesschau, the second of which is a news program widely viewed by the public. Which makes for fairly substantial news. And just so we’re thorough, the way we’ve learned of this official relay is the through the German blog Spreeblick, sourced by Philipp Lensen of Google Blogoscoped. Lensen summarized the matter thusly:

The Federal Office for Information Security warned Internet users of the new browser Chrome. The application by the company Google should not be used for surfing the Internet, as a spokesperson for the office told the Berliner Zeitung. It was said to be problematic that Chrome was distributed as an unfinished advance version. Furthermore it was said to be risky that user data is hoarded with a single vendor. With its search engine, email program and the new browser, Google now covers all important areas on the Internet.

To be honest, a part of me wishes to draw a bit of humor from this news chain. After all, it’s not as if Google hasn’t walked this line before. It manages vast amounts of user data, regularly distributes “unfinished advance version(s)” of software and services, and generally gives privacy hawks the willies. On the other hand, we knew this moment would come.

All this conversation about Google this and Google that, Google so easy and Google so smart. The Chrome project aggregates pretty much every concern into one quick install. Naturally the whistle gets blown. This time from Germany’s own BSI. The issue of security can really only be compounded by the fears of a one-stop shop for both corporation and criminal. The premise of those fears: Google Chrome equals Google Concentrate. “Getting to know you, getting to know all about you,” goes the song.

There’s more of this on its way, to be sure. Regardless of intent or execution, words of caution ring more loudly than calm, and with holes in Chrome to fill, it’s easy to see why various folks would prefer people dabble rather than dive. No doubt, this discussion will be an open one for long time hence, and Google as it is known today will never escape the cloud of suspicion that hovers ever more darkly. All the company can do now is…deal.

Just to lay the cards fully out onto the table, I used Google Translate to put articles from both Berliner Zeitung and Spreeblick into poor, algorithmically-arranged English.

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How to Catch 2008 Paralympic Moments Online from Beijing

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:33:46 +0000

Source:Mashable!

As we noted earlier, the 2008 Paralympic Summer Games in Beijing held their official opener on Saturday. The next week and a half will bring roughly 4,000 athletes from 150 countries into one athletic village, challenging one another for hundreds of medals gold, silver and bronze in nearly two dozen sports. With that in mind, if you’re keen on taking in the views and the news as they come from the Chinese capital, here are a few places to stay abreast and in tune.

While the NBCOlympics.com isn’t playing host to events scheduled through the 17th of the month, when the Paralympic games officially wrap up, the NBC Universal Sports website is, according to Alan Schwarz of The New York Times’ Rings blog, slated to present 50 hours of live coverage, as well as on-demand footage. In order to watch live coverage, viewers in the US will be required to schedule their days to an early morning routine, seeing as how many events will take place as early as 5 AM ET.

So far, two videos are presented in the Universal Sports archive: one for the opening ceremony held Saturday; the other a highlight reel of the ceremony plus coverage of a portion of Day 1 events. As for software compatibility, video is not presented in Silverlight, nor Flash, but in Windows Media format. Mac users can view coverage through a browser plugin called Flip4Mac. Personal experience shows this option to stutter and flicker at points, but it is a mostly decent delivery.

Another way to watch the Paralympic games up close is through ParalympicSportTV. This is done through Narrowstep, and while video detail isn’t particularly outstanding, the channel is tagged with the IPC (International Paralympic Committee) label, an association which might be of interest to some. If you have trouble viewing content at the main ParalympicSportTV page, an archive has also been established on YouTube. Nearly three dozen clips have been added to the collection so far.

Want extra reading material to go with the IPC’s coverage? The committee president, Sir Philip Craven, has gone ahead and created a blog, to which he has posted daily items for a short time. The broader Paralympic.org website is home to a good amount of news and resource information, too.

Across the Atlantic, the BBC offers a page within its Sport section devoted to Paralympic happenings. Of course, there’s ample focus on competitors from Team Great Britain, but according to BBC News, live streams are being offered “for six hours a day through the red button.” Quite thorough, I think. That is in addition to evening showings on BBC2 and via the BBC’s iPlayer service.

Lastly, being an American, I think it behooves me to briefly mention the U.S. Paralympics Team website, which is just chock-full of material to pore over. It last links to news stories, video clips, photo galleries, event results, and even a link to Universal Sports’s Paralympic coverage. Plus, if what you see gets you interested enough to take part in paralympic game play yourself, you can head over to its event page to see if something is happening in your area in the near future.

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Silverlight Battling Flash AND JavaScript For Long-Term Legitimacy

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:31:28 +0000

Source:Mashable!

As we noted late last month, Google affixed its name to the GeoEye Inc’s GeoEye-1 satellite, in order that the Web giant get dibs on some high-resolution imagery produced of our little planet in orbit. Well, today marked the blastoff sequence, followed by a successful launch.

According to the AP, it started fighting gravity at 11:50 AM today from vertical stasis at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Video posted to the GeoEye website marks the occasion.

