Razer's unique, frustrating gaming keyboard

(CNET.com) -- Razer's new Lycosa gaming keyboard has several unique features. The rubber coating on the keys provides a soft, comfortable touch. You can switch between three backlight configurations via a touch-sensitive control pad. You can even use Razer's software to program each of the Lycosa's keys to work as a separate macro, either individually or in combination with one another.

We're frustrated, though, by a few things left half-baked. None of the Lycosa's issues are bad enough to make us dislike it outright, and we'd recommend it--especially for confident touch-typing gamers. For $80, though, we expect Razer to follow through on the promises of its features.

Setting up the Lycosa is only a little convoluted. It requires two USB inputs, as well as separate audio inputs if you want to plug in your own headset and microphone. Because the Lycosa has a single spare USB 2.0 jack on its top edge, we understand why Razer relies on two USB outputs; presumably it wants to preserve the pristine data stream for the keyboard itself to ensure typing responsiveness.

Fair enough. Razer still could have added a second USB input, though, since the current one has a dedicated data stream all to itself via the second USB cable.

The software is easy to set up, although hard to navigate because of small type and a less-than intuitive layout. If you don't plan on using macros, you might not even need it. The touch pad's media control and backlit profile button work without installing anything.

The Lycosa's backlighting is its biggest problem. With the blue LED turned off, you're left with an almost illegible keyboard, that's similar to the purposefully blank Das keyboard of a few years ago.

If you're not secure in your touch-typing prowess, the reasonable thing to do would be to turn on the Lycosa's backlighting, which reveals the letters on the keys, along with the touch pad buttons.

The problem is that the lighting is so faint that in a lit room, it gives you only a suggestion of which key is which. Unlike Saitek's Eclipse II keyboards, there's no way to adjust the brightness on the Lycosa's LED, let alone the color.

In a darkened room, however, the lighting is sufficiently bright. The only other option is a third profile that lights up the W, A, S, and D keys (with roughly twice the brightness of the standard lighting scheme), commonly used by PC gamers as direction controls, but keeps the rest of the board unlit.

Assuming you can find the proper keys, typing on the Lycosa is a pleasant experience.

The nonstick rubber coating is soft to the touch, and combined with the response of the low profile keys, we actually like the Lycosa's typing action better than Razer's higher-end Tarantula keyboard.

The Lycosa's glossy plastic housing is also attractive enough, but we're less enamored with the detachable wrist rest. For one, it requires four screws, which seems overcomplicated when surely a plastic clip or two would suffice.

The wrist rest is also made from a nonvented matte plastic that seems to induce sweating. This is gross, especially if, like your reviewer (he swears), you're not normally prone to sweaty palms.

If you do go so far as to install the software and can figure out how to use it, you'll find that you can make any key perform the work of several via the macro software.

Razer also promises the ability to press more than three keys at a time. For gamers especially, we can see how this might be useful for executing a complicated series of moves.

Unlike the Tarantula, the Lycosa has no dedicated buttons for macro hosting. The benefit, though, is that with no macro keys, the Lycosa has a much smaller footprint than the 20.25-inch wide Tarantula or Logitech's 21.5-inch wide G15 keyboard. At its widest, the Lycosa comes in just under 18.5 inches, smaller than even the Saitek Eclipse II.

Finally, in addition to the Lycosa's scaled-down size, we also like how well it holds its position on your workspace. It's not an overly heavy keyboard, but the rubber feet gripped our desk firmly. You can also elevate the Lycosa via two drop-down feet on the underside.

Source from: edition.cnn.com

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MacBook Air revisited

(CNET.com) -- Apple's new laptop, the MacBook Air, may not be the true ultraportable that many had hoped for, but it still easily breaks new ground for small laptops.

Mimicking the 13-inch silhouette of the current MacBook line, it's only 0.76 inch thick at its thickest, and Apple calls it the "world's thinnest notebook."

Some nitpickers say an obscure Mitsubishi laptop from 1997 was a hair thinner, but two of the smallest current ultraportable laptops, the 11-inch Sony VAIO TZ150 and the 12-inch Toshiba Portege R500, are both slightly thicker, and neither tapers to 0.16 inch as the Air does along its front edge.

As we've come to expect from Apple, the design and engineering that went into the MacBook Air is extraordinary, but it's certainly a much more specialized product than the standard 13-inch MacBook and won't be as universally useful as that popular system.

The biggest compromises, which have been well-documented, come in its connectivity: The MacBook Air finds room for only one USB port and doesn't include a built-in optical drive, FireWire, Ethernet, or mobile broadband. And like with its other laptops, Apple refuses to outfit the Air with a media-card reader or an expansion card slot.

Offsetting its sparse connectivity are genuinely useful new features including new trackpad gesture controls and the ability to wirelessly "borrow" another system's optical drive.

Choosing the Air over the cheaper, faster standard 13-inch MacBook, or the comparably priced MacBook Pro, will depend on your needs. Travelers who want minimum weight, maximum screen real estate, and who live their lives via Wi-Fi hot spots, with little need for wired connectivity, will find the $1,799 starting price a reasonable investment for owning one of the world's premier bits of high-tech eye candy.

And while the MacBook Air's specs are inferior to those found on the cheaper MacBook, they compare more favorably when you look at other ultraportables, where a price premium is always exacted. For instance, both the Sony VAIO TZ150 and Toshiba Portege R500 cost hundreds more than the MacBook Air and feature slower CPUs and half the RAM as the Air.

Although it shares a desktop footprint with the standard black and white MacBooks, the first thing you notice about the Air is its aluminum chassis--similar to the one found on the MacBook Pro, and much more fingerprint resistant than the standard MacBooks.

Picking it up, the MacBook Air feels a little heavier than you would expect from looking at it, even though it's only 3 pounds. At the same time, it feels very sturdy and solid, thanks in part to the aluminum construction, and we'd have no qualms about carting it around with us all day.

By way of comparison, the VAIO TZ150 features an 11.1-inch screen and weighs only 0.3 pound lighter than the Air, and the Portege R500 is 0.6 pound lighter than the Air with a 12.1-inch screen.

The MacBook Air includes an iSight camera and mic, and an LED-backlit display that works with an ambient light sensor to adjust the screen brightness in response to the light in the room.

The keyboard--the same full-size version found in other MacBooks--has backlit keys that are also controlled by the ambient light sensor, although we had to adjust the room lighting a good deal to see any difference.

The revamped trackpad is large, measuring nearly 5 inches diagonally, and it works with new multitouch gestures. Other MacBooks let you do things like use two fingers to scroll through documents--this one lets you use three fingers to go forward and back in your Web browser history, and use your thumb and forefinger to zoom in and out of documents and photos--much like on the iPhone.

The three-finger forward/back gesture was immediately useful, and we're already missing it when using other laptops. Apple tells us these new gestures won't be available on older MacBooks as a firmware upgrade, as the hardware behind the new trackpad is different.

Another noteworthy new feature is the remote disc function. Since the Air lacks an optical drive, you can instead remotely use the optical drives of other systems, PC or Mac, as long as they're on the same network.

The setup was a little cumbersome for the "host" PC--requiring us to insert the OS X disc that came with the Air, run a small setup program, and then find and turn on "CD and DVD sharing" in the Windows control panel (the documentation could have been a little clearer on what you need to do to on the Windows side).

Once we set it up, however, it worked like a charm. You won't be able to stream DVD movies or music CDs via remote disc, but it's fine for getting files and installing apps. A matching external USB DVD burner is available from Apple for $99, but any USB DVD drive should work.

The display offers the same 1,280x800 native resolution as the standard 13-inch MacBook, but the Air's LED-backlit screen means its lid is thinner with an image that was somewhat brighter, at least with both systems set to max brightness.

The real key to finding out whether the MacBook Air is right for you lies in its stripped-down set of ports and connections. Those who regularly use more than one USB device, or need FireWire, an SD card slot, or an Express card slot will find the single USB jack too limiting.

Likewise, we often say the telephone modem jacks and S-Video outputs on most laptops are a waste of space, but the MacBook Air goes even further, removing the Ethernet jack (a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor will run you $29) and offloading video output to a pair of included dongles (one VGA, one DVI).

If you live on Wi-Fi hot spots, use Bluetooth for your external mouse, and only need a USB port to occasionally sync and charge your iPod or iPhone, these limitations may not be a deal-breaker for you.

