DigitalOutbox Episode 253

Chris and Ian discuss UK Courts, Apple Pay and Satoru Iwata

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Shownotes

Picks
Ian
Affinity Photo
– £39.99
– Mac
– Great photoshop replacement for Mac
– No subscription
– Fast, modern app
– Highly recommended if you need to do some photo touch-up/editing

Chris
GoPro Session
– £329.99
– Smallest lightest GoPro
– Excellent output

DigitalOutbox Episode 134

DigitalOutbox Episode 134
DigitalOutbox Episode 134 – 4G with EE, iPhone 5 and Nintendo Wii U

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Shownotes
2:37 – 4G hits the Uk – EE
– EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE LAUNCHES EE
– Everything Everywhere today announced the launch of EE – the UK’s most advanced digital communications company. EE will become the new name of the Everything Everywhere business and its network.
– EE will also be launched as a new superfast customer brand in the coming weeks. It is a brand born in the digital age, designed to serve both consumers and businesses, offering the UK’s only 4G mobile service and complemented by fixed-line fibre broadband.
– The new EE brand will stand alongside Orange and T-Mobile. Together they will provide mobile services to 27 million people, now served by the UK’s biggest and best network.
– The EE customer brand will launch with 4G services for consumers and businesses in the coming weeks. It will be the first brand in the country to offer a mobile 4G service – the pioneering new technology that offers superfast mobile internet at speeds typically five times faster than 3G speeds today.
– EE will also launch a fibre broadband service to homes and businesses with fixed-line internet speeds typically ten times faster than today’s average broadband speeds.
– Four cities – London, Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham – are switched on today for the company’s engineers to begin live testing and systems integration, in readiness for the customer launch.
– EE’s 4G network will cover a third of the UK population in 2012 – over 20 million people – and customers on the EE brand will also have access to the largest 3G network in the UK outside of the 4G cities. Further towns, cities and rural areas, will follow rapidly with 2013 population coverage to reach 70%, with 98% covered by 2014.
– EE’s 2012 launch schedule will see 16 areas of the country connected to 4G by Christmas – the UK’s four capitals and twelve further major cities. The 16 cities are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Glasgow,
Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton.
EE will offer a range of state-of-the-art devices alongside its superfast 4G mobile network with more to be announced shortly. Today, EE confirmed it is to launch the following 4G devices:
– Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE – with a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, you can watch videos on your mobile like never before. Innovative Smart Stay automatically recognises when you are looking at the phone, maintaining a bright display for
continued viewing pleasure.
– Nokia Lumia 920 – flagship Nokia Windows Phone 8 smartphone. Take bright, blur-free photos and videos in any light conditions with PureView technology – Optical Image Stabilisation and Carl Zeiss lens and view on a 4.5” PureMotion HD+ capacitive display.
– Nokia Lumia 820 – colourful, stylish, innovative design, with a 4.3 OLED WVGA screen. Capture great photos and movies with an 8MP Auto Focus camera, with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. Charge wirelessly without plugging in using a Wireless Charging Shell.
– The HTC One XL – high quality entertainment and precision navigation combine in this handset, thanks to a large 4.7” HD touchscreen display. Full HD video, and front and rear facing camera let you capture crisp, vivid photos and movies in high
quality wherever you are.
– Huawei Ascend P1 LTE – a powerhouse dual-core processor is packed in to this handset’s slim design. Take stunningly clear images or HD videos on an 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash and playback on the 4.3” high-res touchscreen.
– Huawei E589 Mobile WiFi – hook up to five devices to the EE 4G network, making your existing phone, laptop or digital screen superfast even if they’re not 4G. Long battery life of up to 10 hours, enjoy 4G wireless broadband anytime, anywhere.
– Huawei E392 Mobile Broadband stick – download and upload documents and files in super quick time on the go with this device. Make your laptop mobile and superfast, by hooking it up to the EE network. You’ll stay compatible with 3G too and seamlessly switch to the optimal connection.