GeoEye isn’t just a rudimentary upgrade to satellite photography of typical Google Maps-like order. It’s designers regard it as having “the highest resolution of any commercial imaging system,” with the capability to show detail within one square foot or so. And of course, Google isn’t the exclusive name to share space on the cylinder of GeoEye-1. Boeing Launch Services provided the rocket, and its purpose will be “environmental matting to agriculture and defense.” Nonetheless, Google will reap fruits of the digicam’s labor. The data begins to flow in 45-60 days’ time, said Google’s Kate Hurowitz in late August.

Source:Mashable!

So a whole lot of people thought Microsoft’s Silverlight technology warranted an install to watch the summer games in Beijing at NBCOlympics.com. And another big crowd felt different, thinking, among other things, that the use of Adobe Flash would naturally suit them just as well.

Following the main events in China (the Paralympics opened today), the limit of Microsoft’s exclusivity deal with NBC was made clear this past week when NBC broadcast live coverage of the NFL’s opening game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins in celebratory preparation to do the very same for games occurring every Sunday night for duration of the next 17 weeks - and all in Flash. NFL.com, too, displayed Thursday’s game and will routinely cover Sunday matches here on in.

The no-show-Silverlight talk doesn’t end there. Suzanne Tindal of CNET’s Webware quoted Microsoft senior program manager by the name of Scott Hanselman as having said at the company’s own Tech.Ed conference that “we’re going to see a 100- to 1,000-fold speed increase in JavaScript as Google and the guys at Mozilla…kick us in the arse.” Furthermore, Jonas Follesø of Cap Gemini, an IT and business consultancy, commented that JavaScript will pose a serious challenge to Silverlight - more so than Flash has thus far.

An interesting position for Silverlight to find itself in, for sure. As it is basically known, Silverlight is a platform for developing rich Internet applications. More so with the 2.0 beta than with versions to come before, given its support for .NET and so forth. Therefore, juxtapositions with both Flash and JavaScript are rightfully made. Which means that if Silverlight is to have any chance at the kind of ubiquity shown by its more common competitors, it needs to do far more than solidify video delivery partnerships with the likes of NBC. It must inhabit a vast supply of Web applications of all types. Which, to speak reasonably here, isn’t so inevitable. Years of assimilation among Web users needs to happen to achieve an all-around permanence. Flash and JavaScript developers know this. Unfortunately for Microsoft, those forces didn’t have monsters of such dimensions to spar with.

It’s not an impossibility for Silverlight to grow, mind you. Given the right level of attention to the platform, Microsoft could mark its Olympic foray as only the first big starter in the long slog toward mass adoption. But “could” is the key word. The hill climbs (yes, climbs plural) will be trying. One, as I noted above, is to convince the public of its validity and utility in the presence of two semi-household names. There’s a toughie.

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Google Goes into Orbit: Timeshare Satellite GeoEye-1 Launched

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 02:30:33 +0000

Source:Mashable!

According to the AP, it started fighting gravity at 11:50 AM today from vertical stasis at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Video posted to the GeoEye website marks the occasion.

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Facebookers Rally for Choice

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:33:48 +0000

Source:Mashable!

If a post on Facebook’s developer blog is accurate, you have less than a week to make your call for no change. That’s right, no change. a group of members have coalesced behind a petition, massing together “Against the ‘New Facebook’” to send Zuckerberg and the rest of them out in Palo Alto a message: “We’re not saying get rid of the new layout, just that they should keep the old one and let us choose which layout we want like skins. Color options would be good too.”

As Compete’s trendspotters made known this past week, many Facebook users have switched over to the “new” Facebook, also called “beta,” only to revert back to the old way. Yet, the company is choosing to switch the network over by default in a matter of days, not months, as I myself envisioned it would. If you’re not fond of the idea of a site-wide shift, join the gentle opposition. Their goal at present is to reach 1 million registrants. As of 7:50 PM ET Saturday, they collectively number 424k-strong. The count has been 11 days in the making. Thousands enter the fold by the hour. All to invoke no change, but rather, a choice. Where do you fall? (Note: We made mention of a parallel movement yesterday, less than half the size, with nearly the same title. It happens.)

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MySpace Closes App Profile Forums Due to Spam Overload

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 22:30:48 +0000

Source:Mashable!

Rhonda from MySpace says the network has had a spam infestation in its application profiles. So much so that it shut down the forum display. Complaints were coming in like crazy. Now users interested in “more exciting forums” are advised to carry on their conversations elsewhere for the time being. Free bulletins are suggested. How’s that suit you?

At the risk of making an irate user base even more angry and loud, perhaps this is the only way to really put the spoilers in a chokehold. Though as Nick O’Neill of Social Times writes, “it shows that MySpace doesn’t have…control over (its) spam situation,” which only puts the site in negative light it’s spent quite some time working to emerge from. Facebook, meanwhile, has instituted a spam reporting system that’s considered to be at least partially effective, if not fully.

So, how should should one look at this outcome? Glass half-full, or half-empty? The first category is where I fall. Better to have nothing than lots of nothing, I think. How about you?

Update: Rhonda from MySpace offers a clarification of her original post in the comments. Useful to read.

