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  • VUDU Offers HD Rentals That Rival Blu-ray


    VUDU has launched a new video format that rivals Blu-ray.

    Called HDX, it delivers full 1080p at 24 fps to screens 40 inches and up via web distribution using VUDU’s TruFilm compression technology.

    Just to put the icing on the cake, the company says it won’t be charging extra for HDX titles.

    While VUDU made no reference to Blu-ray in making its announcement, comments from Mark Jung, CEO of VUDU, can be taken as a challenge to the HD disc format.

    He said HDX raised the bar on picture quality for HD movies delivered on-demand, over the air, satellite or Internet and across the entire video landscape.

    “Accelerating consumer adoption of large screen HDTVs has fueled strong demand for the kind of viewing experience and picture quality only HDX can deliver,” he said.

    In August, the BDA reacted swiftly to the DISH Network’s claims that its “full” HDTV 1080p/25Hz image matched Blu-ray quality.

    But David Mercer, principal analyst at Strategy Analytics, suggested satellite providers are competing primarily with cable and IPTV companies, and not with the Blu-ray Disc format itself.

    Delivery times are the big snag to HDX with most broadband connections taking 3-4 hours per title.

    But as there are currently only 65 movies available in the HDX format, it’s maybe just as well.

    While the HDX films are only for rental it is hoped that a purchase option will be offered in the future.

  • Copyright Ruling To Close iTunes?


    The future of Apple’s iTunes music store could be decided today if the Copyright Royalty Board backs a proposal to raise royalties.

    At least that’s what iTunes’ vice president, Eddy Cue, told the CRB.

    He has warned that Apple would close iTunes if the board agrees to the increased rates proposed by the National Music Publishers’ Association.

    The NMPA wants to raise the royalties paid to its members on songs purchased from digital music stores like iTunes.

    The NMPA wants to levy a 66 per cent increase – raising the charge from nine cents a track to 15 cents.

    Apple, the US’s largest music retailer, postures that it would rather shut iTunes than pay the higher rate.

    “If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss–which is no alternative at all,” Cue wrote in a statement submitted to the CRB last year.

    “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

    With revenues estimated at USD $1.9 billion in revenue last year there would seem to be some slack for absorbing the 6-cents-a-track royalty increase.

    Or maybe they could just pass it on to consumers and blame the NMPA!

  • HP Boosts Virtualization Options With Purchase Of LeftHand Networks


    Hewlett-Packard is to spend USD $360 million in cash to buy storage virtualization company LeftHand Networks.

    The company covers two areas currently receiving a lot of attention – allocating storage for virtualized servers and the using Ethernet for storage networks.

    LeftHand Networks’ solutions enable midsize companies and remote offices or branches of large corporations to easily and cost-effectively protect critical business data.

    The company’s software allows a user to create a storage “cloud” connected via iSCSI, an Ethernet standard rather than the proprietary Fibre Channel networking that dominates the storage industry.

    The software could run on IBM and HP servers.

    Founded in 1999, LeftHand Networks is privately held and headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

    It has 215 employees and more than 500 resellers and distributors worldwide. The company has more than 11,000 installations across 3,000 different customers.

    Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, HP, said the acquisition of LeftHand Networks significantly expanded HP’s storage portfolio.

    "Customers need a faster, less complex and more economical route to storage networking to better protect their critical business data,” he said.

    The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to be completed in HP’s first fiscal quarter of 2009.

    Following completion, the business will be integrated into the HP StorageWorks division within the Technology Solutions Group at HP.

  • Cicero delivers Mobile Video over IP


    Cicero Networks has announced the release of CiceroPhone V2oIP (Voice and Video) for Nokia E series and N series handsets.

    In what it claims is the world’s first real-time, two-way IP video application for Nokia phones, the software enables high quality video telephony over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks.

    CiceroV2oIP provides video streaming using either the front or back camera on phones and simultaneously displays both the outgoing and incoming video streams to both parties on a call.

    The application also supports a range of half-duplex video applications, including “see-what-I-see” video sharing on any Series 60 Nokia device.

    Ross Brennan, CEO of Cicero Networks, said there was a demand from operators and service providers for services that made the most of both their fixed and mobile assets.

