Trinity to close four Midlands free titles
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Trinity Mirror is to close four of its free weekly regional titles and move staff to other publications across the group.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Spotify to sell MP3 downloads
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Spotify, the ad-supported music streaming service, has signed a deal with music downloads company 7digital to provide MP3 downloads to Spotify users.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Wired magazine links with Spotify for UK launch
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Spotify, the music streaming service, has joined forces with Wired to promote the UK launch of the monthly technology magazine to Spotify’s audience.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Majority of users not interested in ads on social networking sites
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Only 13% of users claim to pay attention to ads on social networking sites, according to research conducted by eBay Advertising.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Barclaycard replaces Nationwide as Mercury Prize sponsor
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Barclaycard has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with the Mercury Prize, taking over from the Nationwide Building Society.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Video: Watch the Sun’s Help for Heroes TV ad
March 30, 2009
Advert highlighting the paper’s support for Help for Heroes, the charity dedicated to supporting wounded military personnel
From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/advertising/rss
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Is Skype on the iPhone a big deal?
March 30, 2009
So, after plenty of rumours, and even more leaks, the “free” internet calls service Skype will finally come to Apple’s iPhone on Tuesday. Is this the moment that Voip – to use the ugly jargon – finally makes the leap from the laptop to the mobile? After a quick play with the new application, I must say I’m sceptical.
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It works fine – just install the app, tap on the icon and Skype launches with the familiar start-up sound you get on your computer. Your contacts list then tells you who is online – and you can either send them an instant message or make a call. When I tried it, the sound quality was about the same as on any mobile call – and as it was to a Skype contact it was free.
But here’s the catch – I could only make the call because I was on a wi-fi network. Apple’s restrictions on the use of its software development kit mean that Voip applications cannot use the 3G network. The other issue is that the iPhone doesn’t allow you to have more than one application open at the same time – so your Skype buddies probably won’t be able to get you on the phone unless you happen to be in the app when they call.
Most iPhone users will be on a contract giving them a lot of call minutes – so it’s unlikely they’d want to use Skype unless they were abroad – or calling abroad. And wi-fi, as we know, is a lot less widespread and efficient than we might have thought it would be by now – whereas fast mobile networks are now widely available.
You can already use Skype on a dedicated phone from the 3 network, and Nokia is building the application into its N series of phones. In both cases you can make free calls to other Skype users over 3G as well as via wi-fi – so why would you choose an iPhone for its Skype capabilities?
What might make it into a killer app is free video calls – which aren’t available on any mobile right now. but for that to happen on an iPhone, it would need a new camera on the front of the phone.
Skype is obviously very happy to be on the iPhone. But unless Apple takes a radically different approach to integrating the free calls service into its phone, it’s unlikley to make a huge impact. And like many businesses, Apple is probably wondering whether “free” is such a great idea anyway.
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/rss.xml
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Tesco to launch Tesco Bank in 30 stores
March 30, 2009
LONDON – Tesco is launching 30 in-store banks by the end of the year under the brand name of Tesco Bank as part of the expansion of its financial services operation.
From: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/RSS/
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Jonathan Miller to join News Corp
March 30, 2009
Former chief executive of AOL is to oversee the broad strategic digital initiatives across global media
From: http://www.ft.com/rss/companies/media
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N is for networking
March 30, 2009
When did you first try to set up a wi-fi network? As far as I can remember, my first was back in 2003, and involved about a fortnight of grovelling on the floor under the computer, reading three sets of instructions seemingly written in Japanese, hours on the phone to helplines, and the odd bit of swearing and weeping.
The whole process has got a lot more “plug-and-play” since then – after all it’s a mass market product now in millions of homes. But trying to set up a new network this week to send a fast internet connection around my home proved that wi-fi can still be pretty challenging. It’s also clear that getting fast connections into homes is one thing – sending the signal wirelessly around them is another matter.
This was my first experience of using the router which is supposed to deliver far faster speeds – one on the 802.11n standard. Yes, I know – why should we as consumers need to know about this gobbledegook – and I’m sure I wasn’t really aware that previous routers were 802.11b, g, q, a or z. But I’ve found that this time there’s stuff you need to know.
So here’s how it went. First I put the set-up disc in the computer which took me to a PDF file with some pretty simple set-up instructions. When it said “now switch off your computer” I did so – and realised that I no longer had the instructions. Duuuuuuuh, as my youngest son is prone to say. Turn on again, print out the PDF – not all 60 pages, just the relevant ones, and start again.
Having wired everything correctly, I was then directed to a website which would allow me to configure the router, by entering “admin” and “password”. It took me instead to the router maker’s homepage. I kept on re-entering the web address – and kept coming back to the same place, rather than the secret door into the router. Time to call on expert advice – my teenage son, who doubles as our director of IT when he can be called away from World of Warcraft duties.
After a quick search he found that entering the same string of numbers which we’d used to access other routers allowed us to open this one too. Then it was easy – upgrade to the latest firmware, choose our wireless security option – WEP -and, hey presto, we were up and running.
The only trouble was that over the next 24 hours it became clear that the network was limping rather than running. For one thing my son’s computer kept dropping off it. For another, it was only delivering speeds of as low as 5Mbps – on our new fast cable connection of “up to 50Mbps” which was achieving 48Mbps on a wired computer.
I mentioned this to a colleague at work who is far more learned than me about networking. “802.11n isn’t actually an agreed standard yet,” he opined wisely. “what’s more in a busy street like yours you’ll get all sorts of other networks crowding out your signal.”
I also sought out, as I’m prone to do these days, some advice from the Twitter community. People were very helpful – but not all that clear. Here’s one example: “If you have huge packetloss (try sudo ping -c1000 -f 209.85.171.100 in Terminal) try reinstalling latest combo update on all Macs.”
Hmmm – maybe Wikipedia could help? Well the entry on the 802.11 standard has this message right at the top:”This article may be confusing or unclear to readers”. Which isn’t exactly encouraging.
So then I got in touch with a real expert – a man who works for one of the big router firms. He immediately diagnosed my problem – I’d put the wrong kind of security on. It turns out that WEP just doesn’t work with “n” routers – or rather it does but it throttles them back to “g” speeds. It only works at full speed if you have no encryption or use one of the WPA options.
So why on earth does the router company allow you to choose WEP? He explained that they’d originally shipped the shiny new routers without it but there had been a consumer backlash. My router man also confirmed that the 802.11n standard hasn’t been finalised yet, so there’s the possibility that some bits of kit won’t work with others, even if theoretically they are both using 802.11n.
I went home that evening and followed my expert’s instructions, and immediately achieved some pretty impressive speeds – though so far we haven’t got above 30Mbps on the wireless network.
My expert had said you could get wireless of up to 47Mbps on a 50Mbps line – but warned that all sorts of factors could bring that down. Other people’s networks, the microwave and cordless phone in our house, the design of the computers we use, mobiles using bluetooth in the home could all cut those speeds.
But most members of the household seem pretty happy with what we’ve achieved. Except for my younger son. He has our oldest computer – handed down the family. It’s seven years old – and doesn’t talk WPA which means he can’t enter the password to join the network. We”ll need to find a way sort him out.
All in all, setting up a new network has been an awful lot less of a headache than it was back in 2003. But there’s still a language to be learned, from 802.11n to WPA2PSK with AES encryption. And if you don’t speak fluent wireless, you may need to find a decent interpreter.
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/rss.xml
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