Just wanted to point out this only on BT's Mobile Broadband offering, not their home product.
It's understandable that providers might want to block access to torrent sites on mobile solutions - bandwidth tends to be more limited on them anyway and they're likely to be paying third-party carriers for access if you're not using a BT Openzone hotspot.
BT aren't likely to want torrent downloading hogging all of their hotspot bandwidth and they're certainly not going to want to pay Vodafone for 3G/GPRS coverage to download it. Add to that the extra hassle of potentially having to track down mobile users if asked to following a copyright infringement case and you can see why it's not worth the hassle.
There is a pretty good reason that network carriers lock down handsets. If they are absorbing fairly hefty subsidies on each piece of hardware sold then they need to have some reasonable certainty that they are going to see that money back. If that means locking their customers into using their services then of course they are going to do that.
It's not like you can't buy a non-subsidised, unlocked, SIM-free phone and just go to a carrier for a connection and do what you like with it. You pay your money and you take your choice.
Unfortunately for them, if it is fiction then it's not even fiction that they created. It's certainly been alleged that the whole story was created by Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Cherisey and Gerard de Sede back in the 1960s as a confidence trick which the authors of Holy Blood and the Holy Grail were suckered into. Perhaps they should be suing Dan Brown?
That said, the DaVinci code story is pretty much the same background plot as contained within Holy Blood and the Holy Grail irrespective of where it came from.
Clockwork Orange was never banned in the UK - the BBFC proposed cuts to make it meet a 18 certificate release which Kubrick objected to and withdrew the film from distribution. It wasn't actually banned.
I see from the The Register that Philippe Starck is going to design the new base. I wonder if they picked him solely due to his War of the Worlds lookalike lemon squeezer?
I would personally suspect that there's probably a niche market for mobile video. If you're stuck somewhere where you don't need to multitask (sitting on the bus/on a plane/in a waiting room,...) then I think a proposition based around short 'made for mobile' content is viable.
I'm not sure you're going to want to get involved with a long piece of content when you might have to stop viewing at any moment, but you might well sit and watch short 3-4 minute duration programming.
I saw a presentation from Marvel recently at a mobile entertainment conference. They were very much looking to extend their brand beyond being a comic book supplier. Movies are just a natural extention for them. They were actually mainly pushing their new offerings on mobile phones, mobile games and digital comics but it all comes down to making the most of the characters that they own. Movies get to make money and extend brand recognition - twice the reason to push them.
It would start getting interesting if they did manage to sucessfully manage to link-up the location information they could gain from the WiFi hotspot with the rest of that data and then used that to drive targeted advertising and searches. They've obviously got the capabilities required, particularly with their Google Local services taking shape recently. Push based advertising/information to your terminal could well be the next big marketing target in their mind.
You're not going to see 2Mb/sec to your mobile anytime soon, believe me. 2 megabits was the standard quoted rates for local picocell networks (such as in an office wireless LAN environment) and even then it's pretty unlikely.
Recently. 384kbits/sec was the predicted maximum, but even that kinda cut off service for everyone else in the same cell as you.
Currently Vodaphone (the largest UK mobile operator) are predicting rates of around 64 kbits for their 3G launch which is a bit more likely.
Still, they're all faster than GSM;-) (although possibly not GPRS )
I can't find anything to back this up, but I'd imagine that this is using the spectrum recently auctioned in the UK for fixed wireless access. That covers spectrum in the 28GHz, 40 GHz, 3.4 GHz and 10GHz frequencies. See ZDNet article here for details.
We're not talking wireless in the home here, just wireless *to* to the home, replacing the NTL cable. As the FAQ points out:
"A signal is transmitted from various locations throughout London and is received by the outdoor transceiver on the side of the property. The cable modem recognises this signal and converts it into standard data packets that your PC will recognise."
As a previous poster has mentioned, charging for 2.4 GHz bandwidth in the UK is currently against the licensing regulations anyway.
Are you sure?
To quote from Ericsson's web-site about the R520
"Furthermore, GPRS allows for simultaneous voice and data communication, so you can receive incoming calls or make outgoing calls while in the midst of a data session.
The data session is simply paused while the call is in progress."
Hmmm. Sounds like Ericsson are using a slightly different meaning of the word 'simultaneous':-)
I haven't tried the R520 tho, so I can't say for sure.
Have to agree with you on the prices there.
There's a variety of pricing options available here in the UK, but a fairly standard one would be £7.99 a month subscription (including 1Mb of free data transfer) + £3.99 for each additional Mb. (Guess thats around $11 subscription and $5.60 for each additional Mb).