How does the closure of MySpace App forums sit with you? ( polls)

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Nintendo’s Role in the New Mobile Gaming Paradise

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:30:24 +0000

Source:Mashable!

This is a fairly important question to consider, I think. The gaming industry clocks in billions of dollars in revenue each year, a good portion of which is devoted to mobile sales. Yet if mobile Web use is going to continue climb at the solid clip, and mobile phones are to be smart and powerful enough to conquer interactive entertainment, is there room for platforms devoted primarily to gaming?

While Sony’s PSP hasn’t seen itself become a phenom of the mobile gaming space, the Nintendo DS is an item which has often been touted as something of a marvel; nearly as cool as the Wii when it first arrived. Nintendo has consistently sold millions for several quarters. And the company will undoubtedly sell more. But just how much more? And if/when momentum slows to a trickle, then a crawl, and then stops, what comes after? Does Nintendo move into software exclusively, bringing Mario, et al. to the iPhone, Android devices, Nokia handhelds, and other systems?

What triggered my interest in this subject isn’t gaming itself. The most I would consider myself is a very occasional gamer. Once in a while a little Sudoku, some Tetris, some chess. Also, I’ve recently been draw to the “Cannon Challenge” [iTunes URL] game freely issued by Discovery for iPhone/iPod touch users. Otherwise my free moments are devoted to other pursuits. No, gaming isn’t really the focus here. Rather, it is the way in which mobile platforms themselves are evolving that is the basis for this comment. They are evolving to the point that Nintendo’s handhelds, and those of its competitor(s), will be no more. Why? Internet connectivity. More precisely, always-on Internet connectivity.

It’s been said constantly for over a year now by various persons well-known and not so well-known: the iPhone is a great gaming platform. Leo Laporte of TWiT, The Tech Guy, and The Lab fame, says so. Regularly. The co-hosts of “Diggnation” offer similar praise for the thing. I’ll say so, too. And by categorial association, I would say a number of other smartphones are similarly equipped to provide gameplay that’s visually impressive and entertaining as well. Indeed, because of computing power alone, it might be argued that the likes of Nintendo won’t be able to extend its legacy in a tangible sense for many more years.

Yes, it’s important to emphasize this new and very big nail in the coffin of convention. It’s a point that has been echoed with increased volume in recent months. The ever-present mobile Web. If game developers take up the task of engineering titles to connect players with one another without limit to place or time - or, reversely, dependent on place and time - the sort of gaming that comes with the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP in their current Wi-Fi-enabled form, is going to quickly become outdated.

Of course, Sony has a convenient bridge to the next era of mobile gaming in its partnership with Ericsson in the mobile phone world. That is something Sony should address, and sooner rather than later. But Nintendo, interestingly enough, doesn’t have that option. Not yet, at least. And rather than establish exclusives with one handset maker or another, it may well be better off investing little to naught in hardware and focus instead on publishing titles compatible with the modern smartphone platforms of today.

Not too long ago a report released by comScore noted that US mobile subscribers’ had essentially balanced pan-Atlantic rate of 3G adoption with residents of Europe, after years of lagging behind. If comScore’s numbers are anything accurate, they only add weight to the line that mobile phone gaming is the logical extension to come from the market. The next cash cow. Naturally, this requires that consumers take to the all-in-one approach to mobile communications, which they’ve been slow to do. But the advent of Nokia’s newest N-Series devices as well as those from Apple and Samsung, etc., have done much to whet the consumer palate. So much so that a migration is simply inevitable.

To be sure, this is a good thing. Change rarely does good things for nostalgia, but it enables progress to continue on. The sheer volume of possible applications of GPS- and 3G- and 4G-infused networking, let alone gameplay, piques the interest of millions of people. Privacy is of course an ever-present concern. But gamers have made plain their desire to take the multiplayer experience as far as it can allow. That has been the case with Xbox Live fans, PC-based MMORPG devotees, and it will also be true for mobile gamers, too. Heck, the possibilities given via the Nintendo DS specifically have intrigued a global supply of users. So gaming over wireless cellular telephony spectrum is really just upping the ante. It is very much within reach.

Now, there is a limit to what you can do given that sort of infrastructure and personal componentry. A small screen can only provide so much opportunity to developers. But the social aspect is where things go big. It’s more a matter of developers’ thinking anew about the handheld world, and seeing what they’ve already constructed in the realm of iPhone and Android, they presumably won’t be short for ingenuity for many years to come.

Which brings us back to the future that Nintendo - and to lesser extent, Sony - will encounter and be forced to navigate. Mobile gaming is critical to its business, regardless of its clear success with the Wii. Will we see Mario soon emerge on the N96, a BlackBerry’s touchscreen, the iPhone, and a Sony Ericsson Walkman of some sort? I’ll venture to say yes. Somewhat soon, anyway. It’s only sensible that they make it happen. If only because it has become increasingly evident that smartphones themselves are now being designed to be the next generation of all-purpose playgrounds, and Nintendo could well make a fortune introducing itself and its trademark craftwork to the wider world of pocket computers and the cloud they inhabit.

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