大象传媒

iPhone shake-up

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 30 Jan 08, 16:55 GMT

I'm up a mountain in Austria on holiday but even here - via my tiny hotel's very efficient wi-fi - news arrives of a .

And for all the protestations from O2 that this is the bestselling handset ever, one can't see the new tariff as anything more than confirmation that sales have really tailed off since that early rush last November.

Neither O2 nor Carphone Warehouse have released any sales figures but anecdotal evidence suggests that canny British customers - used to getting a free handset and oodles of calls and texts for an 18-month 拢35 a month contract - have baulked at the idea of paying 拢269 for an iPhone and then 拢35 a month for a rather meagre number of calls.

Apple's entry into the mobile phone market has been a spectacular success when it comes to devising a handset that suddenly makes the mobile internet a pleasure rather than a chore. But the firm is finding that in this global business there are plenty of local peculiarities - and in Britain at least you鈥檒l struggle to persuade customers that a phone doesn't come free with a contract.

One thing that O2 hasn't changed is the 拢7 a megabyte tariff for data abroad - though the firm tells me there will be a 40% cut in the summer. And that is why I'm using wi-fi rather than Austria's mobile network to send this blog.

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Digital music - you can't give it away...

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 25 Jan 08, 16:01 GMT

鈥� just the kind of daft name you expect from a digital start-up 鈥� and eye-catching enough to be spread across the world鈥檚 media back in April 2006. It was a service offering free downloads supported by advertising. And it wasn鈥檛 just the name that caused all the excitement but the promise of a new business model for an industry desperate to find a way to make money in the digital age.

Then everything went quiet - but today SpiralFrog is making a noise again. It has unveiled the first figures for its service 鈥� launched to North American customers last September. There are no figures yet on advertising revenue or downloads 鈥� but they鈥檙e jumping up and down with excitement over their 400,000 registered users. To my untutored eye that seems pretty unimpressive for a service offering completely free, no strings (apart from the ads) all-you-can-eat music. Someone from a ratings firm confirmed that view: 鈥淭hey barely show up on the radar,鈥� he told me.

But the founder of the firm Joe Mohen was in very confident mood when he came on the phone, forecasting that SpiralFrog will be second only to iTunes in the United States by the end of the year. The company says that it is visitor numbers that really matter (they are getting a million or so a month) because even if they don鈥檛 download a thing, they get to see the adverts and earn SpiralFrog some cash every time they click on them.

But that won鈥檛 cheer anyone up in the music business. The record labels and the artists get paid (and presumably it鈥檚 a tiny amount) when someone plays a track 鈥� SpiralFrog can detect how many times you鈥檝e done that on your MP3 player (iPods not supported, by the way). I would be surprised if the money flowing back to the industry was even a fraction of that generated by iTunes 鈥� and the record labels aren鈥檛 that happy about Apple鈥檚 terms 鈥� so right now SpiralFrog doesn鈥檛 look like the answer to the industry鈥檚 prayers.

And new figures from the global music trade body, the IFPI, show just how much it needs a saviour. In its digital music report it trumpets a 40% growth in digital music sales to $2.8 billion in 2007 鈥� but that鈥檚 a real slowdown after previous years saw sales double. What鈥檚 more, the IFPI reckons the overall music market fell another 10% last year. So the $800 million extra digital sales are on one side of the scale 鈥� with a $2.9 billion fall in shop sales on the other.

What the IFPI also ruefully points out is that there are twenty illegal downloads for every one that鈥檚 paid for. This is where SpiralFrog claims it can make a difference. Joe Mohen says he isn鈥檛 taking on Apple: 鈥淥ur competition is piracy.鈥� He describes the 鈥渃an鈥檛 pay, won鈥檛 pay generation鈥� of 15 to 25-year-olds. 鈥淔or them, content has always been free.鈥� He believes they will be willing to trade some of their time looking at adverts if they can get free music in return.