– EE’s superfast fibre broadband service will launch at the same time to complement the company’s superfast 4G mobile service. It will be available to 11 million households and businesses by the end of the year reaching two thirds of UK households and usinesses by the end of 2014.
– The new EE stores – formerly Orange and T-Mobile shops – will serve customers of all three brands, giving them access to service and sales in twice as many locations as before.
– More than 10,000 EE staff have been trained, and will offer specialist advice in store, on the phone and on-line. The company as trained its Customer Team staff to become experts in mobile operating systems, meaning its customers will get a specialist service, regardless of which device they use. It is the only operator to offer dedicated expertise based around device operating systems.
– With the Orange and T-Mobile networks now combined, from today customers will begin switching over to the new seamless EE network, the largest in the UK. By the end of the year, all 27 million customers will be using the EE network. It means that Orange and T-Mobile customers can now get faster 3G service, with speeds of up to 21Mbps, and more coverage than ever before.
– Good? Focus on better 3G? Free wifi better?
12:19 – iPhone 5
– Stats
– 27% Market share in US this July for laptops
– No 1 in the US for laptops
– iPad – 62% market share last year, this year 68%
– Accounts for 91% of all web traffic from tablets – I don’t know what these other tables are doing – They must be in warehouses or on store shelves, or maybe in someone’s drawer.
– sold more iPads than any PC manufacturer sold of their entire lineup – 17 million last quarter, 84 million sold in total
– iPhone 5
– Like the 4 and 4S but taller 🙂
– Made from glass and aluminum
– 18% thinner, 20% lighter than 4S
– 112 grams
– It’s a 326ppi Retina display, four-inches. 1136 x 640 resolution. Same width, but taller.
– Apple apps all updated to support new res – old apps will run letterboxed
– 44% more color saturation: now fully sRGB, “it’s now the most accurate display in the industry.” Touch sensor is built into the display now.
– Ultrafast wireless technology. You can imagine the challenge our team faced: thinner, smaller… but we’ve added HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, and yes, LTE.
– Many worldwide partners including EE
– A6 chip – twice as fast CPU and graphics
– Real Racing 3 – great graphics – console quality – could mean anything – Interesting, we’re seeing a two-player race — but an asynchronous race. “Time-shifted multiplayer” it’s called. I can challenge Vince one day, and he can race me the next.
– Battery life – exceeds 4S
– Camera – thinner due to design but still 8mp – same as 4S. Better low light performance
– 1080p video – better stability. 720p for front facing
– Connector – called Lightning
– Adapters will be available
– iOS6 – Maps, Safari, Passbook, Siri improvements – not much else
– Black or white
– Same price as 4S
– Pre order this Friday, launch Sep 21st
– iOS 6 – Sep 19th
– iTunes
– Stores – 2/3rds of downloads from iOS devices
– New store design for iOS – Same design runs across all stores, books, music, video.
– Sep 19th – iOS 6
– New iTunes for Mac and PC
– iTunes in the cloud built in
– New design
– More visual – design cues from iOS
– New mini player, easier playlists, artists can share photo’s with you???????????????????????
– Late October for new iTunes
– iPods
– Nano
– 2.5 inch screen
– Multitouch
– Lightning connector
– Volume buttons and home
– 7 colours
– FM tuner, widescreen video
– Nike + – no accessories required
– Bluetooth
– 16gb starting at $149 – october
– iPod Touch
– 6.1mm thin
– 88 grams
– Same display as iPhone 5
– A5 chip – not the A6 in the iPhone 5
– 40 hours battery, 8 hours video
– 5mp camera – better than previous gen by quite a distance
– iPod Touch Loop – press a button and you get a strap
– Siri
– 5 colours
– 32gb – $299 – october
– Earpods
– 3 years to design and develop new headphones
– Shipping as a standard accessory today
– Also with new touch, nano and iPhone 5
38:50 – Apple enables FaceTime video calls over 3G
– With Apple’s iOS 6 operating system, iPhone and iPad users can make FaceTime video calls over 3G. But will the UK’s mobile networks actually allow it? The answer seems to be yes.
– Wired.co.uk contacted all of the UK’s major mobile networks and spokespeople from Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and EE all confirmed that their customers will be able to use FaceTime over 3G out of their regular data bundles.
– Vodafone is a little different. A spokesperson explained that customers need to have VoIP included in their package in order to use FaceTime over 3G, as opposed to just using their regular data. Customers will need to upgrade to a package that includes this, or pay to add VoIP support to their current price plan. Customers who sign up for an iPhone 5, however, will get the VoIP service included as part of their package.
