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| 9th February 2007 |
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Prompt Communications Newsletter
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Dear Reader,
The build up for the annual mobile-technology-fest that is 3GSM is in full swing, and we’re already seeing some impressive technology announcements. People have been talking about flexible screens for a long time now, but it looks like we’re finally starting to see mobile devices using the technology come to market. On top of that Microsoft has been talking up the newest version of Windows Mobile, which is looking quite interesting. If you ask us, 2007 is going to be the year of mobile internet – we can’t wait.
For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, copywriting or surveys, please email me at hbutters@prompt-communications.com. We are always delighted to hear from you.
Best regards,
Hazel Butters
Prompt Communications
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Technology Update
By Sean McManus and Dave Wilby
Missing computer scientist sparks online rescue attempt
The web community helped search the seas for missing sailor Jim Gray, winner of the Turing Prize for his research on databases and transaction processing. The coastguard abandoned the search after four days, but web users studied satellite images of the sea to try to find Gray’s boat. Over a five day period, volunteers covered 3,500 square miles of water, analysing over 560,000 images in all.
The task was coordinated using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, which served up pictures and asked participants if there was a boat in the sections they were looking at. Experts are studying images flagged by volunteers but, at the time of writing, Gray is still missing. There’s more about the Mechanical Turk in our site review from November 2005.
Windows Mobile 6 is on the move
Microsoft is promising improved search, better security and tighter integration with Windows Live services in its latest Windows Mobile OS, reports ZDNet UK. Windows Mobile 6, code-named Crossbow, will be previewed at the 3GSM trade show in Barcelona, with the first devices using the software expected later this spring.
Among the most interesting feature changes will be new intuitive multimedia search options, support for HTML email, support for Windows Live instant messaging and email, separate touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions, and perhaps even support for VoIP calling.
Fishy chips in UK passports
The chips in the UK’s new biometric passports only have a two year warranty and have an unknown life expectancy, the National Audit Office this week warned. While the passports are valid for ten years, the technology is too new for anyone to know how long the chips will withstand use by travellers.
Already four million of the passports, which store a picture of the owner, have been issued. The Conservatives and LibDems have been united in reiterating their opposition to ID cards following the uncertainty around the so-called ePassport.
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Marketing Update
By Elissa Fry, and Sally Forge
Online community goes mobile
According to Media Guardian online, new developments in mobile technology now mean that you can access MySpace via your mobile phone. Through an exclusive deal with Vodafone, MySpace is preparing to launch itself on mobile phones throughout Europe, providing access to its site and allowing users to edit profiles, post photos and blogs, find and add friends as well as send and receive MySpace messages. Launching first in the UK it will then sweep across the rest of the continent and be marketed as an "off-the-shelf" experience also available as a download from the Vodafone Live! portal.
Graphics not always apparent in marketing emails
A company in the US has analysed 1,000 marketing emails and discovered that the majority of recipients do not see the pictures in them. The Email Experience Council urges designers to work with vendors to create standards in email deliverability and to create text-only versions of emails that are also designed to include pictures. Email marketers need to work with ISPs and email-clients to develop authentication methods for non-spam emails.
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US Media Report
By Kay Wilson
Michael Powell is joining The New York Times as a metro reporter. Powell was the NY bureau chief of the Washington Post and had been with the post since 1996.
Meanwhile, Dean Baquet former editor of the Los Angeles Times has returned to the newspaper as the Washington DC bureau chief and assistant managing editor. He was previously at The NewYork Times from 1995 to 2000 as an editor.
Another case of better the devil you know -Sharon Begley is returning to Newsweek as a senior editor and columnist for science. Begley’s first stint at the publication was from 1977 until 2002 when she moved to the Wall Street Journal as a science columnist.
Other moves in the world of media include former editor in chief of EQ magazine Eugene Robinson being snapped up by MacLife (formerly MacAddict) as its senior editor and Fortune senior writer Ellen McGirt is joining Fast Company.
Finally, after putting Boston (MA) on high alert last week by placing 38 flashing electronic gizmos around the city in an advertising stunt, Turner Broadcasting Systems, home of CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and other giant US TV networks, agreed to pay $2m (£1m GBP). Sharing the fine is its partner in crime Interference Inc. Interference which boasts a "guerilla" attitude to marketing on its web-site has quite possibly never said a truer word!