So now there are so many ways of getting hold of digital music. You can pay per track to download, you can pay a subscription, you can sign up to one of the mobile music services, you can stream it for free (Last.fm launched its free service this week) or you can download it for nothing. Or of course you can grab it for nothing using file-sharing sites. Right now, it鈥檚 only the last option which is capturing the imagination of music fans.

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MySpace and 大象传媒 - friend or foe?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 24 Jan 08, 07:04 GMT

Now here's an interesting thing. On the very day we - in 大象传媒 News - are running a rather negative story about and just how difficult it can be to , our colleagues at 大象传媒 Worldwide have signed a major deal with the biggest social networking site. A good way of proving a) how impartial we are and b) how no two parts of the 大象传媒 know what each other is up to.

The deal with MySpace TV is not the first to see 大象传媒 content made available for free on outside websites - there are a number of 大象传媒 Youtube channels and there's a deal to show programmes on Bebo.

But as far as I can tell, this is the first time the Beeb has allowed users complete freedom to use its content and embed it in their own sites. For instance, I've just gone and copied the code of this Top Gear clip from the 大象传媒 worldwide site on MySpace and pasted it right here:


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What this means is that for the first time 大象传媒 content will be able to spread virally (and legally) around the internet. Of course, plenty of people have been posting all sorts of clips without permission all over Youtube and other sites - but now this can happen with Auntie's blessing. The aim is obviously to reach young social networkers who spend very little time sitting in front of the television but countless hours online - and then get them to spread the word about our fabulous content. Let's see if it works.

Mind you, the deal with MySpace does not include any news content, which means I can't embed here my report on how difficult it can be to leave the site. But my bosses promise me that feature will be coming soon to our very own 大象传媒 news site.

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Apple - it's about iMacs not iPhones

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 23 Jan 08, 08:33 GMT

In London's Apple store on a damp January evening the tills were besieged by customers buying not just iPods but shiny new iMacs. It's what the economics world calls "anecdotal evidence" and should be taken with a pinch of salt - but Apple's latest financial results do show its renewed strength as a computer maker.

Wall Street marked the shares down sharply - more evidence of the way the mood around technology stocks has darkened - but that was because of Apple's typically cautious guidance on future earnings, not because of a performance in the last quarter which was difficult to fault.

Apple shipped 2.3 million Macs in the last quarter - up 44% on a year ago. This in the year that the company changed its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc to reinforce the message about its new role as a music, video and telecoms giant. True, iPod sales were up (but only 5% on the year) and it is the aura that the device has created which has helped drive people back to the Mac. Now the trick is to keep them there.

I'm still not convinced that, in business terms, the iPhone is more than a brilliant way of promoting the Apple brand. Sales of 2.3 million in the quarter keep it on track for Steve Jobs' very modest target of 10 million (about 1% of world shipments) by the end of 2008. But sales in Europe (no breakdown last night) appear to be slowing, and the deal to bring the iPhone to China is on hold.

So Apple looks like a niche player in telecoms, is struggling to make a big impact in video and can't really expect to be bigger in music than it already is. So it's back to the Mac - but with millions now apparently ready to pay a premium price for an Apple computer in preference to a Windows machine, that is not a bad place to be.

Now how about a new name. Apple Computers, anyone?

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Only connect....

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 22 Jan 08, 17:00 GMT

I鈥檓 writing this on a train between Nottingham and London 鈥� but getting it online from here is going to be too much of a struggle. I set off this morning on a quest to try and be connected wherever I went 鈥� and found it harder than you might imagine in 21st Century always - on Britain.

I left home 鈥� and my 2mb broadband connection 鈥� armed with a laptop, a Blackberry and an iPhone, confident that I had every base covered.