Even that seems a bit pricey to me!
It wouldn't surprise me if those rates came down when the data market is a bit more mature.
Anyone actually subscribed to this?
We've had GPRS here in the UK for a while now and the Motorola GPRS phones we've got won't support simultaneous voice and data.
Indeed, looking at Motorola's own press release here they only claim to be able to switch between voice and data, not do both at the same time, which sounds more likely to me.
The GPRS standard does support simultaneous Voice + Data, but I don't think any of the handsets do yet.
I couldn't get anything out of the link above but the BBC have a page of information about the eclipse, along with a link to a live webcam. Broadcast starts at 13:30 BST (in about 5 minutes time at time of posting)
Saw the last one visible from the UK from an old DC-3 over Alderney. Spooky stuff..
I'm probably one of the few people who have actually used WAP over GPRS and unfortunately, right now, it's not much quicker..:-(
However, it's not all doom and gloom. Things will improve and once the packet-data connections over GPRS are working up to their full potential (removing the long setup times you currently have with WAP services) then it will get a lot more useable.
Packet based data mechanisms also allow for push-type services too, without you always having to be connected to the network, but that's another topic entirely!
Reading the article, it doesn't make any such claim. The relevant paragraph:
"M-Services would bring consistency to such areas as graphical displays, music, video and games to handsets supporting GPRS, and later on to even faster standards in the GSM family of technologies such as EDGE and 3GSM"
just says that it will allow better use to be made of faster network technologies when the become available. EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) is a step further on from GPRS (ie a different coding system in the network) which allows faster data rates. M-Services is dealing the the OS on the terminals making use of that network, not adding anything to the network itself.
Must admit I've never heard of 3GSM though, unless they're getting confused with 3G (3rd Generation) UMTS services, which is based on a different network technology to GSM anyway..
It's not a replacement for WAP either. WAP describes a family of protocols, essentially providing wireless optimised equivalents of TCP, IP and HTML. I guess M-Services might reduce the need for WML (the HTML alternative) as the displays on the devices will be more capable, but the protocols lower down the stack will still be useful to overcome the limitations in the network. In any case, the next release of the WAP specification essentially uses a version of cHTML, similar to that used in i-mode and so WML is probably on the way out anyway.
We've used RAT from UCL quite sucessfully for VoIP calls in Linux (and between Linux and other platforms). It uses RTP for things like video and audio synching too and has handy gateway transcoding services available to it to translate between codecs. There's also a companion video client, VIC and a whiteboard system too.
Some of the releases are a touch tempremental but you should be able to make one of them work!
On the subject of someone to blame, more recently it's becoming someone to sue.
If you've got a license arrangement with a third-party solution provider then you've got a body to claim against if it all goes horribly wrong.
If your customers are going to take you to court, you want to pass that buck along, and that's what companies are really prepared to pay for.
No, it's not an out and out anti-microsoft rant, but it is sad to see their only real competition in the browser market effectively conceeding defeat.
What I found more interesting however is Microsoft's plans for embedded instant messaging utilities in the next Windows release.
Having effectively now gained control of the browser market does this mean they're likely to do the same for IM? If that means that everyone's on the same standard then that might not be a bad thing, but you're then obviously dependant again on how willing they are to share with non-MS companies wishing to produce compliant clients...
I don't think this is all that unusual. Certainly in the mobile telecoms field I've heard of companies (saying nothing about the one I might happen to work for..) removing all reference to the word 'mobile' in peoples job-descriptions, unit-titles etc, to try and make it harder for headhunters to target people in those specific areas.
If you have people you know work in areas with skill-shortages, you're hardly going to encourage people to try and poach them are you? If your employees are genuinely unhappy, they're going to move of their own accord, but surely any employer is within their rights to try and stop headhunters targetting specific people who are currently quite happy in their current jobs?
But if your trademark is seen to enter the public domain then everyone else can use it too.
If everyone sells Rollerblades then how do you know which ones are the originals?
Xerox actually has entered the language in some places, which leaves Xerox in the uneviable position of trying to sell Xerox xeroxes..
Just tried it again with a (made-up) Netherlands address and you're right, it does bump the price up to nine quid, so it looks like they do differentiate by country.
Bit strange when you're paying for shipping seperately anyway...
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Just wanted to point out this only on BT's Mobile Broadband offering, not their home product.