While most hardware vendors offer a choice of mobile broadband options, Apple continues to offer none, which is disappointing for a system so clearly meant for life away from home and office.

Without an Express card slot, your only option would be a USB mobile broadband modem, but with the sole USB jack under a tiny flap on the right side of the system with limited clearance, you may need a small USB extension cable to get a bulky USB mobile broadband modem connected (similar to the problems people had with the iPhone's recessed headphone jack).

While the 80GB hard drive included in the base $1,799 model may be smaller than you're used to, the only other option is a 64GB solid state hard drive. With no moving parts, and advantages in heat, power consumption, and reliability, SSD hard drives are certainly the way of the future.

The future may have to wait a few years for prices to come down; however, swapping the 80GB platter drive for the 64GB SSD drive is a whopping $999 upgrade. The only other internal hardware option is a CPU uptick, from 1.6GHz to 1.8GHz for $300. With the upgraded CPU and SSD drive, the $1,799 MacBook Air suddenly becomes a $3,098 laptop.

We are pleased to see that the MacBook Air comes standard with 2GB of RAM, but with a processor that runs at a much slower clockspeed than the standard MacBook (2.0GHz or 2.2GHz), plus a 4,200rpm 1.8-inch hard drive (as opposed to the standard 5,400rpm), it's not surprising that the MacBook Air is not as fast a performer as the $1,649 MacBook we reviewed in December 2007. Do note that the baseline $1,099 MacBook features a slower processor and half the memory of our MacBook review unit.

And as we often point out, any modern dual-core CPU is going to be more than adequate for Web surfing, multimedia playback, and productivity tasks, and we were able to surf the Web, play videos, and work on a document at the same time with absolutely no slowdown or stuttering.

We're currently conducting additional benchmark tests and will update this review with new results as they're available.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the MacBook Air is the lack of a user-replaceable battery. While most laptops will be obsolete before their batteries wear out, we are sensitive to the desire to occasionally carry an extra battery for extended field use.

We're still conducting our standard DVD battery drain test on the system, and will report those scores shortly, but in anecdotal testing, the Air lasted for nearly 4 hours of mixed use, including video playback, software installation, Web surfing, and productivity tasks. That's reasonably close to Apple's 5-hour claims, but may not be enough for a full day of off-site use.

We're still not fans of Apple's nearly obligatory extended warranty upsell (so much so that we've simply copied this complaint from our last MacBook review).

The default warranty for the MacBook is one year of coverage for parts and labor, but toll-free telephone support is limited to a mere 90 days--well short of what you'd typically find on the PC side--unless you purchase the $249 AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends phone support and repair coverage to three years.

Source from: edition.cnn.com

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Google bets on Android future

Gaming and surfing on Google Android

But the company is going much further. At the end of 2007 it lifted the lid on Android, an open mobile operating system that is being used to power a new generation of devices under the Open Handset Alliance, a group which involves firms like HTC and chip designer ARM.

Android is the creation of Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms.

He believes that a lack of openness in the mobile phone space has stifled innovation to date.

"What Android enables for third party developers is the kind of programming we see on the internet," he says.

"What it enables is agility and rapid innovation and the same kind of innovation that happens on the internet."

Android was developed by former robot maker Andy Rubin

Mr Rubin says that by opening up the phones - from the operating system, released under open source, to the drivers and the application framework - developers will have more freedom to innovate, and more scope also.

But if you talk to Symbian and Microsoft, two companies that also build mobile operating systems, both claim to be open also.

Mr Rubin says: "There's a distinction we have to make - and it's an important one - between open source and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

"APIs are essentially documentation, they're the way that somebody like Symbian or Microsoft will allow third party developers to develop for their platform.

"Open source is a mechanism by which the source code of the operating system is actually for free and that way the carriers and OEMs are not really locked into a single vendor, nobody really owns this.

"It means they are free to take it into the direction that's important to them; they can fix bugs, add enhancements so in the end the consumer has a better experience."

Mr Rubin believes this will lead to greater variety of mobile experiences - driven not by the rules and regulations of an operating system but by the ideas of developers.

In essence, it could lead to greater variety of phones and of what those phones are capable.

Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance, with manufacturing partners like HTC and chip designers like ARM.

At the Mobile World Congress earlier this month the first reference handsets running Android were on show.

The first Android phones are expected in the second half of 2008

The browser was responsive and driven by both touch and a mini-track ball.

Google Maps supported Street View, the ability to see stills of real world locations, which has not been seen on a mobile device before.

Mr Rubin says Android is running on a phone powered by a 300Mhz chip, which puts the device in the mid-range of smartphones.

"A lot of applications we are seeing on phones today, in some of the newest and most powerful phones, are doing internet style web browsing.

There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cell phone

"But that is just one of the components of the internet we need to bring to cellphones. There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cellphone.

Mr Rubin points out that not all net experiences are available through the browser.

"Applications like Google Earth and YouTube have specific functionality that hasn't yet effectively been brought to mobile.

"Up until Android that wasn't possible on the phone - you could only access functionality given to you by the operating system."

The iPhone is a great 1.0 product said Mr Rubin

This is not Mr Rubin's first foray into overturning the "natural order" of things.

A former roboticist and Apple engineer, he created Web TV, and the device which led to the pioneering Sidekick handset.

"One of my passions throughout my whole career is consumer products; making things my mom would use.

"That need wasn't satisfied doing robotics. that was behind the scenes factory stuff."

So what does he make of Apple's first phone to the market?

"It's a great 1.0 product; I use one.

"Apple has that great balance of being both a hardware and software firms so they have a lot of flexibility.

"One of the things that is a challenge for them is having an incredible footprint worldwide - there are different types of communications standards, regulatory issues, and different language issues.

"I'm hoping that doesn't limit them."

With about three billion people using mobile phones worldwide and the number of devices that can access the net climbing rapidly, the future of the web is definitely mobile. And with no one company dominating the mobile arena as yet, the race is very much on.

Mardell's Europe Day in pictures Moon marvel

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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BBC iPlayer comes to the iPhone

The iPhone's network is too slow for streaming video

The BBC has launched a version of its iPlayer video on demand service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

It is the first time the service has been available on portable devices.

The iPhone and iPod touch are able to stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks. The iPhone cannot stream BBC video over the cell network.

Anthony Rose, writing on the BBC internet blog, said: "We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available.

"It displays the BBCiPlayer site and BBC programmes nicely."

The software currently comes in two versions - a program which allows users to download programmes to their Windows PC and a streaming version on the web available to all users.

The version for iPhone and iPod touch users will allow streaming over a wi-fi connection. However, the EDGE mobile network used by the iPhone is too slow for streaming video.

The corporation has agreed a deal with wi-fi firm The Cloud to provide all BBC online services for free at its 7,500 hotspots.

A version of iPlayer for Virgin Media customers is expected later this month.

Mardell's Europe Day in pictures Moon marvel

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Phorm: Your questions answered

The controversial online advertising company Phorm has come under fierce criticism for its tool that tracks users' online surfing habits.

Q: What transparency is there? How can I check that Phorm is doing exactly what it claims it is doing? If I opt out, how can I assure myself that the opt out means just that - my data is not being harvested at all?

A: The claims we make as regards our systems, policies and procedures are regularly audited by the privacy audit department of Ernst & Young. But perhaps more importantly, our ISP partners take their customers' privacy very seriously and they have conducted immense due diligence on our technology and internal controls.

Q: Given Phorm's history (as 121media) in the murky world of adware and spyware, how can we trust it today? Why should we trust it?

A: It's true that we have a background in adware, not spyware. Part of the reason we decided to get out out the adware business was because we realised it was very difficult for people to distinguish between the two. We also think that we should be judged on our transparency and our actions. Firstly, when we realised the desktop model was taking us away from our core vision for the business of personalising the internet, we took the unprecedented step of shutting the desktop business down: voluntarily, transparently and under no pressure from anyone else. It was our choice and one that meant we cut ourselves off from revenues of $5-6 million a year in order to concentrate on developing a network based solution, where we find ourselves today.

