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Technology Update

By Sean McManus and Lance Concannon

The artworks formerly known as prints

Engineering student Sainul Abideen from India claims to have invented a way to store 256GB of data on a single piece of A4 paper by using a combination of shapes and colours. His claims have inflamed the blogosphere (100+ comments here alone), with many suggesting it's impossible with the equipment he claims to use and blaming the story's spread on clueless journalists. Here's one attempt to debunk the likely myth.

Meanwhile, Toshiba is promoting a new type of printer that uses rewritable plastic sheets. The company claims that the technology can reduce carbon emissions, although its calculation appears to be limited to the paper alone and doesn't include the printers themselves. The printer is said to be available now in Japan, but with a price tag of £5000 and £5 per sheet of paper, demand in Europe might never justify a release here.

Xerox is researching similar technology. Its research suggests that 21% of print-outs are recycled by the end of the day. For every step forward, there's a step back: Presto has launched a service that enables you to plug a printer into a phone line to receive emails on paper. It will work until you go on holiday, and return to find that you can't open your front door for printed spam.

Goodbye is the answer. What's the question?

After four years, Google is closing its Google Answers service which charged a fee to have human researchers answer your questions. The archive of previous answers will likely stay online for a while. It's revealing that many of the answers were written by expert search engine users, rather than people with specialist knowledge. Google Answers could be the first of many casualties. After a period when Google seemed to launch a new product every week, the company has changed its focus to quality over quantity. A project called 'features, not products' will direct engineers to improve existing products instead of developing new ones.

Virtual worlds, virtual friends

You've set up your account on Facebook or MySpace, but it turns out that nobody wants to network socially with you after all. Don't worry, for less than a dollar a month FakeYourSpace will provide a selection of attractive people to join your friends list and leave regular comments on your page, so people will think you're popular with the cool kids and want to be your friend for real! This is the kind of thing that makes us want to go and live in a cave in Norfolk and never use a computer again, ever.

Ancient Greek computer reveals new secrets

Scientists examining a complex mechanical device, discovered amongst the debris of a two thousand year old shipwreck, have recently discovered further secrets about its purpose. By examining the corroded remains of what has become known as the Antikythera mechanism with x-rays and imaging tools, researchers have discovered that the device was capable of predicting eclipses, the movements of the planets and subtle variations in the moon's orbit. The machine is believed to be approximately one thousand years in advance of any similar devices. Reports that the device had been configured to run a primitive computer game known as Grand Theft Plato remain unconfirmed.

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Consumer Technology Update

By Dave Wilby

YouTube strikes mobile deals with Verizon

YouTube has teamed up with US mobile firm Verizon Wireless to get its video-sharing content on to the smaller screen. A trial will begin December, allowing subscribers to Verizon's $15 a month / $3 a day VCast service will soon be able to view a limited selection of YouTube clips on their video phones and post clips directly fusing a PIN code.

It's convenient, but as the BBC points out, this service is markedly different to the main YouTube site model, which offers full content for no charge. SFGate says about 56.7 million people currently subscribe to Verizon Wireless, but admits the company will not disclose how many pay for its premium VCast service.

A flurry of similar deals is expected to follow, with Revver already announcing it too will team up with Verizon to put user-generated video clips onto mobiles.UK mobile phone operators are building social networking media services more slowly. O2 has launched the LookAtMe video clips service, while 3's Kink Kommunity claims thousands of postings each day.

Bullish Nintendo shifts over half a million Wii consoles in first week

Nintendo is firmly on the offensive in the latest round of console wars, claiming to have sold 600,000 new Wii boxes in its just eight days in US stores. Sony is so far only believed to have sold 200,000 of its more powerful but more expensive PS3 console to US consumers.

According to the BBC, Nintendo says it will ship four million Wii units across the US and Canada by the end of the year, while Sony has a target of just one million. UK gamers will get their first taste of Wii on 8th December, with packages starting from £179. The European launch of the PlayStation 3 is not expected until at least March next year, with prices yet to be fixed.

BT Vision on at last. Kind of.

BT is finally launching its broadband television service BT Vision on Monday. However, as The Times reports, online viewers will now have to wait until next year to take advantage of 'catch-up television' services from the BBC or ITV, which will allow people to watch recently missed programmes. This service was supposed to be the key selling point for BT Vision and the BBC on launch, and is already available on rival television services NTL and HomeChoice.

Channel 4 is the only mainstream broadcaster that provides viewers directly with catch-up television. In the meantime BT will entice viewers with a range of kids' programming from Nickelodeon, music videos from Warner Music, and films from Walt Disney, in the hope that Freeview viewers will be willing to pay to buy video-on-demand.

