Welcome

Welcome to the latest edition of the Prompt Newsletter.

This week, we look at demise of HD DVD, a new method of installing software updates, Google phones, and a new report criticising licence agreements. Plus cheap laptops and computer games you can control with your mind.

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Technology News

Farewell HD DVD. It was fun
By Duncan Heaney

In every battle there must be a winner and a loser. The war between rival high-definition formats Blu-Ray and HD DVD has seemingly come to an end, and it is HD DVD that lies twitching on the floor. The BBC reports that Toshiba, the driving force behind the losing format, has made the decision to stop production of HD DVD players and recorders.

Toshiba claim that it made the decision to abandon the format when Warner Bros. became the latest studio to decide to release its movies on Sony’s Blu-Ray format exclusively. Other backers of the Blu-Ray format include MGM, Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox. As an added blow to supporters of HD DVD, US retailer Wal-Mart announced it would sell high-definition discs, but only in the Blu-Ray format. In the UK, Woolworths did the same.

With HD DVD going the way of Betamax, it is believed that the industry will see an upsurge in hi-def sales. Without the question of which format will become standard, the challenge for studios now is to get consumers to embrace the technology over standard DVD.

Toshiba will supply retailers with HD DVD players until the end of March, and after that provide technical support to the estimated one million HD DVD users worldwide.

Samsung to manufacture Google branded cell phone?
By Lance Concannon

This week the Internet was rife with rumours that Samsung has inked a deal to manufacture two Google branded mobile phones (gPhones), to be sold in September this year. Apart from causing a million gadget-geeks to simultaneously soil themselves with excitement, the news drew lots of predictable comparisons with Apple’s iPhone.

Robert Cringely points out that it’s not quite that simple. Unlike Apple, Google has a mobile phone software platform that it wants to encourage all handset manufacturers to adopt – called Android. Any Google branded, Android based phone is clearly going to be a big hit with the buying public, which puts Google squarely in competition with the other handset manufacturers, who surely aren’t going to be particularly happy about this.

UK company launches cheapest laptop
By Lance Concannon

British computer manufacturer Elonex plans to launch a budget laptop for just £99 ($193), making it the cheapest such device in the UK market. The 'Elonex One' laptop is aimed at the education market, hoping to increase access to computing technology among children from low income backgrounds. The machine runs Linux and offers a flash memory hard drive, built in Wi-Fi and a music server. Other specs are currently hard to come by, and the machine will not officially launch until 28 February at a major education exhibition in the UK.

It’s understandable that Elonex is shy about discussing the technical details at this stage, since this is very much about the price point and there’s little to be gained from drawing focus away from that and onto what will undoubtedly be quite modest technical specifications.

US Media News

By Tarryn Morley

US

Dan Farber has been named editor in chief of CNET News.com. He replaces Jai Singh. Farber most recently served as editor in chief of ZDNet and blogged for Between the Lines. His blogging partner, Larry Dignan, is now running ZDNet.

Russ Stanton has replaced James O’Shea as editor of the Los Angeles Times. O’Shea resigned from the role in January. Stanton has served as the newspaper's innovation editor since January 2007. He has also previously worked as the business editor, writer, Orange County business editor, assistant technology editor and senior technology editor.

Jeremy Grant has resigned from his role as a financial correspondent in the Financial Times Washington, D.C. office. Grant will be taking on the role of senior corporate reporter covering British business and companies from the London bureau. His last day in Washington was February 14 and he will begin his new role in mid-March.

Maggie Shiels has been appointed technology reporter for BBC Online. Shiels will be based in San Francisco. She was previously a freelancer for the BBC. In her new role, Shiels will focus on developments in and around Silicon Valley. She will report mainly for the website but will also file stories for the network's TV and radio outlets.

UK Media News

By Tarryn Morley

UK

There have been several recent changes at the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. Nic Fildes, a reporter covering telecoms and technology sectors, has left to go travelling. Nick Clark, previously a market reporter at the paper, is now a City reporter covering M&A, active fund management, private equity and financial restructuring. Nikhil Kumar has replaced Clark as market reporter. Simon Evans has been promoted from business reporter to deputy business editor at the Independent on Sunday. In his new role, Evans will continue to cover financials, insurance and hedge funds.

