nexus – DigitalOutbox

DigitalOutbox Episode 260

Chris and Ian discuss Googles Pixel event, web security and Peeple

Shownotes

Picks

Ian

Shooty Skies

– Free

– iOS

– Fantastic scrolling shooter for iOS

– Similar graphics to Crossy Road

– In app purchases but don’t need it

DigitalOutbox Episode 226

DigitalOutbox Episode 226
DigitalOutbox Episode 226 – Apple iPads and Retina iMac, Google Nexus 6 & 9

Playback
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Shownotes
2:26 – Apple Keynote
21:15 – Google Android Announcements
33:48 – BBC to publish ‘right to be forgotten’ removals list
35:26 – Facebook Launches “Safety Check” Feature For Major Disasters
36:25 – Google changes ‘to fight piracy’ by highlighting legal sites
37:27 – Spotify announces family plans for up to 5 users
39:07 – Twitters Music Card Now Plays In Its Mobile Apps And Supports iTunes Previews
40:05 – Tweets from accounts you dont follow will soon appear in your timeline
41:29 – Amazon launches Pass My Parcel for same-day in-store order collection in the UK
43:26 – HBO will launch a standalone streaming service in the US next year
44:53 – Steam pulls game after its developer tweets Gabe Newell death threat

DigitalOutbox Episode 180

DigitalOutbox Episode 180
DigitalOutbox Episode 180 – Ballmer to retire, Nintendo 2DS

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Shownotes
1:36 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to step down within a year
8:19 – Steve Jobs’ Email Shows Apple Changed In-App Purchasing Rules Specifically To Retaliate Against Amazon
11:36 – Google drops Nexus 4 to $199 in the US and slashes prices by 25% in 6 other markets
13:08 – Three confirm 4G plans
14:56 – On the day that O2 and Vodafone launch 4G in the UK
18:24 – Twitter Updates Android, iOS And Web With New Conversation View, Abuse Reporting
20:41 – Facebook Announces Shared Photo Albums To Boost Group Engagement
22:06 – Feedly Pro Available for all
23:33 – Nintendo 2DS coming this Oct. for £109, plays 3DS games in 2D
27:03 – Twerk, Selfie, Bitcoin, Others Added To Oxford Dictionary

DigitalOutbox Episode 157

DigitalOutbox Episode 157
DigitalOutbox Episode 157 – Yahoo buys a teen and Updates

Playback
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Shownotes
1:21 – Apple introduces 2 step verification
4:54 – Global internet slows after biggest attack in history
8:52 – Yahoo spends millions on UK teen Nick D’Aloisio’s Summly app
14:03 – Facebook launches free calling for iOS users in UK
17:43 – Google announces open source patent pledge, won’t sue ‘unless first attacked’
19:59 – Blockbuster UK sold to investment firm, half its stores to close
21:03 – Jessops Returns
23:21 – Telegraph extends paywall to UK readers
26:24 – Flipboard – Now You Can Publish Your Own ‘Magazine’
30:07 – U.K’s First 4G Network Reaches Half The Population Five Months After Launch
30:47 – Google gives Nexus 4 obvious design tweaks to keep it from falling off your desk

Picks
Ian
Forecast.io
– Hyperlocal forecasts for the UK
– Web app
– Shows now, next hour, next 24 hours and the week ahead
– Nice map view
– Supports multiple locations, toggle C or F
– Install on iOS or Android for great mobile view
– Also has a time machine for locations

DigitalOutbox Episode 140

DigitalOutbox Episode 140
DigitalOutbox Episode 140 – Google Nexus Family, Apple Cuts and Windows Phone 8

Playback
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Shownotes
1:33 – Google Nexus updates
19:51 – Google Play Music heads to Europe
22:36 – Google brings advanced voice search to iOS
26:52 – Scott Forstall, John Browett To Leave Apple As Ive, Cue, Mansfield And Federighi Take On New Roles
33:12 – Apple publishes apology to Samsung
35:25 – Apple delays iTunes 11
35:50 – Windows Phone 8
41:01 – Kickstarter launches in the UK
46:14 – ITV Player revamp brings ad-free TV rentals, keeps the free catch-ups
47:22 – Disney buy Lucasfilm

DigitalOutbox Episode 129

DigitalOutbox Episode 129
DigitalOutbox Episode 129 – Dropbox, Twitter and Outlook