On the tube, I was obviously offline 鈥� but surely at the sparkling new St Pancras International station, wi-fi would be everywhere? But the fact that the ticket office was closed because of a 鈥渟oftware problem鈥� didn鈥檛 bode well. My iPhone detected something called 鈥淔ree Public wi-fi鈥� but didn鈥檛 seem to like the look of it, so I hopped on the Nottingham train in search of something better.

A few train services now have on-board wi-fi 鈥� this wasn鈥檛 one of them 鈥� and the EDGE network which serves the iPhone seems to evaporate just north of Watford. No problem 鈥� I鈥檝e got a USB modem giving my laptop a 3g mobile broadband connection. I plugged it in and got the rather discouraging message 鈥渢he selected communications device does not exist.鈥�

When, after a certain amount of cursing and fiddling, I eventually got the laptop online it was hardly worth the bother. It took about three minutes to load the 大象传媒 homepage, and then choked and gave up. Having enviously watched all those businessmen with similar devices furiously tapping away on trains, I鈥檓 now convinced they are just playing Tetris.

My iPhone was still refusing to go online and meet my desire to check what was happening on world stock markets, but my Blackberry, with its modest GPRS connection was at least delivering me emails about the dramas on the markets.

My destination was the Computing and Informatics Building at Nottingham Trent University 鈥� surely here of all places I would be able to get online at lightning speed? Not a chance. Once inside, neither my laptop nor my iPhone could spot a trace of wi-fi. Apparently there is a network right through the building and across the campus 鈥� but you cannot even detect it unless you are a bona fide student who has signed up to the university鈥檚 conditions of service.

Frustrated beyond measure, I headed for the student union bar 鈥� and suddenly found myself in wi-fi heaven. My phone locked on to a wi-fi hotspot operated by The Cloud, which provides free access for iPhone customers (once they鈥檝e signed up to O2鈥檚 hefty monthly subscription). For a few brief minutes, I emailed, sent photos, and learned more than I needed to know about the nervous breakdown unfolding on the stock exchange.

Then it was back on the train and into the internet dead-zone again. All day, my most effective communication device had been the one which relies on the slowest network, my Blackberry. Which makes you wonder when the billions being invested in HSDPA, wi-fi, and eventually Wimax networks are finally going to make an impact on the way we connect.

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Tech heaven or hell?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 21 Jan 08, 14:18 GMT

In my very first post on this blog, way back on New Year鈥檚 Eve 2007, I wondered whether we were seeing another bubble in technology stocks and, if so, whether it might burst in 2008. Now I鈥檓 hearing two things at once 鈥� a lot of excited noise about a whole rash of start-ups, coupled with the sound of air escaping from that bubble.

So into my e-mail this morning drops a note about a company called , offering customers the chance to start their own online shops - 鈥渁n interesting concept that's already taking off in France and the US, and is now coming to the UK".

It boasts backing from the venture capital firm that put money into Skype. So one reason to be cheerful - new web ventures are forming and finding VC backing.

Another sign of the continuing buzz around web 2.0 businesses comes in the results of the Crunchies 鈥� the awards for start-ups sponsored by the leading technology blogs and .

The predictable overall winner was Facebook - but the awards give a useful feel for what is exciting technology investors right now.

So - the latest in a whole raft of online video sharing sites, and another to promise 鈥減remium content鈥� - is named best video start-up. - whose environmentally friendly sports car is released later this year - is the best clean tech start-up.

- the mobile social network that many of us already find annoying rather than addictive - gets the best mobile start-up award. And the best international start-up is - a personal web portal reinventing what so many of the big internet players tried and failed to achieve a decade ago and doing it much better.

But just as the blushing winners step forward and accept their Crunchies, the world鈥檚 stock markets are going into meltdown again.

The darker mood that infected many financial stocks in the second half of 2007 left technology shares virtually untouched - but in 2008 they have succumbed to the general gloom.

In late December, Google was somewhere around $700, and Apple was breaking through the $200 mark. Three weeks on, Google is back to $600, Apple to $160. And one of Britain鈥檚 top technology stocks ARM, maker of the chips that go into smart mobiles like the iPhone, has fallen more than 30% in two months, despite the absence of any bad news.