– Three has not yet confirmed its position on the feature.
40:16 – Nintendo announce Wii U Launch date
– Nintendo’s Wii U console will be launched across Europe on 30 November, the company announced on Thursday. North America will get the new machine first, however, with a 18 November release, while Japan must wait until 8 December.
– There will be two versions of the console at launch. The basic White pack comes with the machine, a GamePad, AC adaptors and an 8GB hard drive. The Premium Black edition features all that plus a Wii Sensor Bar, a copy of the launch game Nintendo Land and a subscription to the Nintendo Premium Network, which gives points to players for downloading games, and provides a 10% discount on digital titles.
– Pricing 8gb – £250, 32gb – £285
– The European launch of Wii U will be accompanied by nine games on day one. Key titles include Nintendo’s own New Super Mario Bros U and Nintendo Land, as well as the survival horror adventure ZombiU from Ubisoft and conversions of major hits Fifa 13 and Mass Effect 3.
– The big news of the European press event was that cult Japanese developer Platinum Games is working on a Wii U exclusive sequel to its critically lauded action adventure Bayonetta. Although many of Nintendo’s more casual fans will not have heard of this title, it was hugely popular among hardcore gamers. Indeed, the message throughout the European press presentation, hosted by Nintendo Europe head, Satoru Shibata, was that Wii U would be as much for experienced gamers as it is for family and casual audiences.
44:09 – Broadband red tape to be cut
– Brits will no longer be able to object to the arrival of “ghastly” fibre optic cabling cabinets outside their homes: Blighty’s new broadband minister has stamped her authority on moves to upgrade the nation’s internet infrastructure that sidestep local councils.
– Maria Miller, who replaced Jeremy Hunt earlier this week during Prime Minister David Cameron’s reshuffle, said she planned to legislate immediately following consultation, and added the government would – if necessary – use existing powers to put an end to local bureaucracy that she thinks is slowing down the rollout of faster broadband.
– She said: Superfast broadband is vital to secure our country’s future – to kick start economic growth and create jobs. We are putting in the essential infrastructure that will make UK businesses competitive, and sweeping away the red tape that is a barrier to economic recovery.
– The government means business and we are determined to cut through the bureaucracy that is holding us back.
– We on the networks desk at Vulture Central can’t help but sense a panicky tone to Miller’s statement. After all, the government is hoping to treat Britain to the fastest broadband network in any “major” European country by 2015.
– Hunt’s rhetoric was recently tweaked to say “major” Euro countries when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – now headed up by Miller – spotted that it was foolishly aiming to have the best broadband network on the entire continent.
– Just yesterday, Parliamentary Under-secretary of State Ed Vaizey told Parliament which countries Blighty was actually competing with. He said:
– The Department for Culture, Media and Sport considers countries such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain as being the major European nations which we compare ourselves with regarding broadband speed and other key performance indicators.
46:09 – Great Google Drive update for iOS and Android users
– Updates for iOS
– Starting today, if you’re using the Drive app on your iOS device you can also edit Google documents, just as you can with the Android app. From your iPhone or iPad, you can create a new document, edit an existing one or format text. And, just like on your computer, you’ll be able to see other people’s edits instantly as they’re made.
– You’ll also notice other new improvements to the iOS Drive app. For example, you can now view Google presentations on your iPhone or iPad, including speaker notes, full-screen mode and the ability to swipe between slides. You can also create new folders, move files into folders and upload stuff (like photos and videos) from your device directly in the Drive app.
– Updates for Android
– We’re also updating the Drive app for Android phones and tablets today. You can now add comments, reply to existing comments and view tables in your Google documents. And you’ll have the same new abilities to view presentations and organize your stuff as your friends with iPhones do.
Picks