Playback
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Shownotes
0:59 – Google Updates
– Update – 16gb Nexus now available, 3-5 day wait – https://play.google.com/store?hl=en
– Q – suspended while Google make it even better…and send out free dev units to those that have pre-ordered. Wow.
2:29 – Dropbox Security Breach
– Users a few weeks ago said they were being spammed with their dropbox only e-mail address
– Ian received e-mail overnight – Recently, passwords have been stolen from some Internet services. This is a problem because many people use the same password on multiple services, which is unsafe. As a precaution, we’ve reset your password and you can create a new one here. We haven’t detected any suspicious activity in your Dropbox, but we’re proactively taking steps to keep users safe.
– A bit odd as I do use separate passwords for sites – another friend reported same mail and he uses unique passwords too
– Blog post states: Our investigation found that usernames and passwords recently stolen from other websites were used to sign in to a small number of Dropbox accounts. We’ve contacted these users and have helped them protect their accounts. A stolen password was also used to access an employee Dropbox account containing a project document with user email addresses. We believe this improper access is what led to the spam. We’re sorry about this, and have put additional controls in place to help make sure it doesn’t happen again.
– Keeping Dropbox secure is at the heart of what we do, and we’re taking steps to improve the safety of your Dropbox even if your password is stolen, including:
– Two-factor authentication, a way to optionally require two proofs of identity (such as your password and a temporary code sent to your phone) when signing in. (Coming in a few weeks)
– New automated mechanisms to help identify suspicious activity. We’ll continue to add more of these over time.
– A new page that lets you examine all active logins to your account.
– In some cases, we may require you to change your password. (For example, if it’s commonly used or hasn’t been changed in a long time)
– At the same time, we strongly recommend you improve your online safety by setting a unique password for each website you use.
– So – Dropbox gets hacked but I’ve to change my unique and secure password?
6:32 – Robin Hood Airport tweet bomb joke man wins case
– A man found guilty of sending a menacing tweet threatening to blow up an airport has won a challenge against his conviction.
– Paul Chambers, 28, of Northern Ireland, was found guilty in May 2010 of sending a “menacing electronic communication”.
– He was living in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, when he tweeted that he would blow up nearby Robin Hood Airport when it closed after heavy snow. After a hearing at the High Court in London his conviction was quashed.
– Mr Chambers said later: “I am relieved, vindicated – it is ridiculous it ever got this far. “I want to thank everyone who has helped, including everyone on Twitter.”
– Mr Chambers said he had sent the tweet, which contained swear words, to his 600 followers in a moment of frustration after Robin Hood Airport, near Doncaster, was closed by snow in January 2010.
– He said he had never thought anyone would take his “silly joke” seriously.
– The message Mr Chambers tweeted stated: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”
– In their judgement, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Mr Justice Owen and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, said: “If the person or persons who receive or read it, (the message) or may reasonably be expected to receive, or read it, would brush it aside as a silly joke, or a joke in bad taste, or empty bombastic or ridiculous banter, then it would be a contradiction in terms to describe it as a message of a menacing character.”
7:32 – While others need to watch what they say on Twitter
– The media is fuming over Twitter’s decision to suspend the account of a British journalist who used the micro-blogging site to toss barbs at NBC’s decision to time-delay its Olympic coverage over the weekend. The episode raises questions about free speech and corporate control of social media platforms.
– For anyone who missed it, the brouhaha began this morning when sports site Deadspin reported that Twitter had cut off Guy Adams, an LA-based reporter for The Independent. Adams has been a standard bearer for the new #nbcfail hashtag and used his account to rattle off a series of British-inflected tirades about NBC’s time delay: “‘Sneak peak’ my arse”; ”tosspot”; “Matt Lauer would do well to shut up, wouldn’t he?” and so on.
– Adams apparently crossed a line when he published the email address of NBC executive Gary Zenkel and told followers to “Tell him what u think.” NBC complained to Twitter and shortly after the micro-blog site suspended Adams’ account.
– Critics have since called attention to the fact that Twitter has partnered with NBC’s parent company to promote the games, and suggested that the companies decided to shut down Adams’ account as an act of reprisal.
– In an email message to Adams, Twitter explained the account had been suspended because he had violated terms of service that forbid disclosing private information like a person’s telephone number or private email address. Deadspin and others have noted that gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com is a corporate address.
– So who is right? Did Adams overstep a boundary or are Twitter and NBC wrongfully censoring a journalist? Well, from a legal point of view, Twitter is in the clear. The company’s terms of service make it plain that it can boot users off the site anytime and for any reason.
– Twitter’s moral position is a lot more shaky. Its reason for tossing Adams is flimsy (the email he printed was not private) and, worse, they simply caused him to disappear altogether. If you search @guyadams on Twitter, the company will suggest users with similar handles but the original Guy Adams has simply vanished in the same way that disgraced communists would vanish from Kremlin photographs.
– 2 days later twitter reinstate account
– NBC removed complaint
– Twitter post about guidelines – http://blog.twitter.com/2012/07/our-approach-to-trust-safety-and.html
– As of earlier today, the account has been unsuspended, and we will actively work to ensure this does not happen again. Twitter while working with NBC on Olympic portal had encouraged NBC to raise complaint which was passed to Trust and Safety team who then acted….unaware that others in Twitter had encouraged the intial complaint
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/31/teenager-arrested-tweets-tom-daley
– Police have arrested a 17-year-old boy as part of an investigation into malicious Twitter messages sent to the Team GB diver Tom Daley after he and his team-mate, Pete Waterfield, missed out on a medal at the Olympics.