But why does this matter to the start-ups? Because the venture capitalists who back them have always got an eye on the exit, recouping their investment by selling up to stock market investors. Back in 1999, every bright young dot com was rushing to float, with the IPO exit door providing healthy piles of cash for them and their backers. But in 2000, that door closed, and very soon the supply of venture capital dried up.

Now the market has turned, it will get a lot harder to make that journey to IPO heaven. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook - and his backers at Microsoft - may never see that $15 billion valuation put on the infant business last autumn turned into hard cash. And the inventors of the next Hulu or Netvibes may find that 2008 is not the greatest year to do that elevator pitch for a venture capitalist.

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Tech Tools Aid Heathrow Hack

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 18 Jan 08, 21:52 GMT

I鈥檝e been away from my normal beat for a couple of days, getting involved in coverage of the Heathrow crash landing. But reporting on this story has reminded me of how new technology has changed the lives of journalists. Ten years ago, we would not have had three tools that proved essential over recent days 鈥� Google, Youtube, and games software downloaded online.

Even just a decade ago, my first stop in examining the possible causes of this near disaster would have been the 大象传媒 library, home to volumes of Jane鈥檚 Aircraft and to dedicated researchers who would comb through countless dusty folders of little cuttings from newspapers in search of vital scraps of information. Next, I would have called our film library in search of archive pictures, then waited for a stack of tapes, sometimes in old formats which needed converting, to arrive on a van..

But nowadays I turn to Google. A quick look at my web history shows I made around 70 searches over the last two days. The first, an hour or so after the crash landing, was for 鈥渋nstrument landing system鈥� (Wikipedia gave me a useful summary) but soon the theories moved on and I was typing 鈥�777 power incidents鈥� into the search box.

My very first search, though, was on Youtube 鈥� and it quickly turned up something very useful. A passenger on a BA 777 flight to Heathrow last year had posted his footage filmed out of the window as it made a safe landing, passing over the exact spot where Thursday鈥檚 flight fell short. We used those pictures on the Six O Clock News 鈥� and other broadcasters had the same idea, finding Youtube footage of bird strikes to illustrate one possible cause of the crash landing.

Graphics artists are invaluable on these occasions and Google Earth provided them with useful images of the approach to Heathrow. But to get a real feel for the view from the cockpit, I despatched a producer to go and buy a Flight Simulator PC game. Then we realised that the small aircraft that comes with the game wouldn鈥檛 do the trick, so we went online to download a Boeing 777 add-on.

When we invited a retired pilot into our edit suite to describe what happens when you find yourself without power at 600 feet, we expected him to be scornful of our game footage. Quite the opposite 鈥� he said it was identical to the experience provided by the simulator where he learned to fly a 777 at Heathrow ten years ago. So a 拢25 piece of software is now performing the same task as a machine that cost a six-figure sum to build 鈥� another example of the advance of computing power.

Mind you, as the grateful passengers of the BA flight will attest, technology has its limitations. When something went terribly wrong with the systems on one of the world鈥檚 most advanced passenger aircraft, it was human qualities 鈥� the skill and nerve of the crew 鈥� which saw them safely onto the ground.

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Facebook, Scrabulous, and the End of Innocence

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 16 Jan 08, 13:35 GMT

Oh no. I鈥檇 finally managed to kick the Scrabulous habit 鈥� at one stage I had eight games going simultaneously 鈥� when news came through that the Facebook application was . After a couple of months in rehab, I had to start another game 鈥� just so that we could get some television pictures, you understand.

But the bust-up over a game which is currently enjoyed daily by nearly 600,000 users is not just of interest to the addicts. It tells us something about what happens when bright young internet brands start to grow up.