iOS 4.3 Preview

A quick post with some news on iOS 4.3, recently released to developers and coming soon for all iOS users which came out while we were recording our latest podcast. Usually the NDA’s surrounding these releases mean information is thin on the ground but more and more we are seeing the details posted within hours of the developer releases. Looking at this Ars Technica post, the main new features are:

  • Airplay API – devlopers can now utilise API instead of the few Apple app’s that feature AirPlay support
  • Personal Hotspot – Launching with the Verizon iphone but coming soon to an iPhone near you turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot, supporting up to five devices for 30 minutes tops unless there’s a power supply near you as well. Big question – will your telco support it and if so how much?
  • Choice. Honest. You too will be able to specify what your iPad’s hardware button can do. Prior to 4.2 it was an much loved by many orientation lock. 4.2 swapped it to a mute button and hid the orientation lock in with the multi tasking/playback controls. Many hated this and 4.3 allows the user to choose which of these two options are controlled via the hardware button. I am amazed – just not like Apple.
  • New gestures which look very handy. *groan* Four and five finger gestures, specifically pinch to return to the home screen and swipe to move between app’s. This is the biggest change for me and I’m surprised we’re seeing this in an OS point update rather than with iOS 5 or new hardware. Many are saying that this is the end of the home button but I can’t see it myself. The home button is important for one handed operation and a few other system related features which I don’t think will be replaced by gestures. The few saying this is really Boy Genius Report. The same people that have predicted Blu-Ray on the Mac. Video embed below shows the gestures in action. Nice.

Of course, I say all iOS users will be enjoying these features but this release drops support for iPhone 3G users and iPod Touch 2nd Gen. Performance of the hardware just not up to the latest features or Apple applying chinese burns to users to encourage hardware upgrades? Despite that negative, this update has some welcome new features. I just hope they are still featured when the final release is made available.

DigitalOutbox Episode 15

DigitalOutbox Episode 15
In this episode the team discuss the Apple keynote edition. We’re more awake this week – if you get to the end though you deserve a medal. And a kip!