– The boy was held at a guesthouse in Weymouth, Dorset, hours after Daley, 18, retweeted messages he had been sent soon after finishing fourth in the 10m men’s synchronised platform diving event.
– A spokeswoman for Dorset police said: “A 17-year-old man was arrested by Dorset police officers in the early hours this morning at a guesthouse in the Weymouth area on suspicion of malicious communications. He is currently helping police with their inquiries.”
– Daley retweeted a message that said: “You let your dad down i hope you know that.” – There was much worse though – http://imgur.com/a/aHDr0
13:16 – Twitter users blamed for disrupting BBCs cycling coverage
– Olympic organisers have blamed spectators using Twitter for disrupting television coverage of the cycling road races. Viewers were left in the dark about timing and positions after electronic updates failed to reach commentators during both the men’s and women’s events.
– The BBC blamed the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) for the lack of information which left commentator Chris Boardman using his own watch to estimate timings. But the International Olympic Committee said fans sending updates to Twitter while watching the race had in effect jammed transmissions of race information.
– Communications director Mark Adams said: “From my understanding, One network was oversubscribed, and OBS are trying to spread the load to other providers. We don’t want to stop people engaging in this by social media but perhaps they might consider only sending urgent updates.”
– The timings are sent to organisers via tiny GPS transmitters in competitors’ bikes but the messages were not being received during the races.
– Reality – O2 network couldn’t cope – “There was a capacity issue with Box Hill at the weekend,” an O2 spokesperson told The Register. “You can imagine that all of the people around that area were frantically using their phones so that was the reason for the over subscription.”
16:09 – Microsoft launch outlook.com
– The software giant is unveiling a brand new preview version of Hotmail today — Outlook.com. Although the old version of Hotmail will remain active, Outlook.com brings together all of its best features and more, accessible via the web, Exchange ActiveSync compatible clients, and POP3. Existing Hotmail users can upgrade to the preview version today — with options to rename an existing @hotmail.com address to @outlook.com or to add an additional alias to an account — and new Outlook.com users can pick an @outlook.com email address.
– Hotmail was much maligned so Microsoft had to go with a more trusted brand name – JOKER!!!!!
– Like Office 2013, Microsoft is describing its new email service as a “modern” one. Built with the same Metro design as Windows 8, Outlook.com brings together cloud connected accounts, data, and a familiar email service with a new look. Microsoft is also enabling threaded messaging by default and introducing Skype video web calling.
– Clean and fresh design
– Contact management has been greatly improved with an interface that’s nearly identical in looks and functionality to Windows 8. Outlook.com will import Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, LinkedIn, and CSV contacts and attempt to merge them into single contact cards. This works well for the most part, but there’s also an option to clean up any rogue contacts and merge information easily.
– Is this just a reskin of hotmail, windows live?
– Between now and Christmas Microsoft are refreshing and launching so much. Will it work?
21:19 – Digg Relaunched
– Simpler, cleaner and more visual
– No comments
– Based on facebook likes and tweets
– Still aims to bring you the best of the web
– Fresh start as old site cost about 15-20 times what the new one does
22:24 – Apple buys AuthenTec
– Amid fierce smartphone competition between Samsung and Apple that has spilled into a multinational patent battle, it looks like Apple may have opened yet another front on the M&A side: it is buying mobile security company AuthenTec — which had only just signed a deal with Samsung for Android devices — for $356 million.
– AuthenTec, among other things, makes fingerprint sensor chips that are used for security and identification purposes; these are embedded in computing devices. The news was first reported by Reuters; the full announcement was filed with the SEC.
– Just earlier this month AuthenTec had inked a deal with Samsung to cover security and device management services to cater to the “BYOD” trend — that is, workers taking their own handsets into their enterprise environment. The AuthenTec service would let IT managers quickly secure and authenticate those devices.
– Reuters reported the deal as $356 million — $8 per share of the company. But that’s actually a pretty cheap price, considering that before the company went public it had raised some $600 million (yes, million) in funding.
24:03 – The Lords look forward
– Broadband for all – an alternative vision is the result of a six month inquiry by the Lords communications committee which took in evidence from regulators, technicians and companies ranging from BT to tiny community projects such as Great Asby Broadband in Cumbria.
– And the conclusion is that the government is not being bold enough. The current target of getting speeds of 24Mbps to 90% of the country by 2015 or 2017 – the deadline date is unclear – may assure more bandwidth than most households need today.
– But the rate at which the internet has evolved in the past, with demand doubling every year or two, suggests the average home will need two or three times that speed come 2020.
– To deliver ever faster connections, the Lords committee has concluded that different technologies will be needed than the ones currently being paid for by the government and installed by BT. And it is worried about the final 10% of homes, the hardest to reach in the UK.
– It is far from certain that the government will achieve its target of giving these rural locations a minimum of 2Mbps. And that minimum only just meets the needs of the average household today.
– It will not be enough by 2015 for home workers, or for families raising teenagers doing their homework, watching video and calling friends on Skype.
– The 2Mbps figure was chosen because it is the minimum needed to deliver internet TV, but that is already changing. TalkTalk’s budget YouView internet TV service, launched towards the end of July, will require a minimum 3Mbps connection.
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jul/31/digital-television-internet-revolution
– The government should draw up plans to have every channel, including those from the BBC, broadcast over the internet, freeing up the spectrum for other uses such as mobile phones, the House of Lords suggested on Tuesday.
– “Eventually the case for transferring the carriage of broadcast content, including public service broadcasting, from spectrum to the internet altogether will become overwhelming,” the Lords communications committee said in its report on internet infrastructure.