So how much is it? Well, a BT Vision box with 80 hours storage and monthly broadband subscription will cost £17.99 plus charges for pay-as-you-go content. For that you get Freeview channels, a film library, catch-up TV when it's ready, and 'near-live' football. A Sky deal incurs a £40 activation fee and monthly subscription from £15, NTL is £30 a month, while a Freeview box just costs upwards of £30.

Virtual world creates first real-life millionaire

Second Life avatar, virtual real-estate queen and media darling of the moment, Anshe Chung, claimed this week she had become the first virtual world US dollar millionaire in just 30 months following an initial $10 investment. Chung, (real-life name Ailin Graef) says the net worth of her virtual property and business portfolio now conservatively exceeds one million US dollars if those profits were exchanged into real money today.

This ability to exchange Linden Dollars earned 'in-game' for real-life hard currency is a key economic component of Second Life. Recently featured on the cover of Business Week Magazine, Anshe Chung has made her fortune buying and developing virtual real-estate equivalent to 36 square kilometers of land, supported by 550 servers. In addition to her virtual real estate holdings, Chung claims 'cash' holdings of several million Linden Dollars, numerous virtual shopping malls, store chains, some key Second Life brands, plus significant virtual stock market investments in Second Life companies.

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On the Blog

On the blog his week we've got some analysis on the state of mobile video services.

US Media Report

By Heather Lynch

Gerald Boyd, an accomplished journalist who led the New York Times in winning three Pulitzer Prizes among other feats, passed away this week. Boyd resigned from his managing editor post at the NYT during the 2004 scandal over the plagiarising and fabricating reporter Jayson Blair.

Boyd had been the first black managing editor at the New York Times, and at 28 the youngest recipient of Harvard's Neimann fellowship. Boyd also had helped lead the 9/11 coverage that won the NYT six more Pulitzers, according to the New York Times itself. Since his resignation, Boyd had been consulting for Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and was working on a memoir.

The internet media syndicate InterActiveCorp has plans to launch AskCity, a site for searching local information, in December. AskCity will combine aspects of the sites already owned by IAC, such as Ask.com, CitySearch.com, Match.com, eVite and Ticketmaster among 60 others. IAC’s chief executive Diller sees this launch as an 'original product creation' and sees 'opportunity in the conversion of print journalism to online.'

The Tribune Company, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times, says that it will decide whether to put itself up for sale by the first quarter of 2007. The Tribune Company also owns television stations and the Chicago Cubs baseball team, yet has been weathering a decline in its stock.

UK Media Report

By Annie Kasmai

Future Publishing is closing its Practical Web Design magazine, and the last edition will go on sale on December 5th 2006. Richard Hill, editor of the publication, will stand in for Jim Thacker as the editor for 3D World.

Informa Professional Publishing is closing its Back Office Focus newsletter and moving its content to another publication. From 2007, the newsletter which has been in existence for 16 years will close and all its content will be incorporated into Banking Technology magazine. Both publications are edited by David Bannister.

Haymarket has launched Stuff.tv, a new website to accompany its consumer gadget magazine, Stuff. Stuff.tv includes reviews, forums, news and features on everything from MP3s to laptops. The website also includes a weekly podcast and vidcast which users can download from the site.

Faith Archer has been appointed deputy personal finance editor at The Daily Telegraph. Archer was formerly a reporter on the Your Money Team.

Nick Watt, European editor at the Guardian, is returning to London next year due to his new role as a senior reporter.

Web 2.0 Watch

By Fiona Blamey

Sumo TV launches 'world's first' user-generated TV channel. Not!

In the glitzy world of Web 2.0, attention spans are short and memories shorter. How else to explain the claim made this week by Cellcast that it has launched the 'world's first' user-generated television channel?

Cellcast's brainchild, Sumo TV, started broadcasting in the UK on Monday, on Sky channel 146. Its unique selling point is that it selects and broadcasts popular home-made videos uploaded to its www.sumo.tv site, and rewards the video creators financially for each video selected.

In doing so it is setting itself apart from rivals YouTube and MySpace, which have yet to start remunerating amateur videomakers for the traffic they bring to the sites.

Setting quality issues aside - the most popular videos on the sumo.tv site at the time of writing include women stripping, punching each other and wrestling boys to the ground - Sumo.tv is taking an interesting approach by transferring 'new media' content to an 'old medium': the television screen.

But is it really the world's first user-generated TV channel? Fans of 1992 film Wayne's World will recall that it affectionately satirised American public-access television, popular in the 1980s.

Like Sumo, public access allowed ordinary people to broadcast their own amateur television shows to cable viewers. User-generated content has been around a lot longer than some Web 2.0 proponents appear to think.