Playback
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Shownotes
1:58 – WordPress Hack Outbreak
– Is WordPress the Windows of blog tools?
– Hackers exploiting old version to spread comment spam and diguide links to dubious (spyware/malware) sites
– If your running anything but 2.8.4 you’re at risk
– Easy to update now – one click
– If you customise then updating is more hassle
– Posterous, tumblr even hosted wordpress a better option?
– If you keep vigilant, you should have nothing to fear
– Is wordpress targeted because of it’s size, ease of hacking – both?
– RSS Cloud
– Push notification of blog updates
– http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/rss-in-the-clouds/
– The idea is to deliver news faster, without relying on a single company to do all the work.
– Lazyfeed and river2 support RSS Cloud – others to follow? The biggie is Google reader though.
– Enabled on wordpress.com, plugin too
– After the Deadline
– http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/08/automattic-acquires-spellcheck-plug-in-after-the-deadline/
– Really smart spelling, style and grammer checker
– Plugin – enabled on wordpress.com
7:34 – DSG Facebook Action
– DSG have said they are disturbed by reports that an unofficial facebook group for staff of DSG has seen disparaging comments about their customers posted by staff.
– They will investigate and follow up with action where appropriate.
– Aren’t all PC World customers stupid by definition? They are buying in store when they could by better and cheaper anywhere online!
– Wider issue of paranoid companies starting to sensor their employees even out of work…
10:20 – T-Mobile and Orange Merger
– Merger creates the biggest UK company in the mobile market. (Around 37%).
– O2 current leaders with 27%
– Deal expected to commence in November.
13:10 – Lies, Damned Lies…and Google
– Many stats have UK/Euro focus – way!
– More or Less: Behind the stats
15:55 – Steve Jobs at the Keynote
– Apple Event
– It’s Steve!
– iPhone 3.1
– App store update – genius for app’s
– New list – apps by revenue – is this to support premium app’s i.e. Tom Tom
– Longer backups!
– Save video from mails to photo roll
– 75,000 app’s, 1.8 billion app store downloads (excluding updates) (Really? An average of 36 downloads per device?)
– 50 million iPhone OS devices in existence (30 million iphones)
– Games demo’s – getting quite advanced looking! Nova and Madden look superb
– iTunes 9
– update UI (a bit odd?)
– http://static.maniacalrage.net/bucket/itunes/
– easier to get album info – click on i, all tracks
– uses webkit and html5 for some of the ui
– inconsistent across Mac UI
– Application organisation on iPhone – finally
– Genius Mix – not too bad – genre mixes more than anything else
– No speed improvement (not 64 bit)
– LP’s
– Animations, lyrics, videos etc
– Extras
– DVD extras really
– Better sync options
– Sync by genre, artist
– Sync photos by album, faces, events
– Movies now have better options
– Ringtones
– 30,000 ringtones
– They cost
– Home Sharing
– allows iTunes media to be copied and shared among 5 authorized computers in the same household, with settings available to make copying new purchases automatically
– Currently lax controls on this and apparently you can authorise a remote computer. Share apps and music, then unauthorise again. Effectively stripping and sharing content between accounts. This is sure to be addressed soon.
– Limited social networking – twitter, facebook, upload mix to imix for friends – only share from the store, not your library
– Wish List – add store stuff to wish list – just like Amazons
– This replaces shopping cart – eveything is now one click to buy! Click Buy, it’s bought. Be careful!
– Pre media sync – get out!
– Media organisation
– http://www.tuaw.com/2009/09/10/itunes-9-focus-itunes-media-organization/
– iTunes now automatically adds new music to your library from a watched folder they quietly added to the iTunes Music folder structure. Apple did its darndest to sneak this new feature in under the radar among several who-cares features, but for our money, it’s absolutely the best feature to come to iTunes 9. So how does it work? Just find the folder named Automatically Add to iTunes in your iTunes Music folder (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Automatically Add to iTunes/ in OS X; C:\Users\Your Username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes\ in Windows). Any music that finds its way into that folder will automatically be imported into iTunes.
– iTunes Media organization. It moves your folders around into a much more logical structure, with separate folders for audiobooks, iPhone apps, movies, music, podcasts, ringtones, TV shows, and voice memos.
– iPod Touch – 64 gb, reduced prices 8 – £149, 32 – £229, 64 – £299
– No camera!
– 50% faster – what does that mean? Faster than previous Touch?
– Shuffle – reduced prices, colours – 2 – 45, 4 – 59
– Classic – 160gb – 189
– iPod Nano – 8 – 115, 16 – 135
– Camera and mic, speaker
– It’s a video only camera, no stills!
– FM Tuner
– Pedometer
– Spotify on the iPhone
– Awesome
– No last.fm, no background app
– Could background running of a streaming service be an iTunes 9 announcement?
– 4 million tracks to choose from
– C64 Emulator
– Shak?
– Pay per game – deals being made with original IP owners
– Why are people so excited? All games ranged from pretty pap to utter cack…
– Pulled by Apple. They asked for Basic to be removed – dev hid it instead of removing (like Yelp), then told everyone, then Apple removed it. New version uploaded without Basic now. Keep pants on everyone.
– Flickr app
– Official from Yahoo/Flickr
– Free
– Quick
– Upload photo’s and video
– 10.6.1 Update
– Flash, security, minor bugs
– New ad – http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/
1:17:47 – Dreamcast is 10!
– 10 years old!
– memories, thoughts?

Picks
Shakeel
Free on iTunes
– free content to download (every week?)
– Free single of the week
– The Inbetweeners: Series 2 – first 4 episodes currently FREE!!
– good way to build your library for free
– try stuff you probably wouldn’t normally bother with, only to be pleasantly surprised
– Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream

Ian
Madden on iPhone
– Good version of Madden
– Controls a bit fiddly
– Graphics good though

Chris
Trials HD
– XBox Arcade – PC as well I believe.
– Kick-start in your living room!
– Great game. Around £10. Good looking.
– Axpansive – user content. Starts easy, gets mega hard. Highly adictive.
– Frustrating at times but has the “one more go” in spades.