– The recommendation comes months after most of the country’s 26m television households retuned their sets from analogue to digital, with two regions – the north-east and Northern Ireland – due to complete the process by the end of October. Digital switchover increased the number of terrestrial channels from five to 50, but the internet can transmit an unlimited amount of content, at a lower cost.
– However, Britain will need a better broadband network to cope with future technologies, the committee concluded after a wide-ranging, six-month investigation. It raises the alarm over the way Britain’s network is being built, describing government strategy as “flawed” and liable to widen the digital divide between those communities with fast internet access and those living in broadband blackspots.
– “If broadcast services move to be delivered via the internet,” said committee chair Lord Inglewood, “then key moments in national life such as the Olympics could be inaccessible to communities lacking a better communications infrastructure.”
– BT, TalkTalk, Sky and Virgin Media are moving rapidly to connect more television sets to the internet, so that they can offer video on demand as well as conventional TV channels.
– TalkTalk’s YouView box, unveiled last week, offers internet access to libraries of TV series and films for viewing on demand, as well as conventional channels broadcast over the internet rather than through an aerial. BT this summer spent £738m on acquiring Premier League football rights to boost its own internet TV service, BT Vision.
– The committee says the airwaves are better suited to mobile, and their use for TV could be considered “wasteful”. It says the date for a second switchover could be some years away, but recommends that the government, regulators and the industry start planning now.
– “People will perhaps feel fed up, but going from analogue to digital may not be the whole journey,” said Inglewood. “Now we are finding we may go from digital to internet.”
– A broadband connection could become a universal right, he said, as and when all channels including public service broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV are delivered over the web.
– However, services including YouView require a connection of at least 3 megabits per second. With an estimated 14% of UK homes unable to get even 2Mbps, according to telecoms watchdog Ofcom, swaths of the population could be left out of the next phase of the TV revolution. Government targets promise only that everyone will be able to get 2Mbps by 2015, with 90% getting 24Mbps.
– Steve Jobs – “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”
27:20 – Nokias new product launch
– Digitaloutbox was wrong – we said Nokia was dead but here we go – a new product from out of nowhere
– Nokia is promoting its flagship Lumia with nail polish to match the new pink 900 model. The “Nokia Lumia Pink” polish, designed by Duality Cosmetics, looks to be even more limited than the AT&T-exclusive pink phone itself: it’s only available at one-day pop-up salons in Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles, where Nicki Minaj nail stylist Kandi Banks will offer pink, possibly phone-themed manicures and pedicures.

Picks
Ian
Mountain Tweaks
– Key features:
– Small app, but extremely powerfull!
– Brand new tweaks!
– Works with both Lion and Mountain Lion
– Free
– Enable Airdrop on old hardware
– Enable colours in the Finder sidebar
– Disable many animations
– Remove Spotlight icon
– Disable gatekeeper
– Highlight non-retina images
– Remove leather from Contacts (ML)
– Remove leather from Calendar (ML)

DigitalOutbox Episode 124

DigitalOutbox Episode 124
DigitalOutbox Episode 124 – Google I/O

Playback
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Shownotes
2:00 – Google IO Day 1
– Android – 400m activations, 1m a day
– 4.1 – Jelly Bean
– Project Butter – Focus on performance – buttery smooth and predicts your movement – much better frame rate
– Auto arrange icons
– Improved keyboard with predictive text
– Offline voice typing
– Extra languages and improved accessability
– Android beam
– Improved notifications – actionable, looks great
– Search improved – better voice searching. Sounded natural, Siri competitor
– Google now – uses search history, calendar ad other signals
– Google now will learn schedules and patterns to prompt you with information. It will reroute your commute if there’s traffic automatically before you leave the house.
– “if you have an upcoming flight that you’ve searched for, it will keep you updated on the status of the flight.”
– Reminded me of passcode from Apple
– Available mid July
– For dev’s – app encryption, app updates only download changes and not the whole app, google cloud messaging free for all devs,
– Google play – adding tv, episodes, films and magazines
– Google Nexus 7 made by Asus
– Built for Google play – fire competitor?
– The display — 1280 x 800 HD display. Perfect for reading and videos. Performance, Tegra 3 with a quad-core CPU, 12 core GPU
– Front facing camera, all the connectivity you’d expect. Gyro and accelerometer. Up to 9 hours of video playback, and up to 300 hours of standby.
– 340 grams
– $199 ships July with Android 4.1
– £159 for 8gb, £199 for 16gb in the UK – pre-order now and ships 2-3 weeks – wow – who needs a kindle fire now? Makes ipod touch seem expensive. Initial reports say BOM cost is higher than $200. 8 GB version of the tablet will be sold exclusively through Google Play for £159 ($247). The 16 GB version will cost £199 ($309) and will be available at retail stores such as PC World, Comet, Tesco and eBuyer.
One of the first retailers to officially confirm the news is Carphone Warehouse, which says the device will be available either for £199.99 standalone or for free on a tethered contact.
– Ships with Chrome browser
– New Google maps – can save a city offline and great inside support
– Nexus Q
– Small android powered computer
– It’s designed to live in your home. It plugs into your TV and stereo, and it’s always connected to the cloud. You use your device to control it, but you’re not streaming from that device to the Q. You use your phone or device to control the cloud.
– Streaming media player
– $299 – no thanks. This looks rubbish.
– Google+ for tablets
– Like tumblr combined with google+
– Very visual
– For android tablets today, ipad soon
– Google+ events
– Nice way to save invites – integrates with calendar
– Party mode – photo’s at event are shared amongst everyone as they take them