It's understandable that providers might want to block access to torrent sites on mobile solutions - bandwidth tends to be more limited on them anyway and they're likely to be paying third-party carriers for access if you're not using a BT Openzone hotspot.
BT aren't likely to want torrent downloading hogging all of their hotspot bandwidth and they're certainly not going to want to pay Vodafone for 3G/GPRS coverage to download it. Add to that the extra hassle of potentially having to track down mobile users if asked to following a copyright infringement case and you can see why it's not worth the hassle.
There is a pretty good reason that network carriers lock down handsets. If they are absorbing fairly hefty subsidies on each piece of hardware sold then they need to have some reasonable certainty that they are going to see that money back. If that means locking their customers into using their services then of course they are going to do that.
It's not like you can't buy a non-subsidised, unlocked, SIM-free phone and just go to a carrier for a connection and do what you like with it. You pay your money and you take your choice.
Unfortunately for them, if it is fiction then it's not even fiction that they created. It's certainly been alleged that the whole story was created by Pierre Plantard, Philippe de Cherisey and Gerard de Sede back in the 1960s as a confidence trick which the authors of Holy Blood and the Holy Grail were suckered into. Perhaps they should be suing Dan Brown?
d worlds/da_vinci_code/priory_sion.html
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Plantard or http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/W/weir
That said, the DaVinci code story is pretty much the same background plot as contained within Holy Blood and the Holy Grail irrespective of where it came from.
Clockwork Orange was never banned in the UK - the BBFC proposed cuts to make it meet a 18 certificate release which Kubrick objected to and withdrew the film from distribution. It wasn't actually banned.
In any case, it's certainly available now.
I see from the The Register that Philippe Starck is going to design the new base. I wonder if they picked him solely due to his War of the Worlds lookalike lemon squeezer?
I would personally suspect that there's probably a niche market for mobile video. If you're stuck somewhere where you don't need to multitask (sitting on the bus/on a plane/in a waiting room,...) then I think a proposition based around short 'made for mobile' content is viable.
I'm not sure you're going to want to get involved with a long piece of content when you might have to stop viewing at any moment, but you might well sit and watch short 3-4 minute duration programming.
here
I saw a presentation from Marvel recently at a mobile entertainment conference. They were very much looking to extend their brand beyond being a comic book supplier. Movies are just a natural extention for them. They were actually mainly pushing their new offerings on mobile phones, mobile games and digital comics but it all comes down to making the most of the characters that they own. Movies get to make money and extend brand recognition - twice the reason to push them.
It would start getting interesting if they did manage to sucessfully manage to link-up the location information they could gain from the WiFi hotspot with the rest of that data and then used that to drive targeted advertising and searches.
They've obviously got the capabilities required, particularly with their Google Local services taking shape recently.
Push based advertising/information to your terminal could well be the next big marketing target in their mind.
You're not going to see 2Mb/sec to your mobile anytime soon, believe me. 2 megabits was the standard quoted rates for local picocell networks (such as in an office wireless LAN environment) and even then it's pretty unlikely.
;-) (although possibly not GPRS )
Recently. 384kbits/sec was the predicted maximum, but even that kinda cut off service for everyone else in the same cell as you.
Currently Vodaphone (the largest UK mobile operator) are predicting rates of around 64 kbits for their 3G launch which is a bit more likely.
Still, they're all faster than GSM
I can't find anything to back this up, but I'd imagine that this is using the spectrum recently auctioned in the UK for fixed wireless access. That covers spectrum in the 28GHz, 40 GHz, 3.4 GHz and 10GHz frequencies. See ZDNet article here for details.
We're not talking wireless in the home here, just wireless *to* to the home, replacing the NTL cable. As the FAQ points out:
"A signal is transmitted from various locations throughout London and is received by the outdoor transceiver on the side of the property. The cable modem recognises this signal and converts it into standard data packets that your PC will recognise."
As a previous poster has mentioned, charging for 2.4 GHz bandwidth in the UK is currently against the licensing regulations anyway.
Two words. Cargo-pants.
Are you sure?
:-)
To quote from Ericsson's web-site about the R520
"Furthermore, GPRS allows for simultaneous voice and data communication, so you can receive incoming calls or make outgoing calls while in the midst of a data session.
The data session is simply paused while the call is in progress."
Hmmm. Sounds like Ericsson are using a slightly different meaning of the word 'simultaneous'
I haven't tried the R520 tho, so I can't say for sure.
Have to agree with you on the prices there.
There's a variety of pricing options available here in the UK, but a fairly standard one would be £7.99 a month subscription (including 1Mb of free data transfer) + £3.99 for each additional Mb. (Guess thats around $11 subscription and $5.60 for each additional Mb).