Q: What fees (or other gifts/gratuities) were paid to Simon Davies and Gus Hosein when they were "invited" to assess Phorm's privacy protection measures? Does Phorm, or any of its directors, agents or employees have any interests in 80/20 Thinking

A: Phorm, its directors, agents or employees have no interests whatsoever in 80/20 Thinking. 80/20 Thinking is a consulting business founded and run by Managing Director Simon Davies, who is also a director of Privacy International, one of the leading privacy advocacy bodies. Phorm has retained 80/20 Thinking to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment on its technologies, systems and policies and we will work with them on an ongoing basis throughout the year. We chose 80/20 Thinking because Simon Davies has spent the best part of thirty years championing consumer privacy and railing against infringements. We wanted our systems and policies to be open to the kind of unforgiving scrutiny Simon brings.

And yes, 80/20 Thinking does charge for its services, as conducting audits takes time and resources.

A: No, we do not modify web pages or inject ads. We only serve ads to the websites we partner with. In order to participate, websites have to insert a tag into their own page. If you have opted out, will still see ads as you browse - just as you do today - but they won't be from the OIX and they won't be relevant to your browsing.

Q:Would they consider hiring an external agency to audit the provisions for opt-out?

A: Yes. We already have an external auditor -- Ernst & Young, and 80/20 Thinking is conducting a Privacy Impact Assessment, but we would welcome suggestions for additional auditing.

A: Most people have a separate login if they are sharing a computer and they will therefore have a separate random number. But also, advertisers using our system can choose to show ads based on the page they are visiting, recently visited, or a longer term basis. Only the last of these would be affected if the computer and the login were share, so this scenario if possible but not that likely. If the person really wants to hide a surprise, they can switch webwise off!

Q: I would like to better understand the strict demarcation of ownership of equipment to be installed in the ISP to really understand the full content of the stream received at the point of entry to equipment under the control of Phorm. Bloggers purporting to be from BT claim that this is the FULL browsing (http - port 80) stream with IP addresses obfuscated in some way. Is this true? And if so, what safeguards over employee recruitment do Phorm have since they will be in an extremely powerful and trusted position, being able to read 10m peoples' web traffic.

A: No, this is not true. IP addresses are not passed in any form, even obfuscated, to Phorm. All that is passed is a limited digest of page data from each navigation. This data is never stored on disk and is immediately deleted from memory as soon as a product category match has been made.

Q: The same report also mentions detailed (but anonymous) logs that will be removed from the closed loop onto Phorm servers and kept for up-to 14 days. Why do they need these logs since the very thing that impressed 80/20 was the lack of need to store detailed personal information nor remove it from the closed loop

A: The logs mentioned in the E&Y audit report concern system health and error logs, not anything to do with users.

Q: Do phorm intend to resell any data, such as "clickstream" trends, perhaps even split by demographic, and if so, are they aware of the possibility that this data would be "de-anonymized" as reported on techcrunch and numerous sites with the AOL and Netflix "anonymous" releases.

A: Clickstream data is never stored. Therefore is cannot be sold on or 'deanonymised'. The AOL / Netflix situation cannot occur because the clickstream data has been deleted in real time as the page loads.

Q: Even if you do opt out your web traffic will still be intercepted and analysed, you just wont see the ads. Is this true?Q: Plus how will Phorm serve you the "correct" ads unless the traffic they have analysed can be traced back to your computer / IP address. Either Phorm are connected or they aren't, in which case the system can't work. Just replacing the IP with a "unique ID" doesn't make Phorm unconnected if there is a direct relationship between the two.Q: You maybe able to select to opt out of the adverts however BT will still be passing your personal and private information to Phorm, this will include the content of all emails you view online that are not covered by a secure connection (SSL).

Q: What safeguards are there to ensure that in the future Phorm doesn't alter or add to the amount and types of information/data is passed to and

The keynote is transparency: we will communicate any changes and our claims will continue to be subject to external scrutiny by formal audit, partner due diligence, customer vigilance and media interest.

Q: Does the opt out from Phorm satisfy the Data Protection act's provision that individuals can write to the Data Controller of the ISP in writing

The ISP will not be passing any personal information to Phorm. We do not tie into their authentication systems or use any subscriber information.

Q: And does the service ever modify information you receive via http that might not be a web-page, i.e. is it possible for it to accidentally break

We operate a whitelist of user-agents corresponding to major browsers (e.g. Firefox, IE, Opera). Other user-agents are ignored.

A: This isn't inconsistent. The Profiler is owned by the ISP. If someone opts out no data is passed from the ISP to Phorm.

Q: However, I would like to know who provides the software for the "Profiler" and if it's not written by the ISP, how does the ISP check that it does what it's meant to?

A: Phorm provides the software for the profiles, just like Cisco, for example, provides software for an ISP router. The ISP can see exactly what data is being passed in and out of its systems and has complete control over it.

Q: I still want answers to my cookie question. Part II Section 11 "Right to prevent processing for purposes of direct marketing". Is this direct marketing - well as is clear to all concerned there HAS to be some link between the profile and the target computer else the ads would not get served. Opt out by cookie is insufficient in my mind.

A: It's important to understand there are two distinctly separate processes in the Phorm system: data capture and ad serving. The data capture system only stores one item of information on your computer -- a random number. The random number is the only thing that distinguishes your browser from the millions of others on the internet. It does not contain any information about you or your computer. The only person able to make that connection is you, as you have that cookie in your browser.

As you browse your browsing behaviour is matched against pre-defined advertiser categories for everyday products eg travel or sport.

No urls, browsing histories or IP addresses are retained and the raw data used to make the match is deleted in real time - by the time the page loads. There is, in essence, no data other than the categories and the random number stored in the system and so it's impossible to know (or indeed reverse engineer from that) who you are or where you've been.

In the ad serving phase, when your computer requests an advert from the OIX (because a website has included our tag in their page), the browser sends the random number and the categories are used to deliver the targeted ad, not the details of your browsing, or anything about you or your computer.

If you clear your cookies regularly or if you'd like to ensure that Webwise is permanently switched off, simply add "www.webwise.net" to the Blocked Cookies settings in your browser.

Mardell's Europe Day in pictures Moon marvel

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Google bets on Android future

Gaming and surfing on Google Android

But the company is going much further. At the end of 2007 it lifted the lid on Android, an open mobile operating system that is being used to power a new generation of devices under the Open Handset Alliance, a group which involves firms like HTC and chip designer ARM.

Android is the creation of Andy Rubin, Google's director of mobile platforms.

He believes that a lack of openness in the mobile phone space has stifled innovation to date.

"What Android enables for third party developers is the kind of programming we see on the internet," he says.

"What it enables is agility and rapid innovation and the same kind of innovation that happens on the internet."

Android was developed by former robot maker Andy Rubin

Mr Rubin says that by opening up the phones - from the operating system, released under open source, to the drivers and the application framework - developers will have more freedom to innovate, and more scope also.

But if you talk to Symbian and Microsoft, two companies that also build mobile operating systems, both claim to be open also.

Mr Rubin says: "There's a distinction we have to make - and it's an important one - between open source and open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

"APIs are essentially documentation, they're the way that somebody like Symbian or Microsoft will allow third party developers to develop for their platform.

"Open source is a mechanism by which the source code of the operating system is actually for free and that way the carriers and OEMs are not really locked into a single vendor, nobody really owns this.

"It means they are free to take it into the direction that's important to them; they can fix bugs, add enhancements so in the end the consumer has a better experience."

Mr Rubin believes this will lead to greater variety of mobile experiences - driven not by the rules and regulations of an operating system but by the ideas of developers.

In essence, it could lead to greater variety of phones and of what those phones are capable.

Google has formed the Open Handset Alliance, with manufacturing partners like HTC and chip designers like ARM.

At the Mobile World Congress earlier this month the first reference handsets running Android were on show.

The first Android phones are expected in the second half of 2008

The browser was responsive and driven by both touch and a mini-track ball.

Google Maps supported Street View, the ability to see stills of real world locations, which has not been seen on a mobile device before.

Mr Rubin says Android is running on a phone powered by a 300Mhz chip, which puts the device in the mid-range of smartphones.

"A lot of applications we are seeing on phones today, in some of the newest and most powerful phones, are doing internet style web browsing.

There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cell phone

"But that is just one of the components of the internet we need to bring to cellphones. There should be nothing that users can access on their desktop that they can't access on their cellphone.

Mr Rubin points out that not all net experiences are available through the browser.

"Applications like Google Earth and YouTube have specific functionality that hasn't yet effectively been brought to mobile.

"Up until Android that wasn't possible on the phone - you could only access functionality given to you by the operating system."

The iPhone is a great 1.0 product said Mr Rubin

This is not Mr Rubin's first foray into overturning the "natural order" of things.