– Project Glass!!!!
– Best demo ever – live skydive onto moscone roof
– Skydivers wearing project glass, live video from plane, skydive and on hangout
– We wanted to position the display above your eye. It’s designed to be part of your vision, but not blocking it.
– Imagine this at demo’s, protests etc being broadcast live on hangouts…tis the future…somehow
– Why glass – We believe communication with images, and access to devices that empower people to communicate in news ways are very powerful ideas.
– So the second aspiration for Glass is to be able to access information quickly.
– Obviously, capturing video and images is only a part of what a wearable computer can do. But why are we showing you this utility?
– That’s why we want to involve all of you
– Today, I’d like to announce the Google Glass explorer edition.
– It’s only available for pre order here at IO. It’s only for US based, I apologize. We’ll try to broaden the base over time. It will be $1500. And we’re going to ship it to you early next year.
– Hope to launch to consumers in 2014
– Wrap-up – 2+ hours of keynote – We think it’s important for you to experiment early. So we’ve put together an Android developer pack. All 6000 of you will be walking away today with a new Galaxy Nexus phone, a Nexus 7 tablet and a Nexus Q.
26:28 – Google IO Day 2
– Chrome
– Lots of stats – worlds most popular browser
– Chrome tab syncing across platforms…
– Chrome for iPhone – launches today…and iPad too – Ian’s happy 🙂
– Google drive – iOS and Android support
– Editing Google docs and also offline editing – boom
– Chrome O/S and Google App Engine
– Google Compute Cloud
– “It gives you Linux virtual machines at Google scale.
– High performance networking between VMs, so you can form them into a cluster.
– Not much detail
– Cirque du Soleil in a browser demo – lots of 3d css
– “And we’re giving you all a brand new Samsung Chromebox,” says Sundar
35:45 – Google TV finally launches in the UK
– Google is making its long-expected assault on the UK television market with the launch in July of its first product – made by Sony – to let Britons surf the internet, play games and watch videos on TV.
– The move comes amid predictions that Apple too will move into the “smart TV” market, to compete not only with Google, but with Samsung, Sony and LG. All have been aiming to catch a nascent market that analysts say will become very important because it is one of the few bastions of entertainment not yet revolutionised by the internet.
– Google has a partnership with Sony to launch the internet TV set-top boxes, priced £200-£300, in UK stores from 16 July. The gadgets are based on Google’s Android software for smartphones and will let viewers switch between popular online applications such as Twitter and the BBC’s iPlayer while watching live TV.
– Google’s TV offering has struggled in the US, where it launched in October 2010. Logitech, a partner, lost millions after launching a Google TV set-top box in the US at Christmas 2010. During one quarter, more boxes were returned by customers than sold and the company later pulled out.
– Google has since spent heavily on the product, as the living room shapes up to be the latest battleground for internet companies. Nearly a million net-connected TVs were sold in the UK in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, out of a total of 10m TV sales. But it is not clear how many were then actually connected to the net.
– Google-owned YouTube features heavily on the new service and, rather than the homemade clips of antics involving cats and dogs, boasts a library of films, premium music videos and live broadcasts of concerts from around the world.
– Unlike Apple’s current internet TV set-top box – which sells at £100, half the price of the Sony set-top boxes – Google TV brings the entire online world on to the big screen, including emails, news websites and Wikipedia.
– The Google TV products, including the £200 NSZ-GS7 internet player and the £300 NSZ-GP9 Blu-ray player (available from October), come with an internet-connected remote control which has a full Qwerty keypad on the reverse.
39:29 – Tech fault causes problems for Natwest and RBS
– RBS and Natwest have failed to register inbound payments for up to three days, customers have reported, leaving people unable to pay for bills, travel and even food. The banks – both owned by RBS Group – have confirmed that technical glitches have left bank accounts displaying the wrong balances and certain services unavailable. There is no fix date available.
The ongoing screw-up means that people waiting on pay checks, transfers or social welfare have been left out of pocket.
– RBS and Natwest spokespeople have assured customers that they are working on the problem but were unable to name a fix time. The crash also affects other RBS Group banks including UlsterBank in Northern Ireland.
– Amid rising anger, he had spent Saturdayat RBS’s City headquarters overseeing efforts to process the mountain of transactions delayed by the IT problem, which began on Thursday. In total, 7,000 staff were coming in on Sundayto handle customers’ queries and tackle the backlog.
– The bank has also been forced to promise redress to thousands of other people, many not NatWest customers, who have failed to receive their salaries because their employers use the bank.
– The RBS spokesman said the bank would refund overdraft charges or other costs incurred by customers who have slipped into the red or seen direct debits bounce as a result of the problems.
42:13 – Microsoft buy Yammer for $1.2 billion
– Microsoft just announced it has indeed acquired Yammer, the four-year-old social networking company for enterprises, for $1.2 billion in cash.
– The announcement confirms weeks of very credibly-sourced rumors that have been floating for weeks around the tech blogosphere (and San Francisco’s popular cafes, as first overheard by Business Insider’s Owen Thomas.) The actual price tag is exactly what had been reported by theWall Street Journal more than a week ago. According to Microsoft, the Yammer team will be folded into its Microsoft Office division while continuing to report to Yammer’s CEO and co-founder David Sacks.
– With the backing of Microsoft, our aim is to massively accelerate our vision to change the way work gets done with software that is built for the enterprise and loved by users.”
– The Yammer deal also puts Microsoft further into the game of developing social media services specifically for enterprises, an area where companies like Oracle, Salesforce and IBM have been actively playing, too. But it will be interesting to see how it turns this new focus on social media services into a solidly profitable part of its larger business. As it has had to do with Skype, Microsoft will now face the challenge of figuring out how to monetize Yammer.
44:34 – Jimmy Wales rallies Britain over TVShack extradition
– Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is spearheading a fresh attempt to block the extradition of a British student to the United States over copyright infringement charges.
Richard O’Dwyer was arrested and bailed in 2010 for being the owner and operator of TVShack, a “resource site” which allowed people to search for web pages hosting videos — many of them pirated. The domain had been seized by U.S. federal agentsseveral months earlier, but after British prosecutors declined to follow up the charges in May 2011, Department of Justice officials launched extradition proceedings.
– Now Wales has joined a cohort of campaigners who say that if O’Dwyer is to be taken to court for his activity, it should be in Britain and not in the United States — and that he should not be forced to leave the United Kingdom.
– The issue of Britain’s extradition agreement with the U.S. has come up several times before in technology circles, not least in the case of Gary McKinnon — the hacker who broke into American military computers in 2002 looking for evidence of UFOs and has spent the last decade fighting extradition.
But O’Dwyer’s case is more complicated and confusing — and controversial — than McKinnon’s.
– First there is the legality of the situation: O’Dwyer has argued that his site was merely a search engine — like Google — that complied with takedown requests when asked. The fact that he has not been pursued by the British authorities suggests that the evidence against him is not as strong as opponents might hope.
– Then there is the fact that none of the alleged crimes were committed on U.S. soil, or by an American. This makes many opponents concerned about the potential implications for cross-border prosecution in the future.
– Then there is the unignorable fact that the case involves copyright.
– 69,000 sign the petition
48:16 – Judgement reserved on airport tweet trial
– Judgement has been reserved in the appeal of a man who was found guilty of posting a comment on Twitter threatening to blow up an airport.
– Paul Chambers, 27, from Doncaster, who now lives in Northern Ireland, was convicted in May 2011 of sending a “menacing electronic communication”.
– He claimed it was a joke and wants his conviction and sentence quashed.
Comedian Stephen Fry, who was at the High Court hearing, said it was “very important” for freedom of speech.
– The judgement was reserved until a later date.
49:22 – Internet piracy appeal fee
– Suspected internet pirates will have 20 working days to appeal against allegations of copyright infringement and must pay £20 to do so, according to revised plans to enforce the UK’s Digital Economy Act.
– The details are contained in secondary legislation presented to Parliament and a draft code published by Ofcom.
– The telecoms regulator said it expected the scheme to begin in 2014.
Campaigners oppose the fee saying users should be innocent until proven guilty.
– Under the plans users suspected of accessing or uploading illegally copied files will be sent letters from their internet service provider (ISP), delivered at least one month apart, informing them they are suspected of copyright infringement.
– The messages will also contain information about where to find licensed material online. Copyright owners can request details about all the accusations made against any account-holder who receives three or more letters within a 12-month period, but the user’s name will not be revealed at this stage.
51:55 – Nintendo announce the 3DS XL
– Nintendo is launching a new version of its 3DS handheld console, complete with screens that are 90% larger than those on the original model. The Nintendo 3DS XL will launch across Europe on 28 July.
– The new version of the console will come in three new colour combinations – silver and black, red and black, and blue and black – and will be bundled with a 4GB SD card so buyers can immediately start downloading games from the Nintendo eShop.
– However, the device will not ship with an AC adaptor in Japan or Europe – in its press release, Nintendo states that as most buyers will already own the original 3DS, an adaptor is being left out to allow for a lower retail price. An AC adaptor will be supplied with the console in North America.
Picks