Even that seems a bit pricey to me!
It wouldn't surprise me if those rates came down when the data market is a bit more mature.
Anyone actually subscribed to this?
We've had GPRS here in the UK for a while now and the Motorola GPRS phones we've got won't support simultaneous voice and data.
Indeed, looking at Motorola's own press release here they only claim to be able to switch between voice and data, not do both at the same time, which sounds more likely to me.
The GPRS standard does support simultaneous Voice + Data, but I don't think any of the handsets do yet.
I couldn't get anything out of the link above but the BBC have a page of information about the eclipse, along with a link to a live webcam. Broadcast starts at 13:30 BST (in about 5 minutes time at time of posting)
Saw the last one visible from the UK from an old DC-3 over Alderney. Spooky stuff..
I'm probably one of the few people who have actually used WAP over GPRS and unfortunately, right now, it's not much quicker.. :-(
However, it's not all doom and gloom. Things will improve and once the packet-data connections over GPRS are working up to their full potential (removing the long setup times you currently have with WAP services) then it will get a lot more useable.
Packet based data mechanisms also allow for push-type services too, without you always having to be connected to the network, but that's another topic entirely!
Reading the article, it doesn't make any such claim. The relevant paragraph:
"M-Services would bring consistency to such areas as graphical displays, music, video and games to handsets supporting GPRS, and later on to even faster standards in the GSM family of technologies such as EDGE and 3GSM"
just says that it will allow better use to be made of faster network technologies when the become available. EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) is a step further on from GPRS (ie a different coding system in the network) which allows faster data rates. M-Services is dealing the the OS on the terminals making use of that network, not adding anything to the network itself.
Must admit I've never heard of 3GSM though, unless they're getting confused with 3G (3rd Generation) UMTS services, which is based on a different network technology to GSM anyway..
It's not a replacement for WAP either. WAP describes a family of protocols, essentially providing wireless optimised equivalents of TCP, IP and HTML. I guess M-Services might reduce the need for WML (the HTML alternative) as the displays on the devices will be more capable, but the protocols lower down the stack will still be useful to overcome the limitations in the network. In any case, the next release of the WAP specification essentially uses a version of cHTML, similar to that used in i-mode and so WML is probably on the way out anyway.
We've used RAT from UCL quite sucessfully for VoIP calls in Linux (and between Linux and other platforms). It uses RTP for things like video and audio synching too and has handy gateway transcoding services available to it to translate between codecs. There's also a companion video client, VIC and a whiteboard system too.
Some of the releases are a touch tempremental but you should be able to make one of them work!
On the subject of someone to blame, more recently it's becoming someone to sue.
If you've got a license arrangement with a third-party solution provider then you've got a body to claim against if it all goes horribly wrong.
If your customers are going to take you to court, you want to pass that buck along, and that's what companies are really prepared to pay for.
Sure there are other browsers out there (I'm using Opera right now) but generally speaking it's IE or Netscape in the average users mind.
(...and I wasn't going to mention it, but how is referring to forthcoming IM battles offtopic? It's the main point of the second half of the article!)
What I found more interesting however is Microsoft's plans for embedded instant messaging utilities in the next Windows release.
Having effectively now gained control of the browser market does this mean they're likely to do the same for IM? If that means that everyone's on the same standard then that might not be a bad thing, but you're then obviously dependant again on how willing they are to share with non-MS companies wishing to produce compliant clients...
I don't think this is all that unusual. Certainly in the mobile telecoms field I've heard of companies (saying nothing about the one I might happen to work for..) removing all reference to the word 'mobile' in peoples job-descriptions, unit-titles etc, to try and make it harder for headhunters to target people in those specific areas.
If you have people you know work in areas with skill-shortages, you're hardly going to encourage people to try and poach them are you? If your employees are genuinely unhappy, they're going to move of their own accord, but surely any employer is within their rights to try and stop headhunters targetting specific people who are currently quite happy in their current jobs?
But if your trademark is seen to enter the public domain then everyone else can use it too.
If everyone sells Rollerblades then how do you know which ones are the originals?
Xerox actually has entered the language in some places, which leaves Xerox in the uneviable position of trying to sell Xerox xeroxes..
I'm in the UK.
Just tried it again with a (made-up) Netherlands address and you're right, it does bump the price up to nine quid, so it looks like they do differentiate by country.
Bit strange when you're paying for shipping seperately anyway...