A former roboticist and Apple engineer, he created Web TV, and the device which led to the pioneering Sidekick handset.

"One of my passions throughout my whole career is consumer products; making things my mom would use.

"That need wasn't satisfied doing robotics. that was behind the scenes factory stuff."

So what does he make of Apple's first phone to the market?

"It's a great 1.0 product; I use one.

"Apple has that great balance of being both a hardware and software firms so they have a lot of flexibility.

"One of the things that is a challenge for them is having an incredible footprint worldwide - there are different types of communications standards, regulatory issues, and different language issues.

"I'm hoping that doesn't limit them."

With about three billion people using mobile phones worldwide and the number of devices that can access the net climbing rapidly, the future of the web is definitely mobile. And with no one company dominating the mobile arena as yet, the race is very much on.

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Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Browsers go head-to-head

The top two browsing programs of net users got a big update this month as Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Mozilla unleashed Firefox 2.0. Here we take a quick spin through some of the features to be seen in the new versions.

Microsoft's IE7 program is the beefier of the two browsers with the download package weighing in at 14.8 megabytes (MB). By contrast Firefox is a svelte 5.4MB. However, neither should tax a broadband connection.

Differences start to show up once the software is downloaded. Once it is done installing, IE7 demands a re-start before you can use it. Firefox installs without that need. It's a minor difference and a minor inconvenience for those that choose Internet Explorer.

Both take about the same amount of time to install and get started-up but once they are running more subtle differences start to become apparent.

At first glance Firefox 2.0 looks more familiar as its main page layout hardly differs from earlier versions.

But IE7 does look changed because, for a start, the grey menu bar is hidden. It can be resurrected by hitting the "alt" key but you might be surprised by how much you need to call on it when you can't find it.

Hidden information

With IE7 Microsoft has brought tabs to its browser but both deal with them in slightly different ways.

With IE7 a blank tab is always available but with Firefox the new tab only appears, and takes up some screen space, when you open one up.

IE7 has a neat feature that lets you see thumbnails of all of the tabs you have open at any one time, letting you leap to the one you need with a click.

However, it seems to take a moment longer than Firefox 2.0 to close tabs when you are done with them.

Opening up quite a few webpages in each browser shows up another quirk. Firefox 2.0 seems to do a better job of using the text that webpages use to describe themselves.

Often in IE7, the only information you get about a webpage you have open but hidden on the bottom taskbar is "http://" - the rest of the title is obscured.

Again, a minor difference and a minor niggle.

Searching a webpage is still more elegant in Firefox 2.0 than IE7.

Calling up the search function in Firefox prompts the appearance of a text box tied to the bottom of the page and typing your search term in that takes you to the first appearance of that word or phrase on the page - provided it is there, of course.

In IE searching calls up a floating box in which you have to type your text and then click or hit a key to find the term or phrase.

Feeding frenzy

One of the very useful inclusions in Firefox 2.0 is a live spell checker that watches over your metaphorical shoulder as you type text into any field on any webpage. It is possible to add a similar function to IE7 but only via an add-on.

It will be interesting to see how many people download and install it.

When it comes to RSS - the system that feeds updates of webpages to those interested - Firefox 2.0 does a slightly better job of making it easy to subscribe to new feeds.

With only a click it was possible to add a feed to popular blog-following sites such as Bloglines to IE7 and Firefox

Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 also benefit from thousands of plug-ins, or add-ons - that can be installed to add more functionality to the browser.

These range from RSS readers to Instant Messaging clients, Voice over IP programs, and mini iTunes controls - all accessed from inside the web browser page.

Finally, both IE7 and Firefox 2.0 have introduced systems that warn users when they are about to visit a site that is known to be used by phishing gangs. These pages are made to look like that of a bank to trick people into handing over confidential information.

Firefox handles this by updating a locally held list of known phishing sites every time you use the browser.

Microsoft's IE7 checks in via the web to make sure a site is safe to visit. In the short tests run by the BBC news website, IE7 occasionally took longer to load a page as it carried out a check to see if it was a phishing site.

Despite these minor differences, Firefox 2.0 and IE7 are now broadly comparable - something that could not be said of IE6 and Firefox. But it will be up to users to choose which one best meets their needs.Texan tango 'Troops chased me' Bound for Baghdad

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Web icon set to be discontinued

Netscape lost ground to Microsoft's internet Explorer

The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.

In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users.

"While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," said Tom Drapeau on the company's blog.

Browser wars

Netscape was developed by Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, the first popular web browser.

Mosaic was written while Mr Andreessen was a student at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in 1992.

Firefox was created by many of the Navigator developers

After graduation he set up Netscape Communications Corporation and began development of the Navigator browser. The first version was released in 1994.

It was quickly a success and dominated the browser market in the mid-1990s.

But other companies followed its success, notably Microsoft, which bundled its Explorer software with its operating systems.

This culminated in a highly-publicised legal battle, which saw Microsoft accused of anti-competitive behaviour.

Although the settlement saw Netscape gain many concessions from Microsoft including the ability to exploit IE code, it has been unable to gain back its market share.

The demise of Navigator was compounded in 2003 when AOL, which bought Netscape in 1998, made redundant most of the staff working on new versions of the browser.

Many of the staff moved to the Mozilla Foundation which develops the popular Firefox browser. This browser has a 16% share of the browser market.

Fade away

Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.

"After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser," wrote Mr Drapeau.

"We feel it's the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox," he said.

Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates after the date.

Old versions of the browser will still be available for download, but will no longer be supported.

Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.Texan tango 'Troops chased me' Bound for Baghdad

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Q&A: What is DRM?

EMI has announced that it will be offering its back catalogue online without software locks, called digital rights management. The songs will be sold at a higher price to those currently with the digital locks but will also be at double the audio quality.

What is DRM?

Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is a class of technologies that allow rights owners to set and enforce terms by which people use their intellectual property.

Rights owners are typically copyright-holding companies like music, film, book or software publishers. They use DRM to control how documents, entire software programs, or even e-mails are used.

Most often media companies use DRM to curb piracy of their content by restricting users' ability to copy it, though it can also be used to create new business models like subscriptions to a large library of music.

How does DRM work?

DRM is a two-part scheme. It relies on encryption to protect the content itself and authentication systems to ensure that only authorised users can unlock the files.

When applied, DRM scrambles the data in a file rendering it unreadable to anyone without the appropriate unlocking key.

Authentication systems stand between users and the decryption keys, ensuring that only people with the proper permissions can obtain a decryption key.

Without a username and password or if a file has been decrypted too many times, the system will not provide the key. This means music files with DRM, for example, can be swapped over the internet and remain unusable to those who have not paid for them.

It also means only authorised programs and portable players can use the tracks.

Music without DRM, like the popular MP3 music format, retain the ability to be played regardless of the number of times or to whom they have been copied.

Who is using DRM and why?

The most common commercial use of DRM is copy prevention. The technology gives rights holders some assurance that their intellectual property will not be pirated, and helped to create a legal digital download industry.

Film studios were some of the first large companies to adopt DRM.

When the DVD format was launched it included an encryption scheme called the Content Scrambling System, which prevented users from making digital copies of films off the disc.

Recording labels have also adopted DRM to prevent copying.

With the advent of peer-to-peer file sharing networks and the MP3 music compression format in addition to the proliferation of broadband internet access, they claimed music piracy drastically increased.

CD publishers reacted by making discs in a way that lets them play in a regular machine, but not in a computer. This prevents users from copying the music and distributing it over the internet.

Many record labels have also released DRM-protected music for sale and download in online stores like Apple's iTunes and Roxio's Napster. These tracks can play on a set number of computers and portable devices.

DRM video downloads are just beginning in the UK. Channel 4 and Sky have on-demand services that include films.

What are the problems with DRM?

Some consumer groups and internet commentators vociferously argue against the use of DRM.

One of the most often cited problems with the technology is that competing systems are not compatible. For example, users of the Napster service cannot play a track on the iPod.

Changing music download providers or portable players could mean already purchased tracks are unusable.

Because tracks have to be authenticated to play, they may also become unusable if a download company goes out-of-business.

Both cases force purchasers to either forfeit their music or re-purchase it, and for this reason has been characterised as anti-competitive.

Unlike brick-and-mortar shops selling records, cassettes, or CDs, digital download companies can lock consumers into their service.

Critics also argue that many DRM systems go far beyond the rights the law gives rights holders to protect what they create.