Remember when Youtube was young, all those years ago? It started life by maintaining that it was merely a playground for the video activities of its users 鈥� so if a teenager posted a happy-slapping video from a mobile phone or grabbed the latest episode of Lost and puts it up for friends to enjoy, that was not their fault. Then Google bought Youtube for an outlandish sum, and both regulators and litigators realised that here was a business worthy of litigation and regulation.

So last May Facebook threw open its doors to outside developers. Immediately, it entered a new golden age where all the work of making the network more compelling would be done by keen young kids from Bangalore to Berkeley 鈥搘ithout payment, and with no comeback if they made a mess on the carpet.

It hasn鈥檛 quite worked out like that. For one thing, a zillion messy and annoying applications have spread like bindweed across Facebook, making it a much less attractive place to hang out. For another, those who are unhappy about any aspect of those applications are more likely to target what is now a $15 billion company (on paper, at least) rather than the developers.

So the letters from Mattel and Hasbro accusing Scrabulous of stealing their intellectual property have winged their way to Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, rather than to Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, the two brothers who designed it. Mind you, they are rumoured to be making $25,000 a month from selling advertising on Scrabulous, so they too will be in the sights of Scrabble鈥檚 two owners. But my point is that, as Google has already found, the early dreams of being a happy-clappy, open-source, 鈥渄o no evil鈥� kind of business soon fade when the realisation dawns that you are worth suing.

Incidentally, some friends have suggested that the demise of Scrabulous (if this is not just a clever tactic to buy up the application) is what will finally see them departing Facebook. 鈥淭he end is nigh!鈥� was a message from one. But writing this post has reminded me of its usefulness. I spoke to several Facebook friends who are developing applications, and got a message through to Rajat Agarwalla, receiving this speedy reply:

鈥�Hi Rory,
At the moment we would not be able to talk to you. However, we'll be in touch with you very soon! :)
Sorry!
Rajat鈥�

Oh well, in the meantime, back to more serious matters. Can anyone think of a seven letter word involving the letters N,O,Y C, E, I and W?

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Did Steve Jobs deliver?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 15 Jan 08, 18:59 GMT

We had a big row - or rather a reasoned debate - in our morning editorial meeting about whether Apple deserves quite as much coverage as it gets. A leading economics journalist pointed out that the Ford Focus is a much bigger seller than the iPhone - but gets much less coverage. I felt the Focus was just a car 鈥� while the iPhone heralded major change in a whole industry

But we all agreed that Steve Jobs would have to come up with something pretty special to justify news of his keynote spreading from our web journalism to mainstream TV and radio bulletins.

So Darren and I trooped into the venue where journalists from across Europe were watching the relay from San Francisco and assessed each Jobs announcement for real news value as it happened.

First new product is Time Capsule 鈥� a wireless storage device 鈥� designed to be a companion to Time Machine, the Leopard feature which allows painless back-up of your data. Nice but not newsworthy.
So news value: 2/10

Then there is iPhone news - 4 million sold in 90 days. Pretty good, and makes the target of 10m sales by end of 2008 look very achievable. A few software updates for the phone, including the ability to locate yourself in Google maps and customise your home screen. And, at last, you鈥檒l be able to send an SMS to more than one person at a time. Ipod Touch will also get new features, including Mail 鈥� but existing users will have to pay for upgrade. Again, cute stuff for existing users, but not a breakthrough for anyone else.
News value: 3/10

Now the first big one 鈥� an iTunes announcement. Jobs admits he鈥檚 disappointed with sales of movies, and announces a deal with all the major studios to rent movies online- to watch on your computer, your iPod or your TV. To make this easier, there鈥檚 a new version of the rather limited set-top box Apple TV, though it still lacks the browser which would make it a more complete IPTV device. This is important because it opens a new front in Apple鈥檚 battle to be as big in digital video as it is in music. The rentals start now in the US, later this year elsewhere.
News value: 7/10.