    CiceroPhone is SIP and 3GPP standards compliant, allowing it to be used in conjunction with an operator’s existing IP infrastructure.

    Cicero said that interoperability had already been proven with the IP and IMS communication platforms of the world’s leading network equipment providers.

  • Business World May Be Rocked By IP PBX – But Not Yet


    Industry hype surrounding unified communications (UC) may cause seismic shifts across the business world – but the changes could take up to a generation to impact.

    That’s the findings of a study by In-Stat into UC such as IP PBX and how they will make fundamental differences to how people work.

    David Lemelin, an analyst at the company, said: "Real transformational changes will take more time, perhaps even a generation, to accomplish.

    "But it’s possible that a new generation, dubbed ‘Millennials’, bringing to the workplace communications habits formed in their early years, portends more rapid adoption."

    The sorts of changes likely to be adopted at work include personal habits, like text messaging and social networking.

    The study also dealt with suggestions that around 50 per cent of enterprises are either evaluating, installing or already running UC applications.

    In-Stat said the claims about UC uptake could prove accurate because definitions of UC are so wide-ranging, including both instant messaging and IP PBX.

    A survey in June by Interactive Intelligence found that 87 per cent of businesses were planning on investing in UC, with VoIP and SIP driving the move.

  • EMCC Creates VoIP Engine For S60 Devices


    Mobile VoIP expert, EMCC Software, has developed a VoIP engine for Nokia’s S60 smartphone platform.

    Built-in VoIP capability has been absent from some of Nokia’s more recent models using S60.

    Garry Partington, CTO of EMCC, said this may present a significant barrier to companies wishing to create VoIP applications or provide VoIP services.

    “Our technical expertise and platform experience has enabled us to overcome a major hurdle that prevented effective deployment of a VoIP solution across the S60 platform which accounts for around 50 per cent of the smartphone market,” he said.

    “We were concerned that the uncertainty caused by the absence of such a solution on certain handsets may be a limiting factor for companies wishing to develop VoIP solutions.”

    EMCC’s cross-platform VoIP engine is capable of being installed on S60, Windows Mobile and other platforms that lack built-in VoIP capability.

    A fully functional engine, it does not rely on any of the in-built handset capabilities and can be deployed “Over the Air” (OTA).

  • Mobile Operator Extends Skype Calls To Landlines and Abroad


    From today, customers of mobile operator 3 in the UK and Ireland will be able to use their mobile phones to call landlines and mobiles abroad at low rates using Skype.

    The move applies to anyone using a Skype-enabled 3 mobile phone – including the 3 Skypephone range, Nokia N95 and Sony Ericsson C902.

    Access to Skype on 3 was already free and allowed Skype-to-Skype calls and Instant Messaging, regardless of the end user’s location.

    The new development now allows callers to get cheap Skype rates from their mobile phones to landlines and mobiles abroad.

    Scott Durchslag, COO of Skype, said the move was an industry first that allowed 3’s clients to use their mobiles to make calls regardless of where in the world they may be and what device they are using.

    Meanwhile, Skype’s desktop client continues its slow progress towards version 4.0 with a new beta release.

    The changes include system-tray alerts and drag-and-drop file transfer, as well as automatic grouping of contacts for those who have too many friends to manage manually.

    The move follows criticism from users after Skype issued the first beta of Skype 4.0 for Windows in June with radical design changes that put off some of the service’s over 300 million users.

  • Flash For iPhone Soon – If Apple Says Yes


    Adobe Systems is preparing a version of its Flash Player that could be used on Apple’s iPhone.

    Paul Betlem, Adobe’s senior director of engineering, told Flash Magazine that the iPhone version could be available “in a very short time”.

    Whether the software is actually accepted by Apple is another matter.

    Speaking at the Flash on the Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, UK, Betlem conceded that Apple has the last word on what runs on the iPhone.

    “My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it’s a closed platform,” he said.

    The "closed system" of MobileSafari poses difficulties in building a plug-in for a browser that doesn’t officially support plug-ins.

    But Betlem told Flash Magazine that Adobe will have the player ready for Apple’s approval.

    Would Apple really baulk at the opportunity to allow the iPhone to work on any Flash-based website?

    Wouldn’t it be good to further reduce differences between phone and laptop?