DRM is also an imperfect technology. Hackers and software companies engage in a constant back-and-forth battle where any given system is broken, patched, and broken again.

DVD copy prevention was cracked in part by the then 15-year-old Jon Lech Johansen.

Still others object to DRM on philosophical grounds. Art, they contend, is often a collaborative process that builds off the work of others.

For digital media, this is referred to as the "rip, mix, burn" culture.

As music, film, and literature is increasingly expressed in digital form, many worry that restrictions on the use of this content will limit creativity.Survival questions Key question Blu-ray victory

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Quick guide: Cracked DRM systems

Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems are a technology used by many of the world's leading content providers to prevent piracy.

Critics argue that many of the leading DRM systems are easily broken. Here is a look at four of the main DRM systems and how effective they are.

Windows Media DRM is used in the BBC's iPlayer

Windows Media DRM is a Microsoft-produced copyright protection system intended to "securely deliver content for playback on computers, portable devices and network devices".

The system has been updated several times since it was first released in 1999. The most up-to-date release is version 11.

Various tools have been created to strip files of the DRM, such as FairUse4WM, a program released in August 2006 by a hacker named Viodentia.

Nine days after the crack first appeared, Microsoft released a new version to prevent FairUse4WM from working. Within three days hackers released a new version of the tool.

The tool can be used to strip DRM from programmes with the BBC iPlayer.

On 13 July, a new version of the tool called 1.3fix-2 was released. It can be used with Windows Vista and can also strip DRM from songs downloaded from Microsoft's online music store, Zune Marketplace.

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Several tools have been released to circumvent FairPlay

FairPlay is the DRM of choice for Apple products.

It is built into the Quick Time media player and is used by the iPhone and iPod. Protected music from the iTunes store also uses the system.

Users can copy downloaded songs to a CD and then copy the disc back on to the computer to remove the DRM - but the quality of the music is affected.

The first tool to circumvent FairPlay was a program called QTFairUse, released by infamous hacker Jon Lech Johansen, in November 2003.

Since then several versions of the program have been distributed to keep up to date with new versions of iTunes and FairPlay.

Other programs such as Playfair, Hymn and JHymn have also been developed to get around FairPlay. Following updates to the DRM and legal action by Apple, these systems no longer work.

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AACS is used by both next generation DVD formats

The Advanced Access Content System (AACS) is the DRM of choice for next generation HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.

It was first introduced on high definition discs in June 2006 and uses a system of keys to decrypt content in a player.

These keys can be revoked by the AACS licensing authority if compromised.

Six months after the first discs hit shelves, a hacker known as muslix64 released a tool called BackupHDDVD which circumvented AACS on a Windows PC. Several other similar tools followed.

Many keys were made available on the internet.

In April this year, hackers discovered a method to retrieve the crucial keys using a tweaked HD DVD drive for an Xbox 360. The hack still works even when keys are revoked.

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Many of the tools allow DVDs to run on open source software

Content Scramble System (CSS) is used on almost all commercially produced DVD-Video discs.

It was first introduced in 1996 by the DVD consortium.

In 1999, hacker Jon Lech Johnasen, along with two anonymous hackers, cracked the system and distributed the DeCSS tool on the internet.

Following its release, the system was also found to be susceptible to a so-called brute force attack, where thousands of different codes are tried in order to break the encryption.

On average, the DRM could be stripped off a movie in 24 hours using this method.

Since 1999, hundreds of different variants have appeared on the net, many developed to add DVD support to open source movie players.

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Survival questions Key question Blu-ray victory

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'Hacker' launches iTunes copying

The software will allow the sharing of music bought on iTunes

The release of software from a firm run by a notorious Norwegian hacker is likely to cause waves in the music and film download world.

Jon Lech Johansen became the "enfant terrible" of the DRM industry when he released software which cracked the encryption codes on DVDs, aged just 15.

His firm, DoubleTwist, has now released software allowing users to share digital media files across devices.

It would allow songs bought on Apple's iTunes to be shared on other devices.

At the moment, the only portable music player which can store content downloaded from the iTunes store is Apple's iPod.

In 2003 Mr Johansen distributed a program which bypassed Apple's Fairplay system, the software that enforces this relationship. Since then he has had several other well-publicised run-ins with the firm.

The software from San Francisco-based company DoubleTwist will allow users to share both user-generated and professionally created music, photos and video clips between computers, mobiles and game consoles.

Media which lives on a computer can be moved to a variety of mobile devices by dragging and dropping the files to a desktop folder which then drops copies on the external device over the web.

Initially the system will allow file-sharing with Sony's PSP games console, Nokia's N-series mobile, Sony Ericsson's Walkman and Cybershot handsets and Microsoft's Windows Mobile smartphones.

Tower of Babel

The software converts media stored in one file format to those used by the other devices in a system that mimics the process of ripping a CD onto a computer.

One hundred songs can be converted in about half and hour, with a slight degradation in sound quality, according to the firm.

With digital media such as video from a friend's cell phone or your own iTunes playlists, it's a jungle out there," said Monique Farantzos, co-founder of DoubleTwist.

"The digital media landscape has become a tower of Babel, alienating and frustrating consumers. Our goal is to provide a simple and well integrated solution that the average consumer can use to eliminate the headaches associated with their expanding digital universe," she said.

The company is confident there will not be any legal challenges from Apple.

"All we are facilitating are friends sending things to one another," Ms Farantzos told the Reuters news agency.

The software is available as a free download from the company's website.Survival questions Key question Blu-ray victory

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Microsoft agrees Danger purchase

Hilton is among stars who have given Danger a cool cachet

Microsoft has agreed to buy software firm Danger Inc, maker of T-Mobile's SideKick web phone.

The gadget, also known as the Hiptop, has been popularised by a number of American celebrities, including socialite Paris Hilton.

Danger was co-founded in 1999 by Andy Rubin, Joe Britt and Matt Hershenson. Mr Rubin has moved on to a new job running Google's mobile venture.

Microsoft did not disclose the purchase price as it made the announcement.

Swivel screen

A statement by Microsoft highlighted the fact that it saw Danger's customer base as "young and enthusiastic, internet-savvy and socially inclined".

The statement added: "The Danger team has a deep understanding of consumers and a hold on what people want from mobility, making it an ideal group to work with in delivering connected experiences."

It will be really interesting to see how Microsoft integrates the technology, business model, and overall device cachet to a culture more at home to selling to enterprise CIOs than it is to selling rock stars

The SideKick allows users to instant message, talk on the phone, send e-mails and access the web, with a distinctive swivel screen that flips around 180 degrees to reveal a full keyboard.

Mr Rubin has said in interviews the company was called Danger because he had bought the danger.com domain name several years earlier. The name was a reference to a robot in the TV show Lost in Space, which continuously issued "Danger!" warnings to the cast.

Michael Gartenberg, analyst for Jupiter Research, said on his blog that news of Microsoft's acquisition was the "real excitement" of the first day of the Mobile World Congress.

He added: "The T-Mobile SideKick has had moderate success in the US markets appealing to celebrities, sports figures and of course all the demographics that look up to these folks.

"The SideKick had strong appeal as the anti-Blackberry for younger audiences and it will be really interesting to see how Microsoft integrates the technology, business model, and overall device cachet to a culture more at home to selling to enterprise CIOs than it is to selling rock stars."Survival questions Key question Blu-ray victory

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Google Android phones make debut

The first mobile phones to be loaded with Google's Android software for mobile phones have gone on show.

About a dozen companies such as ARM, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm showed off prototype handsets at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The free software system was launched in November 2007 and is being developed by an alliance of more than 30 companies including Google.

The first Android-enabled phone is expected to go on sale later this year.

One firm showing off a prototype phone was the UK processor designer ARM.

"It's really a demonstration vehicle rather than a full phone," Ian Drew of ARM told BBC News.

However, he said the wireless phone did show off several applications.

"What we are demonstrating on the Android platform is maps, browser, camera applications, multimedia, e-mail, and calendar - basically everything you'd expect on a mobile phone."

Open world

The Google Android platform is based on open source Linux software that allows developers access to the underlying code.

This allows programmers much greater flexibility to build applications and features tailored to individual phones.

Other companies also showed off Android prototypes such as Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC and ST Microelectronics.

Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has also said it hopes to have a phone based on Android by early next year.

Android was not the only Linux platform making waves in Barcelona.