Stephanie Flanders, economics editor for Newsnight, has been appointed economics editor at the BBC. She will replace Evan Davis in April when Davis moves to Radio 4’s Today programme. Flanders has previously worked as a reporter for the New York Times and leader writer for the Financial Times. She was also a speech writer and senior adviser to the United States Treasury from 1997 to 2001 and principal editor of the United Nations’ 2002 Human Development Report in New York.

Richard Abbott has been appointed deputy editor of Marketing magazine. Abbott was previously editor of Campaign Middle East and has also worked as features editor at Media Week and as a reporter for Retail Newsagent.

Tech Totals

By Zachariah N. Hofer-Shall

130mph
The speed an 18 year old was driving while filming his trip with a cell-phone camera

4 Months
Time he’ll spend in prison after the UK authorities found his video on YouTube

EULAs unfair and confusing, claims consumer group
By Duncan Heaney

The UK National Consumer Council has asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate 17 software companies on the grounds that their licence agreements were confusing and unfair to customers. According to Ars Technica, the group also produced a larger report that examines the problems caused by End User Licence Agreements (EULAs) and looks at what can be done in Europe to make the agreements more readable, and fairer.

The consumer group bought 25 pieces of software, all of which required the buyer to accept an EULA before using. The group noticed that 14 of its 25 programs did not mention on the packaging that they required EULA acceptance to use. Of those that did, only four provided a link that would let the user look up the EULA before purchasing.

Another problem the group identified is that EULAs are often designed for a specific jurisdiction, yet sold all over the world. The majority of the software which the group tested came from the US, UK, Germany, Ireland and Canada, and the EULAs took little or no account of the laws existing outside of these places.

By producing this report, the National Consumer Council is hoping that the Office of Fair Trading will launch its own investigation into the fairness of EULAs in general.

I’ve got a mind to play games
By Duncan Heaney

We are now eight years into the 21st Century and, disappointingly, we’ve still yet to see all the cool technology that those 80s and 90s films promised us. But it seems we’re starting to. A couple of weeks ago it was Star Wars-esque holographic displays; this week it’s a device that allows users to control a video game with their minds.

The BBC reports US/Australian company Emotiv has developed a neuro-headset that detects electrical activity in the brain and sends wireless signals to a computer. Through this method it is possible for gamers to manipulate a virtual environment with just their thoughts.

Emotiv claims that the headset is capable of detecting more than 30 different expressions, actions and, perhaps most interestingly, emotions. These include excitement, meditation, tension, shock and anger. The company believes that the ability to judge a player's emotional state could make for a more immersive experience, with AI characters able to react realistically according to what the player is feeling. In addition, the headset can be used to accurately translate a player’s facial expression to the character they are controlling.

If it works as well as the company claims, this could have serious implications to the way we interact with all technology - not just games. Emotiv is currently working with IBM to develop the technology for use in 'strategic enterprise business markets and virtual worlds';.

Now if someone would please just invent a flying car…

Friendly worms not so great
By Lance Concannon

Reports that Microsoft researchers were considering using virus-like systems to distribute important software upgrades drew ire from the security community this week. When a security flaw or other serious bug is found in software, it’s important to get as many users as possible to install the patch before bad people figure out a way to exploit it, but end users are notoriously bad at keeping their systems updates. Therefore, a benevolent worm virus that spreads itself across the internet and upgrades people’s systems automatically might seem like a good idea.

But, as this Register story points out, the plan has a lot of potential problems, such as whether it’s really a good idea to upgrade people’s systems without their permission and how non-technical users are supposed to figure out the difference between a good virus and a bad virus, when a window pops up on their screen and says 'Your software is out of date, click here to upgrade!'

Website of the week

By Sean McManus

Sleeveface

People talk about the lost art of the record sleeve, but they’re usually yearning for illustrations or installation photographs: people don’t normally miss things like a giant close-up of Phil Collins’ head from Face Value, or any of the cheesy photos of Elvis that fronted his LPs. Now there’s a growing community of people who take record sleeves and hold them up, so that the faces (or other body parts) on the sleeves appear to be their own. The resulting photographs are sometimes clever, sometimes freaky, but always a testament to somebody’s mad afternoon. Visit the craze’s de facto home at the link above, and trawl through the flickr stream for well over 1,000 sleevefaces.

We hope you find the Prompt Communications newsletter an interesting read. For any feedback on our newsletter, or to discuss how we can help you with your technology PR, marketing, social media/blogging initiatives, copywriting or surveys, please contact us using the details below. We are always delighted to hear from you.