DigitalOutbox Episode 71

DigitalOutbox Episode 71
In this episode the team discuss Google, Google, Google and that man Jeremy Hunt.

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
3:21 – Google Ebooks
– Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore on 6th Dec. You can browse and search through the largest ebooks collection in the world with more than three million titles including hundreds of thousands for sale
– the Google eBook store there will be 2.8 million books available to download free of charge, since they are in the public domain, and the rest will have a “buy” button next to them that takes readers directly to the eBook store.
– Many devices are compatible with Google eBooks—everything from laptops to netbooks to tablets to smartphones to e-readers. With the new Google eBooks Web Reader, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud.
– In addition to a full-featured web reader, free apps for Android and Apple devices will make it possible to shop and read on the go. For many books you can select which font, font size, day/night reading mode and line spacing suits you—and pick up on the page where you left off when switching devices.
– Google lets consumers buy books either from its store or any other online vendor that sells books in EPUB and PDF formats. You can choose where to buy your ebooks like you choose where to buy your print books, and keep them all on the same bookshelf regardless of where you got them.
– So same as Kindle – software everywhere except they’ve provided a web front end as well
– UK launch not mentioned but eBook service is expected to launch in Europe in 2011.
7:13 – Google Nexus S and Gingerbread
– Nexus S is the lead device for the Gingerbread/Android 2.3 release; it’s the first Android device to ship with the new version of the Android platform. We co-developed this product with Samsung—ensuring tight integration of hardware and software to highlight the latest advancements of the Android platform. As part of the Nexus brand, Nexus S delivers what we call a “pure Google” experience: unlocked, unfiltered access to the best Google mobile services and the latest and greatest Android releases and updates.
– Nexus S is the first smartphone to feature a 4” Contour Display designed to fit comfortably in the palm of your hand and along the side of your face. It also features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, front and rear facing cameras, 16GB of internal memory, and NFC (near field communication) hardware that lets you read information from NFC tags. NFC is a fast, versatile short-range wireless technology that can be embedded in all kinds of everyday objects like movie posters, stickers and t-shirts.
– The 4 inch Super AMOLED 480×800 touchscreen has very deep blacks and viewing angles and is, as we said above, second only to the slightly smaller but higher resolution iPhone 4 display.
– Techcrunch – The bottom line is this. If you are an iPhone user this isn’t going to make you switch. If you’re an Android user you will want this phone more than any other. If you’re currently neither, we recommend that you go with the Nexus S.
– Things Android has that iOS needs – http://brooksreview.net/2010/12/android-helping-ios/?isalt=0
– Mobile hotspot, home screen customisation, keyboard apps, notifications, multi tasking
– Gingerbread – Android 2.3 – support for NFC, refinements to GUI (but not a re-write which is Honeycomb), imporved keyboard and cut/copy/paste and gyroscope sensor support, improved power and task/app management,
– Will launch in December for £550 unlocked or £35 per month
– Carphone Warehouse is taking orders for the phone from today, but could not be definite about when it will be able to sell it – although it hopes to be able to begin deliveries before Christmas.
– The phone will be available unlocked for £550 (compared to £500 for Apple’s iPhone 4) or for free from £35 per month, according to Graham Stapleton, CPW’s chief commercial director, who says that the retailer is talking to networks in the UK to set up deals.
14:13 – Android Tablet Prototype
– On stage at D: Dive Into Mobile, Google’s Andy Rubin has brought with him a prototype Android tablet from Motorola.
– Video chat
– New version on Google Maps – vector based, infinite loading, offer offline caching, and use the compass to orient the map.
– no more tiles, building outlines, shadows and 3d via touch – very impressive – android only at the moment – other devices in the future
16:56 – Apache Wave
– Google Wave now Apache Wave
– Wave now handed to Apache, codebase to be migrated to Apache control
– Hope to kickstart development as there’s still some big active users
18:38 – Google Chrome Event
– Chrome Browser
– 70m active users (6 months ago) – now 120m active users (active means they use it often as primary browser)
– Adding Google Instant to omnibox
– Added PDF reader for speed
– Hardware acceleration via GPU
– Chrome Web Store
– Rich, visual and interactive
– Installed NPR
– Interactive app, different from web page, but viewed and ran within the browser
– Sports Illustrated
– Visual gallery running in tab
– Rich interactive app, not what your used to on web
– Games
– Purchase easily, hooked to google account, downloads in seconds
– Has monthly subscription options and also demo’s
– NYTimes for Chrome
– HTML5, CSS3 etc
– Skin your news, headlines, print view, photo view etc
– Works offline as well
– Nice
– EA
– Converted PoppIt to HTML5 in 48 hours
– Performance is great
– This game will be embedded in new Chrome 9
– Also available today on Google Chrome Web store
– Amazon
– WindowShop
– Now available on store
– Fluid interface to Amazon
– Needs Flash…fail
– Kindle
– Kindle for the web (early next year)
– HTML5
– Access books via browser
– Link to books from own site
– Web store – chrome.google.com/webstore
– 500 apps as they are partners
– Now open – expect a large growth in apps
– From q1 rolling out around world
– Chrome OS
– Nothing but the web
– Simpler, safer, secure experience
– Chrome OS looks like iOS
– Login, take a pic, check for updates, then desktop
– 0-60secs for above and all your apps and links are available
– Resume is very fast
– Laptop in standby
– Instant resume – milliseconds – very impressive
– Changes on OS propagate across machines in seconds – looks good
– Sharing – pick up notebook, and login with your credentials
– Sharing with friend – guest mode – full incognito session for friend
– Everything he does in this mode is private and removed on exit
– Google Docs bringing an offline mode
– Lots of apps will work offline – game cached locally
– If no wifi, enable cellular connectivity – every chrome netbook will have a cellular option
– Google cloud print – print on any device connected on network without drivers
– In beta, rolling out shortly
– Partnered with Verizon in US
– 100mb free data every month for 2 years
– No contracts – pay for what you need
– Plans for $9.99
– Security – auto updates, sandboxed, data encrypted, verified boot – most secure consumer O/S
– Citrix receiver demo’d
– Cloud print, USB support and speed need working on
– Acer, Samsung Chrome notebooks powered by Intel – mid 2011
– Other OEM’s will follow
– Chrome OS Pilot Program
– Beta
– Reference hardware – CR48 device – 12.1” display, Oversized touchpad + full keyboard, 3g built in, 8+ hours active use, 8+ days of standby, web cam
– No caps lock, no function keys, no hard drives, jailbreaking mode built in
– Businesses part of pilot program
– Consumers – new tab page of chrome – offer to users
– Quiz a few days ago for a sticker – sticker ships with notebook
– Youtube comp
– Everyone at demo
– google.com/chromenotebook – fill in the form
– Still not answered – why choose this over a netbook, ipad or laptop
– Think the pilot program is a really good move
38:22 – Google Earth 6
– Integrated street view
– 3D trees
– Easier to discover historical imagery in new version
39:23 – Watch That Twitter Name
– User @theashes went from 300 to 6100 followers in a couple of days
– She finally complained by tweeting that she was “not a freaking cricket match”.
– Ashley Kerekes, from Massachusetts, tweeted that “this is not the account of the cricket match. Check profiles before you send mentions, it’s incredibly annoying and rude”.
– In spite of her initial anger over the cricket tweets, she told the Brisbane Times that becoming an overnight Twitter celebrity was “amazing”.
– She has also started to sell T-shirts with the slogan: “I am not a freaking cricket match.”
– Same for users @justin and @gordon – lot of justin bieber tweets and gordon brown hate last year
41:59 – Wikileaks under attack
– Releases biggest leaks so far – American diplomatic papers
– Leaked by American soldier who also leaked the Apache helicopter attack
– Embarrassing for America and many of its allies
– As the site is being hammered they move to partial hosting with Amazon – a day later and Amazon removes them from their hosting due to the content they host
– EveryDNS, wikileaks DNS provider, cuts off it’s main domain, wikileaks.org – wikileaks.ch is still running
– Paypal blocks Wikileaks funding via it’s services – State department said wikileaks was illegal
– They have now moved away from any American infrastructure so that America cannot easily tamper with the service
– So, are the leaks correct? Is this freedom of speech? Future of journalism?
– Universities advising students not to link to Wikileaks articles – http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201048/6509/Talking-about-WikiLeaks-cablegate-can-hinder-job-placements – wow. Just wow. So much for freedom of speech.
– Swiss post office has now frozen Julian Assange accounts – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11929034
– Extradition paper served and now in custody until Dec 14th in UK – refused bail
– Hackers linked to 4chan DOS Paypal, Postfinance and Mastercard
49:37 – UK to get super fast broadband everywhere by 2015
– Extra 50m to take total to £830 available for firms to help roll out ‘super fast’ network
– Some of that (£300 million) comes from BBC
– Ministers say they aim for the UK to have Europe’s best broadband network.
– Mr Hunt said the strategy would give the country Europe’s best broadband network by 2015 and will be central to economic growth and the delivery of future public services, dependent on quick, reliable access to the internet.
– Really.
– Really?
– What the heck is super fast? the government does not define the minimum speed it hopes super-fast services will achieve.
– If it was at the centre of those plans it would be afforded more money even in these times of austerity
– Every community is to get a digital hub – a green cabinet? WTF is a community?
– Of course, Jeremy Hunt was called something else on Radio 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JpNravrwZc
54:52 – About that subsidised iPad
– Orange selling 16gb 3G ipad for £199 assuming you sign u for monthly contract for two years
– £27 a month for 1Gb of data – thats £848
– Buy an iPad for £529 and pay O2 or Vodafone £10 a month and you pay £769
– And you can get 3GB 90 day Three sims off ebay for £9, so bringing cost down even more
– Three offering same price and £25 a month
57:21 – Windows Phone 7 Not a hit
– Belfiore refused to talk sales numbers when interviewed by Walt Mossberg of the WSJ. And when asked if WP7 might be a ‘real’ rival to Google’s and Apple’s mobile platforms in a ‘couple of years,’ Belfiore reportedly answered ‘Maybe’.
59:28 – Lastpass acquires XMarks
– Xmarks has been acquired by LastPass, makers of a leading cross-platform password manager
– Free option remains
– Users can opt to purchase Xmarks Premium for $12 per year, which includes new enhanced features like Android and iPhone mobile phone apps, priority support, and more.
– The Xmarks and LastPass Premium offerings are also available bundled together at a reduced subscription rate of $20 per year.