The Mobile Linux foundation said that 18 phones from seven different firms would be demonstrated at 3GSM using its Limo software.

LG and Samsung were amongst handset manufacturers showing off Limo devices.

Survival questions Key question Blu-ray victory

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Q&A: Death of a format

It means victory for Sony's Blu-ray format but will leave questions for all those who bought into the failed format as well as raising issues about whether anyone can benefit from a format war.

Q: What is the HD DVD format war all about?

HD DVD and Blu-Ray have been battling to become the pre-eminent format for next-generation DVDs for the last couple of years. Toshiba had its HD DVD format approved by the DVD Forum back in 2004 and the first products hit the market in the US in April 2006.

The same year Sony pulled its Blu-ray format out of the bag.

Initially the two formats seemed to have an equal number of backers although there was general dismay in the industry that a new format war could slow down developments of a nascent market and be confusing for consumers.

Toshiba, for its part, said it never intended to enter a format war.

"Blu-ray wasn't submitted to the DVD Forum. We did it right and we didn't expect this battle," Olivier VanWynendaele, deputy general manager at Toshiba, told the BBC News website.

He added that the firm was "very sad" to see the end of the format it had such high hopes for.

Q: Why has Toshiba backed down?

The firm itself identifies the tipping point as Warner Bros' decision to back Blu-Ray, a decision it said it was very surprised at.

It also points to the loss of key retailers - in February Wal-Mart announced that it would phase out HD DVD products, UK retailer Woolworths said it would only promote Blu-Ray in store while US chain Best Buy also came down firmly in the Blu-Ray camp.

US online retailer Netflix said it would also focus on Blu-Ray as have several content owners, including Constantin Film in Germany and National Geographic.

"It became increasingly difficult for us to gain access to the market," said Mr VanWynendaele.

Others point to the power of Sony's PlayStation 3 which has an in-built Blu-Ray player. The figures speak for themselves - 10.5 million PS3's have been sold compared to one million HD-DVD players.

Analysts see Toshiba's swift admission of defeat as being a better long-term strategy for the firm than carrying on with a dying format.

The market seems to agree - Toshiba Corp shares rose 6% in response to the news.

Q: What does it mean for consumers?

Those who rushed out and bought a HD-DVD player when it went on the market in the UK paid a hefty 449 for it and they could be understandably angry about Toshiba's pull-out.

For its part Toshiba said it had "no plan to compensate consumers", and will continue to offer technical support for those owning HD DVD machines.

In fact, according to Toshiba, the players - now available for just 149 - are still a good value option for consumers, despite the diminishing amount of content available to play on them.

The machines can still be used to "upscale" standard definition movies for high definition screens.

For consumers who have bought a HD DVD add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, there was no word as to whether the software giant will phase out the add-on.

In a statement Microsoft said it was too early to say but added that games, rather than high definition movie playback, was the main reason why consumers bought consoles.

Q: What other format wars have there been?

For Sony, victory this time around is a case of third time lucky because it has lost two previous format wars.

The now-famous tussle between video formats - VHS and Betamax - interestingly saw Toshiba as a partner rather than a rival to Sony.

Although many felt Betamax was the superior format, most cite the longer recording length of VHS tapes - three hours versus one - and the cheaper manufacturing costs for VHS machines as the main factors why VHS eventually won out.

In the early nineties Sony was caught up in another format battle, this time about who would control what would become the DVD market.

At the time there were two high density optical storage formats were being developed. Sony and partner Phillips offered the MMCD (Multi-Media Compact Disc) format while the SD (Super Density) format was backed by Toshiba and Matsushita among others.

While the VHS/Betamax format war was a long and costly struggle, the battle to take charge of the DVD market was an altogether a quieter affair, ending with a compromise.

The super density format was used as the basis of DVD with a couple of tweaks form the Sony camp.Opposition joy Cold War to thaw? Battling on

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Why the future is in your hands

GPS is starting to appear on more handsets

Sales of smartphones are expected to overtake those of laptops in the next 12 to 18 months as the mobile phone completes its transition from voice communications device to multimedia computer.

Convergence has been the Holy Grail for mobile phone makers, software and hardware partners, as well as consumers, for more than a decade.

And for the first time the rhetoric of companies like Nokia, Samsung and Motorola, who have boasted of putting a multimedia computer in your pocket, no longer seems far fetched.

"Converged devices are always with you and always connected," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia chief executive at last week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Last year Nokia sold almost 200m camera phones and about 146m music phones, making it the world's biggest seller of digital cameras and MP3 players.

In the coming year the firm predicts it will sell 35 million GPS-enabled phones as personal navigation becomes the latest feature to be assimilated into the mobile phone. Form and function

Nigel Clifford, chief executive of Symbian, said: "All of those single use devices - MP3 players, digital camera, GPS - are collapsing onto the phone."

"We are going past the point where this was a phone with a few other things," he said.

Symbian's operating system shipped on 188 million phones last year and a third of those came with GPS.

"We see mobile phones evolving into multi-functional devices that now support consumer electronics, multimedia entertainment and mobile professional enterprise applications; all converging," said Luis Pineda, from mobile phone chip firm Qualcomm.

More and more people are snapping shots with a handset

The first phones powered by a chip running at 1Ghz will hit the market later this year, seven years after the first desktop chip broke the gigahertz barrier.

Qualcomm's 1Ghz Snapdragon chipset will debut inside a number of handsets, including some from Samsung and HTC

"It's a first in the industry for a wireless chipset," said Mr Pineda.

As well as raw horsepower Snapdragon also features a dedicated application processor, as well as the ability to handle 12 megapixel digital photos and up to 720p high definition video imaging.

Mr Clifford from Symbian said the mobile industry had to deliver multi-function devices which did not compromise.

He said: "When we look at what is collapsing on to these devices and people's expectations with their experiences on single-use specialized devices there is going to be rising expectations."

Chip shop

More than 90% of the world's mobile phones are powered by technology created by British firm Arm. It designs chip architectures that it licenses to semiconductors makers such as Qualcomm and Broadcom.

Ian Drew from Arm said future mobile phones demanded ever more processing power.

But building chips with greater processing was not a straightforward, he said.

The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile

"It needs to get into your pocket. And there's no fan. It needs to work for days rather than hours."

He added: "When you start adding multi media experiences - such as 3D graphics, video, and games - there are two ways to do that: you can get bigger and bigger processors or you have multi core where you can switch off a processor when you don't need it."

Arm is demonstrating a chip architecture, called Coretex A9, that will offer four cores, or processors, on a single chip.

Symbian has been working with Arm on future uses for multi-core mobile phones.

"You can use massive amounts of processing if you need it. But if you don't you can power down the cores that aren't required," said Mr Clifford.

Symmetrical Multi Processing will drive the next generation of applications on a phone, he added.

"Silicon vendors are looking very seriously at how they integrate SMP."

Mr Clifford added: "The future of the internet and computing applications is not going to be in the home or at the office; it's going to be mobile."

The gaming abilities of handsets are rapidly improving

"That is one of the next single usage devices that will start feeling the pressure from the mobile device," he said.

3D graphics acceleration is becoming standard on many of today's mobile phones and specialists like Nvidia have joined the market.

Mr Clifford said today's most powerful mobile phones, such as Nokia's N96 and NTTDoCoMo's 905 series have the same power as a laptop from 2000.

Nvidia's APX 2500 chip has enough 3D graphics acceleration to handle Quake 3, a PC game from 1999, on a mobile phone.

Handset owners were also beginning to expect the same online experience they have on their desktop PCs on their mobile phones.

"Web 2.0, social networking and video sharing; that's a real driver of horsepower," said Mr Drew from Arm.

He added: "But you need to be able to get data in. The next generation of mobile phones need high performance radios - they will have high data rates that will enable this content to be streamed to you."

Symbian is working on technology called Freeway to give phones the ability to move seamlessly between wireless networks, like wi-fi and cell networks like 3G and 4G.

"We don't want people to feel the mobile web is a second class experience."Opposition joy In pictures Battling on

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Game creators look to the future

Games aimed at casual players have been big in 2007

The developers of some of the world's most popular video games are in San Francisco this week to discuss the future of the industry.

They will look back on one of their most successful years and discuss tackling the challenges ahead.

Jamil Moledina, director of the Game Developers' Conference said: "We had an incredible banner year in 2007 with games like Bioshock, Halo 3 and Uncharted.