UK Media Report
By Annie Kasmai
Thomas Penny, deputy news editor at the Daily Telegraph, has left his job to join specialist healthcare PR company Santé Communications.
Tamar Wilner, Associate editor at Real Business, has left her job. Wilner is now the online editor of planningresource.co.uk.
Emap has reported that its performance in this current financial year is going to be lower than expected. The company has warned that this lower performance is due to the difficult conditions in the magazine and radio market.
This comes after the company announced in November that it is carrying out a series of efficiency reviews to look at cost structure, which will hopefully deliver £20m a year in savings between 2007 and 2009.
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Consumer Technology Update
By Dave Wilby and Sean McManus
Apple condemns DRM
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has published an open letter arguing against digital rights management (DRM). Sales of music through iTunes use a proprietary system that’s supposed to prevent piracy but has the effect of stopping customers playing their music on devices not made by Apple.
Jobs argues that the record companies have forced this upon him and that Apple would sell restriction-free files overnight if it was allowed. Dropping the piracy protection would open the market and enable music to be playable on all devices, he says. For more analysis and to leave your comments, see our story on the blog.
We can work it out
Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have been busy speaking out against DRM this week, but can he help finally resolve another rights issue that has seen a long and winding trademark dispute between his company and the similarly named record label of The Beatles? Apple Inc. now claims it has reached an accord with Apple Corp. but has stopped short of putting the Fab Four’s music up for sale on iTunes.
The Beatles are one of the few major names in popular music still unavailable on the popular download service, but this latest outbreak of peace could pave the way for the two parties to come together sometime soon. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Jobs had used a Beatles song in his recent MacWorld presentation. He said in a statement: "We love the Beatles, and it has been painful being at odds with them over these trademarks. It feels great to resolve this in a positive manner, and in a way that should remove the potential of further disagreements in the future."
3GSM promises wonderful toys (and some serious business)
The 3GSM World Congress '07 opens next week from 12th-15th February in Barcelona, and should be the biggest and most exciting show to date for the 60,000 delegates expected to attend. We’ll bring you all the major announcements in next week’s Technology News, as well as some of the coolest new toys in Consumer News, but if you can’t wait that long, why not whet your appetite by checking out this animation of the world’s first portable device equipped with a ‘rollable display’. The Readius from Polymer Vision, an offshoot of Philips, has certainly got our attention, and we’re now hoping for a raft of similarly innovative technology to drool over throughput the week at 3GSM.
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Web 2.0 Watch
By Fiona Blamey
Home Office out of touch with online life
Statements made by the Home Secretary this week reveal that the government is frighteningly out of touch with the way people use the internet.
As part of the government’s drive to crack down on paedophilia and other sex offences, offenders may be forced to list their ‘online identity details’ – such as email addresses and chatroom usernames – on the Sex Offenders Register, John Reid said.
"If we did that we would then be able to set up mechanisms that would flag up anyone using those addresses or those identities to make approaches and contacts through some of the very popular internet spaces which are used by kids," Reid told the BBC.
Any regular internet user will recognise this as nonsense. One person can have many email addresses, and can create a new one in minutes. Inventing a new username is as easy as thinking of a word and typing it into a box. A recent BBC story revealed that kids think nothing of creating a whole new online identity if they can’t remember the password for the old one.
Online identities aren’t unique, either. I share a username with a teenage MySpace user in Kansas, among other people. If he commits a crime, I don’t want to be punished for it. I’m sure he’d say the same about me.
Identity on the internet is a very fluid and unstable thing. Using screen names and email addresses as a basis for identifying people in real life should not be enshrined in law. Instead, the government should focus on helping young and vulnerable people to recognise and deal with suspicious online behaviour. However, I very much fear that young people are far more clued up about online life than anyone at the Home Office.
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Best of the 'Net
By Lance Concannon
ConvinceMe
The internet exists for three main purposes, finding pictures of people with no clothes on, unlawfully exchanging copyrighted content, and engaging in pointless arguments with complete strangers about trivial, unimportant matters such as whether pirates are better than ninjas.* ConvinceMe is a new site dedicated to helping people solve these arguments in a structured and coherent manner – think of it as Debate 2.0.
*Ninjas are best, clearly.
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Tech Toon
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