Picks
Ian
Printopia
– App for your mac that enables AirPrinting
– Can also print to PDF…and send to Dropbox or Evernote

DigitalOutbox Episode 46

DigitalOutbox Episode 46
In this episode the team discuss Facebook privacy, Spotify, and Apple vs Adobe again!

Playback
Listen via iTunes
Listen via M4A
Listen via MP3

Shownotes
1:41 – Facebook f8
– 400 million users
– We’re going to combine all the permissions dialogs that you use using Connect into a single Permissions dialog. Someone comes to a site. You show them a dialog that shows all the permissions you need. They click once.
– “Once upon a time, Facebook could be used simply to share your interests and information with a select small community of your own choosing. As Facebook’s privacy policy once promised, ‘No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.’
– How times have changed.
– Today, Facebook removed its users’ ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information. Certain parts of users’ profiles, ‘including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests’ will now be transformed into ‘connections,’ meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don’t want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them.”
– Open Graph – new plugins to see what friends have liked and shared
– Like button everywhere – share without logging in
– Will be on all IMDB pages from today – hit button, added to your movies in Facebook
– 30 other partners
– Search. 400 million users sharing 25 billion things a month. Now devs will be able to search all public updates on Facebook.
– Finally, revamping the way authentication works. Together with industry leaders we’ll adopt oAuth 2.0. The first reason this is cool: it’s an industry standard. Code you write will work equally well expect standard to be widely adopted. It’s objectively more awesome. It’s just simple.
– One more cool thing (a glimpse of the future). When we wondered what would happen if we worked with a small group of trusted companies if users didn’t have to click Connect. What if they already knew public info of public users. Worked with Microsoft (Docs.com).
– Microsoft is announcing Docs.com. Online version of Office Suite. Makes it easy to share and collaborate with friends online. one of friends writes up a document. Share it, goes to Docs.com. Share it with you, you go to Docs.com without having to reauthenticate. Immediately can get started. All the power of Microsoft office suite online with simple FB integration. This is built with the ground up with assumption that every user has real idenitfy and friends. Will be avialable later today at Docs.com.
– Another example: Pandora. Now for the first time when you go to Pandora it will be able to start playing music from bands you’ve liked all across the web.
– Massive announcements really
– Facebook will be everywhere on the web
– Capture more of what we do, where we go online, information we consume and create
– Launched a commerce system on top of this – Facebook credits
– Facebook are betting on social connections – as big as the hyperlink
BUT
– Who controls Facebook – do we trust Facebook – Google has better image
– Is this a utility – utilities are usually governed
– What happens if facebook is used to authenticate everywhere and it goes down….web broken?
– How to alter your privacy settings in facebook – http://www.fastcompany.com/1624745/time-to-audit-your-facebook-privacy-settings
– What does Facebook share about you – http://zesty.ca/facebook/
– EFF has a timeline of FB privacy – http://w2.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline/
10:19 – Spotify Updates
– added a number of social features, centered on a fully editable Spotify music profile
– Connect to Facebook: you can connect to Facebook inside of Spotify, instantly adding all your Facebook friends who’ve selected the same feature. Your friends’ profiles will appear in a new ‘People’ sidebar at the right of the screen, with your personal profile at the top.
– Add usernames: you can also add people by typing their Spotify username, should you know it, into the Spotify search field. For example searching ‘spotify:user:username’ will bring up their profile (if their profile is published).
– Publish your Spotify profile to the web: easily publish the link to your Spotify profile on your blog, Facebook page, website or anywhere else on the web and allow others to follow your musical journey. For example here’s a link to the official Spotify profile.
– Inbox: a new ‘inbox’ folder on Spotify’s left sidebar lets you send tracks to friends directly within the platform, simply by dragging and dropping a track to their name in the People sidebar. Alternatively, just right click on the track and select the new ‘send to’ option.
– Facebook feed: music your friends have posted on Facebook will be visible on the Spotify ‘What’s new’ page and via a new ‘Feed’ tab.
– Popularity count for playlists: all playlists will show how many other Spotify users are currently subscribed to that playlist. By clicking on the number, you can even see the usernames of those who added the playlist.
– Track playlist changes: see who and when a track was added to a playlist with the new ‘Added’ and ‘User’ columns in playlists.
– Spotify is evolving into a total music management platform. We’ve added a ‘Library’ folder in the left side bar, enabling you to combine your own music library with ours.
– Local files: missing any music in Spotify? Now you can import a link to all the music files stored on your computer with a simple click of a button.
– Gracenote: As with any good music media player, if you have missing or incorrect track information you need software to check those files and automatically correct them so that you can better organise and link them to our catalogue. Gracenote does just this.
– Local file linking: we will check your local files and see if we have that track/artist/album in Spotify. If we do, we’ll make the file linkable so you can easily go from that file into an artist or album page. This allows for better sharing of playlists that contain a mix of your own music and Spotify’s.
– Starred: every track and album on Spotify can now be ‘starred’ – allowing you to tag all your favourites into a special sub-folder.
– Wireless sync: you can copy your music files to your mobile without connecting a USB cable with our new wireless sync feature.
– Filter bar: the library has a permanent filter-bar at the top so you can easily type in what you’re searching for. In all other lists the filter bar is visible when pressing cmd-f (mac) or ctrl-f (windows).
15:00 – No Hulu for the UK
– Couldn’t agree terms with UK broadcasters
– Hulu wants to sell the adverts around the content – couldn’t agree with ITV, C4, Five
– A source close to Hulu said that the company had not totally ruled out a UK launch somewhere down the line: “It has definitely had to postpone its UK expansion plans, which the team are disappointed by. But without being able to secure any exclusive content – because Channel 4 and Five have already signed third party deals with YouTube and SeeSaw and ITV isn’t playing ball, it had to ensure it could sell the advertising inventory around the content it could secure. When those talks fell through – Hulu has been forced to walk away. But it remains hopeful that it can have a UK presence in the future – when the broadcasters realise they need to be more flexible with their business models.”
17:36 – Blippy Exposes Users Credit Card Numbers
– 4 users full names and numbers exposed by running google search – site:blippy.com +”from card”