In the US the industry's revenues grew 43%, with software sales up a third on the previous year.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Moledina said: "It's often dangerous to make predictions about the future but the industry has taken on a sense of casualisation."

In this sense casual games are those that people can play and complete in minutes rather than hours and are aimed at children, women and older people. Many of the titles prepared for Nintendo's Wii are casual games.

He added: "There's definitely an increasing interest in approaching that larger audience of media consumers."

New markets

Traditionally the games industry has concentrated on its core audience. Titles like Halo 3, which pulled in the biggest ever earnings for an entertainment release in a single day, showed that the hard core gamer remained a potent market.

How on earth will the games industry surpass last year's commercial and critical high?

For instance, he said, Guitar Hero games made more than $820m at retail, a record for any single franchise in any one year.

Mr Moledina added: "The Wii has re-proven the point that five to 95 year olds like playing games."

Veteran game designer Sid Meier will speak at the conference to shed light on "the key things you need to capture the interest of the public at large".

"We have Facebook here talking about how they have managed to get so many eyeballs playing games in such a short space of time," he said.

Developers and publishers were looking at this area very closely, he added.

But, he said, these new developments would not change everything. "Not all games are going to be casual. There's still going to be a huge market for the core base which drives everything."

One of the games aimed squarely at the core audience in 2008 is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which will be demoed at the week-long conference.

Gaining control

The event will also feature talk about the future of the human computer interface.

"Game worlds are a fairly complex universe, however the controllers we have are often a bit intimidating," said Mr Moledina.

Emotiv systems will be showing off its latest headset that uses sensors to detect brain waves to allow gamers to control characters and objects in a game world.

Mobile gaming is starting to be taken seriously

Gamers can swing an imaginary golf club or interact with a 3D world just by using their hands and arms and without the need for a controller.

"A lot of people experiment with different ways to get into the game; to convert a fairly complex way that humans think and behave and have that map in a natural way to a complex game world," explained Mr Moledina.

The conference also features a strong mobile gaming element.

"We are seeing more and more big game companies take the space seriously. The sea change is that traditional game developers are less snarky about mobile and casual than they were because of the power of phones today."

Microsoft's head of Live services, John Schappert, will give one of the conference's keynotes, where he is expected to unveil new features for the Xbox Live service.

"Microsoft hasn't delivered a keynote for two years so it will be interesting to see what they have for us," said Mr Moledina.Opposition joy In pictures Battling on

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Locking down open computing

DTrace was made available for the new version of Mac OS X

How open should computers be, asks regular columnist Bill Thompson.

These tools would look at my thousands of lines of code and check that I had all my brackets and semi-colons in the right place and that I hadn't mis-spelled the names of variables or functions.

I also relied on more serious debugging software, programs like 'dbx' that could investigate the inner workings of other programs, monitoring them as they ran and giving me complete access to the instructions I was executing and the data structures they were manipulating.

Tracing running programs in this way is hard and detailed work, but it is often the only way to spot subtle errors, and a lot of work has gone into improving such tools in the years since I was working on sixteen-user UNIX systems with a generous 512Mb of RAM.

One of the best tracing programs around is DTrace, developed by Sun Microsystems for use on its Solaris operating system.

DTrace is available under an open source license, and when Apple announced that it would be available on Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X, every serious Mac OS programmer looked forward to having a new, powerful tool to work with.

Unfortunately early experiments with the Apple version of DTrace identified some unusual behaviour.

Cable ties

Adam Leventhal, one of its original developers, found that he could not see any information about iTunes, apparently because Apple had modified his tool to ignore some of its own programs.

Leventhal is rather annoyed about this, because the point of a trace program is that it can see everything in order to help developers find and fix errors.

Digital rights management is not, in itself, an objectionable technology

Apple has not made any comment on his findings, but the general consensus is that iTunes is being shielded to protect details about how it implements FairPlay, the digital rights management system that Apple uses to limit the uses of music and video files downloaded from their online store.

And Apple is probably doing this because it has been told to by the content industries, the companies that package and sell the products of other people's creativity.

This would not be too surprising, and Apple is certainly no worse than other companies in limiting what users and developers can see and do.

Microsoft makes it almost impossible to get inside its Xbox 360 games console, resulting in the absurdity of having to get a special cable if you want to transfer your information to a new console when you upgrade. It also doesn't open the console up to developers.

Modifying DTrace is also perfectly legitimate, if irritating.

'protected content'

Apple is perfectly entitled to change software in any way it wants within the law, even if it does reveal yet again just how much power the record companies have over the computing industry.

Vista also contains technology aimed at protecting content

The inner workings of a complex debugging tool may seem like the sort of issue that only affects programmers, but it has a direct impact on every Mac user since it makes it harder to find and fix problems in software, especially software written by independent developers.

Like many Mac users, I rely on a range of free and open source tools like the Acorn image editor or the twhirl twitter client, so I have a direct interest in ensuring that the programmers behind them have proper access to the internals of the operating system.

And it also shows the sort of issues that can arise when any part of a complex computing environment is restricted in order to satisfy requirements that have nothing to do with effective operation and are solely motivated by a desire to limit what users can do.

It's the same with Microsoft Vista, where vast efforts have been made to ensure that "protected content" like high-definition video doesn't leak out of the controlled environment.

This has an effect on system performance and on hardware compatibility that can seriously affect the user experience.

Picture record

The restrictions are not really a serious problem.

Landon Fuller has already posted details of a workaround, although there is no sign yet of Apple responding to Leventhal's point that "Apple has done a service by porting DTrace, but let's convince them to go one step further and port it properly".

The Mukurtu project uses DRM effectively

And digital rights management is not, in itself, an objectionable technology.

Encrypting e-mail so that they can only be read by the intended recipient is a way of managing the readership of a document, and a vital one for anyone wanting to use the public internet for private communications.

It is also useful in helping groups of people keep control and ownership of material that is important to them for non-commercial reasons.

For example an Australian Warumungu community has created a digital archive that uses DRM to enforce rules that they consider vitally important when dealing with photographs, because only elders can look at sacred objects, while images of dead people should not be viewed and other objects may be restricted by family or gender.

The Mukurtu Wumpurrarni-kari archive uses DRM to help the community manage these rules, although it also allows individuals to decide to vary or even break them, recognising that the technology should be at the service of its users and not the other way around.

It is a lesson that the record industry seems slowly to be learning, as more and more online services offer unlocked MP3s to download.

Perhaps Apple will eventually free DTrace from its restrictions, just as Steve Jobs has worked to get rid of DRM on music.

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Are the watchers being watched?

Not even MPs are exempt from the surveillance state they have created, notes regular columnist Bill Thompson.

Two conversations between Tooting MP Sadiq Khan and his constituent and childhood friend Babar Ahmad were apparently recorded in the prison where Mr Ahmad is being held.

He is on remand while awaiting deportation to the United States on charges relating to his support for terrorism. Mr Ahmad faces no charges in the UK.

The real problem for MPs, of course, is not that they will be specifically targetted for surveillance but that they will inevitably be caught up in operations against other people.

This doesn't seem to be the case here, as special arrangements were made to seat the two men at a "talking table" in the prison visiting area, but many MPs must have found themselves chatting to someone who was being constantly watched.

Perhaps it's time to teach our elected representatives how to use the latest encryption and anonymising tools so that they can protect themselves from the surveillance state they have created?

Just as few of us believe that employers really do stop reading employee e-mails when they realise that they are personal, although that is what the law would require, it is hard to imagine that the secret service turn off their microphones when an MP enters the room.

The problem is not, however, restricted to specially installed listening devices, and MPs concerned about bugs might want to look again at the laws which control how online communications of all kinds are monitored, stored and analysed, since this affects them as much as it affects the rest of us.

Phone companies and internet service providers keep records of all text messages, phone calls, e-mails, IP addresses, websites visited, and times logged on to instant messaging services, collectively known as "traffic data".

The content of e-mails and chats or details of web searches are not stored, so it takes a warrant to read someone's e-mail, monitor their online chats or install bugging software on their laptop so you can listen in to their Skype conversations.

But the information that is retained is enough to know who you are calling or e-mailing, when you're chatting and which websites you are visiting, the sort of thing that most of us would consider private and expect to be kept confidential.

The immunity for MPs dates from the days of Labour PM Harold Wilson

According to the Interception of Communications Commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy over 250,000 requests for access to this data were made in the first nine months of 2007, an appalling extension of the state's powers of surveillance, and one that few of us are aware of.