    Well, in March Sun Microsystems came off badly when it committed to a version of its Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for the new iPhone only to discover the handset’s SDK prohibited Java on the phone.

    It’s also worth remembering that earlier this year Steve Jobs said that Flash Lite for mobile was not full-featured enough, while the full version of Flash would not run well on the iPhone.

    It was reported at the time that Adobe could run into problems due to restrictions of the iPhone SDK.

    Corporate issues aside, Jens Brynildsen, of Flash Magazine and Flash Gamer, makes some strong performance-related arguments for not having Flash on the iPhone.

    He doesn’t believe it would add to the iPhone experience and argues there is no reason for Apple approve it.

    A main objection is that MobileSafari wouldn’t be able to cope if it had to deal with websites laden with Flash ads.
    But he said politics would undoubtedly play a big part in Apple’s decision.

    “Apple wants to be in control – Apple don’t want Flash on their device,” said Brynildsen.

    “They want the phone to be easy to use with a uniform user interface. They want to get more developers to their platform, not Adobe’s.”

    Brynildsen argued that if Apple opened up the device for Flash, thousands of apps and developers would be added for the platform.

    “All of these would create different looking and fancy UIs that "break" the iPhone experience,” he said.

    “Very few will have the skills required to write content that does not tax the CPU or load progressive content that is too big for memory.”

    There’s plenty of gamers out there, for instance, that would be happy to run that risk. Please let us know your view on Flash for the iPhone.

  • Sony Expands Memory Stick Line


    Sony is expanding its Memory Stick media with new products that include features such as USB connectivity and pre-bundled movie content.

    The latest addition is the HX series of Memory Stick media, which comes in either 4 or 8 GB capacities and has high transfer rates – especially for large capacity files.

    Shane Higby, director of marketing for Sony Electronics’ consumer media group, said new digital SLR cameras and HD camcorders were driving the demand for higher capacity storage with greater connectivity and faster transfer speed.

    “With the included USB adaptor, the new HX series gives users the convenience of transferring pictures and video to their PC faster and easier,” he said.

    The new HX series has a 20 MB/s read speed and 15 MB/s write speed, about three times faster than regular Memory Stick PRO-Duo media.

    Sony is also introducing a new version of its Memory Stick Entertainment Pack, which lets users choose one of four movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment.

    The featured titles, which have a combined box office total of more than USD $1 billion worldwide, include: Surf’s Up, The Da Vinci Code, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Benchwarmers.

    This pack includes a launcher DVD featuring the four movies, and users can unlock the title of their choice using a provided code and transfer it to the Memory Stick media.

    Each movie is optimized for playback on Sony’s PlayStation3 or PlayStation Portable systems.

    Sony is also is also releasing a new line of Memory Stick Micro media, designed for use with compatible Sony Ericsson multimedia phones.

    The new models are available in one, two, four and eight GB capacities, and come with a USB adaptor.

    This allows users to copy data to their M2 media and then transfer it to a PC with USB port.

  • SanDisk Announces 16GB Mobile Phone Memory Card


    SanDisk is to launch what it claims is the world’s largest removable storage capacity for mobile phones – a 16GB microSDHC and Memory Stick Micro mobile memory card.

    The fingernail-sized memory cards are aimed at consumers wanting to get the most out of the many storage-intensive features in today’s portable handsets.

    These include music and video playback, high-definition digital camera functions, gaming and GPS applications.

    The 16GB card can also be used in other devices, including video cameras, GPS receivers or MP3 players with microSD slots.

    MicroSD cards are designed for slot-equipped legacy mobile phones and can hold a maximum capacity of 2GB. Current MicroSDHC cards are available in 4GB and 8GB.

    Avi Greengart, research director for mobile devices at Current Analysis, said there was an acute need for more mobile storage capacity.

    He said 16GB gave consumers the ability to carry their digital content with them and still have room to do more with their mobile phones.

    “Handsets have become far more than just phones – they’ve become mobile jukeboxes, mobile offices, even mobile movie theaters,” he said.

    “Flash memory cards have increased in storage capacity, but even an 8GB card may be too small for anyone with GPS map data, a few movies, a game or two, a presentation file and other applications.”

    SanDisk’s 16GB microSDHC card will be available in the US in November.