– Scary – so much for protecting users – always was a dumb idea in my opinion
– Blippy blog – http://blippy.posterous.com/blippy-and-credit-card-numbers
– While it looks super-scary and certainly sucks for the 4 people who were affected (to whom we apologize and are contacting), and is embarrassing to us, it’s a lot less bad than it looks. Don’t worry – Google cache is great and we won’t get caught again.
– But…2 days later – http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-blippy-users-debit-card-numbers-still-appearing-in-google-2010-4
– “site:blippy.com +outstanding.” in Google turns up another card
– Site and service can’t be trusted – simple as that
20:11 – Google Maps navigation in the UK
– Runs on Android 1.6 and later
– Voice commands and voice search, street view, traffic warnings, POIs and step-by-step directions
– Free
– Also confirmed that service will come to iPhone…
– Or Not – Official Comment from Google – We did not say we would bring it to iPhone, we said to date we’ve had it on Android and that in the future it may come to other platforms but did not confirm this will be coming to iPhone at all.
24:07 – Bing losing money
– Just shows how seriously M$ is in taking on Google and just how much cash they have to throw around.
– Is it worth it?
25:56 – Scott Adams and the Stolen iPhone
– Police raid Jason Chens home – take his comps
– Was the raid legal?
– Are Apple after Gizmodo, the guy that took/sold the phone…..everyone?
– Do the police work for Apple?
– This is like a tech world soap opera
– Like Pete and Katie splitting…who?
30:22 – Apple vs Adobe
– Writing on his blog, Mike Chambers, project manager for Adobe Flash, revealed this week that his company is not planning additional investments in the software feature. Chambers noted that Adobe complied with Apple’s licensing terms during the development cycle of Flash CS5.
– “However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason,” he wrote.
– Chambers suggested that Apple’s changes to the developer agreement were meant to specifically target Adobe and developers who might port software from Flash to the iPhone.
– “It is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5,” he wrote. “Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.”
– Apple responds publicly on Flash
– “Someone has it backwards — it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary,” said spokeswoman Trudy Miller in a statement.
– Why is this a big deal?
– Apples quarterly results were massive
– Best quarter ever
– Apple’s iPhone business, which didn’t exist three years ago, now represents a whopping 40% of the company’s revenue, and has been the company’s biggest revenue generator for three quarters in a row.
– But wait…..it’s not all bad – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/23/apple_and_adobe_together_again/
– 10.6.3 includes a new Video Decode Acceleration Framework. This C programming interface provides low-level access to the H.264 decoding capabilities of certain GPUs
– http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2010/tn2267.html
– This is what has prevented hardware acceleration of Flash on the Mac
– Adobe are looking at it closely and hope to include it later this year
– Plex have done it already…
– http://elan.plexapp.com/2010/04/27/hardware-accelerated-h-264-decoding-on-plex/
– For the first time, your GPU is used to decode H.264 video. The results are incredibly impressive, with 720p and 1080p video decoding smoothly with much reduced CPU utilization
– Adobe company spokesman says that Mac hardware acceleration will arrive with an incarnation of the Flash Player due “shortly after” version 10.1, which is now on its second release candidate.
– http://blog.kaourantin.net/?p=89
– Version available now with Hardware decoding
– MacBooks shipped after January 21st, 2009, Mac Minis shipped after March 3rd, 2009, MacBook Pros shipped after October 14th, 2008, iMacs which shipped after the first quarter of 2009
– Doesn’t support al resolutions but a great step forward
– Blog post also acknowledges quicktimes better performance but that theres a good plan on how to proceed
– Thoughts on Flash by Steve Jobs
– http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
– Summary
– It’s proprietary.
– Most web video plays on the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad
– Who needs Flash games? We have apps for that.
– Flash has poor security.
– Flash doesn’t perform well on mobile devices.
– Flash negatively affects battery life.
– Flash was designed for PCs, not touchscreens.
– Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
– Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
– Third, there’s reliability, security and performance. Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash. Flash also doesn’t perform well on a mobile platform
– Battery life is an issue
– Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X
– Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
– And so it goes on.
– Dagger in the heart for Flash on mobiles?
53:12 – Apple buys Siri
– $200 million
– Siri was a great iPhone app – virtual personal assistant
– Great demo’s, not yet released in UK
– Bought to make iPhone exclusive?
– Bought for the underlying technology?
– Bought for mobile search? iAds?
55:43 – HP Buys Palm
– $1.2 billion
– HP back in smartphone market
– Saying no to Windows Phone 7?
– looking to make Web OS tablets to compete with iPad http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/28/hp_on_palm_buy/
58:54 – Dell Launching New Phones
– Lightning
– Windows 7 portrait slider
– 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor, WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display, AT&T and T-Mobile 3G,
– five megapixel autofocus camera, 1GB of flash with 512MB RAM plus 8GB of storage on a MicroSD card (non-user-replaceable, we’re assuming),
– GPS, accelerometer, compass, FM radio, and full Flash support including video playback
– Thunder
– Similar specs to Lightning but with Android 2.1
– Flash, Smoke
– Android as well, slightly less highly spec’d, oddish design
1:01:16 – Nexus One UK Launch
– Available on Vodafone from Friday 30th
– Free on 2 year contracts, but only with 1GB of mobile internet and mail, starting from £35
– Free on 18 month contract starting from £40
– For customers who only want to sign up for 18 months, the phone will cost £99 on a £30 a month contract, or £59 for £35 a month. It is free on an 18 month contract at £40 a month. On a two-year contract, the phone will cost £99 for £25 a month, or £59 for £30 a month.
– No yearly contract
1:05:00 – Sky Launches Unlimited Broadband
– Sky is set to become the first broadband provider to offer free internet access for all customers at speeds of up to 20Mb/s
– called Sky Everyday Lite, users have to be Sky TV subscribers and signed up to the firm’s Sky Talk phone service. And downloads are capped at 2GB a month. service is free and available from 1 June.
– On the same day, Sky also introduces Sky Unlimited, a £7.50-a-month package that is, it claims truly unlimited – there will be “no usage caps, fair use policies or traffic management”.

Picks
Ian
iStat Menus
– Mac app that shows you lots of stats about your machine
– Temps, fan speeds, network speeds etc
– Looks great

Jamie Oliver for iphone
– Great recipe app
– Lots of video and audio content
– Recipes easy to follow and the ones I’ve tried are lovely

Transmit
– The best FTP app for Mac
– Robust and feature rich

Chris
Unhappy Hipsters
– alternative captions to photos from lifestyle magazines.