And nearly 800 separate bodies can ask to see some or all of it.

Apart from the police and secret services the Food Standards Agency, health service trusts and even the Post Office can ask to see who you've been exchanging e-mails with.

The information gathered will inevitably include details of correspondence between MPs and their constituents, lists of websites visited from MPs offices and home computers and details of which instant messaging services they have been accessing.

Currently net service firms retain data for about six months

At least it puts them in the same bag as the rest of us. Journalists don't even have the fig-leaf of protection against being watched that MPs have claimed for themselves, and I tell every one of my students at City University to assume that all of their e-mails, phone calls and online chats could be read by the authorities.

Most of the time, of course, what we're doing is not of sufficient interest to justify the effort of monitoring a journalist - or even an MP - but being aware of the possibility is vitally important in case a story suddenly becomes high-profile. The same would apply if a constituent becomes "of interest" to the authorities.

MPs might be unhappy to find out that their supposedly confidential chats to constituents are being listened in to by MI5, but surely they should be just as worried that the Food Standards Agency can find out that the owner of the dodgy takeaway in the local high street has been sending them e-mails?

Perhaps it's time to teach our elected representatives how to use the latest encryption and anonymising tools so that they can protect themselves from the surveillance state they have created?

Or perhaps they would like to do us all a service and dismantle it.

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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How cash can change online games

Online games may be set in fantastical or far future worlds but they share one feature with the real world - the relative scarcity of money.

Life can be tough for the novice characters that players create in games such as World of Warcraft, Runescape and Tabula Rasa because they are unskilled and poor.

While skills will improve as monsters are slaughtered and quests are completed, the scarcity of cash can be a brake on progress for many gamers.

Many fix the problem by turning to a gold seller and buying a chunk of in-game cash, using real world money, to fund their advancement. This is despite the fact that the terms and conditions of many games ban the buying and selling of in-game gear for real money.

Being found out can mean a player is banned and their account is closed.Money markets

As games rack up more and more players the numbers turning to the money sellers and those who only play to amass, or farm, gold that they can then sell have rocketed.

There are many websites that offer to sell players in-game gold for any and every online title.

For games such as Runescape which have millions of players the numbers involved are staggering.

Runescape brought in changes to stop rogue gold traders

"A lot of this is coming from China," he said. "We had tens of thousands of accounts in China that were just bots working the game to make gold and then sell it."

Mr Iddison said that the gold farmers spoiled the experience for many players by camping out near monsters with the most valuable loot, filling chat channels with spam messages advertising gold, inflating prices and sometimes taking real world cash without handing over the game gear.

In a bid to stem the trade, Jagex changed the Runescape mechanics to make unbalanced trades much harder to do. Mr Iddison said typically game cash was handed over during a transaction for relatively worthless items.

By making it hard for all but dedicated players to conduct such unbalanced trades, Jagex hopes to stifle the farmers.

Early reports suggest the changes are having an impact, said Mr Iddison with complaints about farmers well down on usual numbers.

"'Legit' outfits are going to have a hard time getting an edge over the farmers of today

Mr Iddison added that Jagex was not wholly against real-money trade, just how it was being practiced in Runescape.

With the right design, he said, it should be possible to make a game that embraces real-money trade that does not damage game play.Buy and sell

Some game firms are trying to do exactly that. The end of 2007 saw the launch of Live Gamer which aims to make it much easier for gamers to buy in-game goods with the blessing of the game makers.

At launch Live Gamer had the backing of online game makers such as Funcom (Age of Conan and Anarchy Online), Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies) and Acclaim (Bots, 9Dragons).

Co-founder Andrew Schneider said that when the service goes live players would be able to buy and sell gold and gear while still in the game world - rather than step outside it and go to a website.

"We're working with the publishers to integrate our client software so that it does not break the fourth wall," said Mr Schneider.

The system would involve a player to player market place similar to the auction houses seen in many games already and which are often the busiest places in the virtual worlds.

Blizzard has banned accounts engaged in gold-farming and trading

"There's a better way of addressing the consumer demand," said Mr Schneider.

"We anticipate that well-known market dynamics will occur a secondary market is introduced into any market such as exists in the game worlds," he said. "There's typically uplift for both sides."

But not all game watchers are convinced that real money trading will take off.

Michael Zenke, an editor at online game website MMOG Nation, expressed scepticism about Live Gamer's prospects.

Despite the rampant participation in real-money trade by players, it's still a big taboo to talk about it," he said.

"'Legit' outfits are going to have a hard time getting an edge over the farmers of today, because there are certain companies (EA, Mythic, Blizzard) that will never ally with them," he told the BBC News website.

He expected that Live Gamer would find some success with those players who want a reliable source and a further few who did not like the tactics of gold sellers.

"Otherwise," he said, "I don't see there being much room for traction there." In pictures Benazir's ghost In pictures

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Razer's unique, frustrating gaming keyboard

(CNET.com) -- Razer's new Lycosa gaming keyboard has several unique features. The rubber coating on the keys provides a soft, comfortable touch. You can switch between three backlight configurations via a touch-sensitive control pad. You can even use Razer's software to program each of the Lycosa's keys to work as a separate macro, either individually or in combination with one another.

We're frustrated, though, by a few things left half-baked. None of the Lycosa's issues are bad enough to make us dislike it outright, and we'd recommend it--especially for confident touch-typing gamers. For $80, though, we expect Razer to follow through on the promises of its features.

Setting up the Lycosa is only a little convoluted. It requires two USB inputs, as well as separate audio inputs if you want to plug in your own headset and microphone. Because the Lycosa has a single spare USB 2.0 jack on its top edge, we understand why Razer relies on two USB outputs; presumably it wants to preserve the pristine data stream for the keyboard itself to ensure typing responsiveness.

Fair enough. Razer still could have added a second USB input, though, since the current one has a dedicated data stream all to itself via the second USB cable.

The software is easy to set up, although hard to navigate because of small type and a less-than intuitive layout. If you don't plan on using macros, you might not even need it. The touch pad's media control and backlit profile button work without installing anything.

The Lycosa's backlighting is its biggest problem. With the blue LED turned off, you're left with an almost illegible keyboard, that's similar to the purposefully blank Das keyboard of a few years ago.

If you're not secure in your touch-typing prowess, the reasonable thing to do would be to turn on the Lycosa's backlighting, which reveals the letters on the keys, along with the touch pad buttons.

The problem is that the lighting is so faint that in a lit room, it gives you only a suggestion of which key is which. Unlike Saitek's Eclipse II keyboards, there's no way to adjust the brightness on the Lycosa's LED, let alone the color.

In a darkened room, however, the lighting is sufficiently bright. The only other option is a third profile that lights up the W, A, S, and D keys (with roughly twice the brightness of the standard lighting scheme), commonly used by PC gamers as direction controls, but keeps the rest of the board unlit.

Assuming you can find the proper keys, typing on the Lycosa is a pleasant experience.

The nonstick rubber coating is soft to the touch, and combined with the response of the low profile keys, we actually like the Lycosa's typing action better than Razer's higher-end Tarantula keyboard.

The Lycosa's glossy plastic housing is also attractive enough, but we're less enamored with the detachable wrist rest. For one, it requires four screws, which seems overcomplicated when surely a plastic clip or two would suffice.

The wrist rest is also made from a nonvented matte plastic that seems to induce sweating. This is gross, especially if, like your reviewer (he swears), you're not normally prone to sweaty palms.

If you do go so far as to install the software and can figure out how to use it, you'll find that you can make any key perform the work of several via the macro software.

Razer also promises the ability to press more than three keys at a time. For gamers especially, we can see how this might be useful for executing a complicated series of moves.

Unlike the Tarantula, the Lycosa has no dedicated buttons for macro hosting. The benefit, though, is that with no macro keys, the Lycosa has a much smaller footprint than the 20.25-inch wide Tarantula or Logitech's 21.5-inch wide G15 keyboard. At its widest, the Lycosa comes in just under 18.5 inches, smaller than even the Saitek Eclipse II.

Finally, in addition to the Lycosa's scaled-down size, we also like how well it holds its position on your workspace. It's not an overly heavy keyboard, but the rubber feet gripped our desk firmly. You can also elevate the Lycosa via two drop-down feet on the underside.

Source from: edition.cnn.com

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