Now we finally get to hear what is behind the keynote slogan 鈥渢here鈥檚 something in the air鈥�. 鈥淭oday we鈥檙e introducing a third kind of notebook 鈥� the MacBook Air.鈥�
The slimmest portable computer you can imagine, produced out of an envelope by Steve Jobs to a chorus of oohs and aahs. He shows off the multi-touch. Well, yes, this is a beautiful piece of kit and a masterpiece of miniature engineering 鈥� and doubtless devoted Macheads will be storming the Apple stores. But is it hot news that a computer company has introduced a new and pretty expensive computer 鈥� even if it is thinner than any other? Not really.
News Value: 6/10

But is there going to be 鈥渏ust one more thing? No. And that leaves us just ever so slightly underwhelmed. A solid range of new products - but this was not an iPhone year.

Maybe it鈥檚 time to look at that Ford Focus鈥�

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Facebook - buy or sell?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 15 Jan 08, 12:42 GMT

Darren鈥檚 entry about those impressive social networking numbers got me thinking about my own relationship with Facebook 鈥� and what that said about its prospects. It鈥檚 been pretty intense, indeed obsessive according to some friends and relatives, but I have noticed in recent weeks that annoying applications (vampires, virtual fish, hugs 鈥� just leave me alone) and worries about privacy are dulling my enthusiasm and that of some friends. Perhaps it鈥檚 not for the more mature networker after all 鈥� but I鈥檓 reluctant to head for the SagaZone and leave Facebook to its core audience of twenty-somethings.

Mind you, its twenty-something founder Mark Zuckerberg is betting an awful lot on the growth continuing. This week he insisted there would be no IPO in 2008. Mark 鈥� take some advice from someone who watched the last dot com bubble inflate and then burst. Sell up now 鈥� you鈥檙e never going to beat that $15 billion valuation which Microsoft put on the business when it bought a small stake last autumn.

I explored some of these issues in a report for Radio 4鈥檚 Today programme. Unfortunately it was broadcast at 0623 on New Year鈥檚 Day, so you might just have missed Toby Young (author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) revealing just how superficial friendship can be on Facebook. Click here to listen again.

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Bill v Brussels (Round Two)

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 14 Jan 08, 18:36 GMT

You thought Microsoft鈥檚 long war with competition regulators was over? Wrong! Brussels is marching into battle with Bill Gates鈥� business again, having won a stunning victory last September over two issues 鈥� the way it bundles software like Windows Media Player with the operating system, and interoperability with rival products.

The EU is taking those same two issues as the basis of a into Office, Outlook, and Internet Explorer, following complaints from Opera (the Norwegian web browser) and the European Committee for Interoperable Systems.

And Microsoft鈥檚 opponents aren鈥檛 underplaying what鈥檚 at stake. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a case which might transform the whole software industry,鈥� was how Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for ECIS , described it to me. ECIS is not just a bunch of bearded Scandinavian open-source dudes 鈥� its members include Nokia, Adobe, Sun and Real Networks, and they are confident that the EU can make the charges stick.

What鈥檚 the issue? The old one about Microsoft鈥檚 dominance crowding out rivals in both new and old areas of software. So you keep using Outlook because everyone else does 鈥� and if you try to use open-source software to schedule a meeting with a colleague whose calendar is on Outlook, it just won鈥檛 work.

This is also a battle over Microsoft鈥檚 desire to promote its Office Open XML file format for documents. Bill Gates and his colleagues see this as an open standard which will promote that very interoperability which the EU has been demanding 鈥� but ECIS describes it as 鈥渃rafty game-playing鈥�, designed to appear collaborative while shutting out rivals from the open-source movement.

Microsoft has released a bland statement promising to cooperate fully with the investigation. When I reached a senior executive who鈥檚 had a lengthy involvement with the regulatory battle he sounded weary.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been in this for the past nine years,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檇 rather just focus on making good software.鈥�

The trouble is, Microsoft鈥檚 rivals believe that this 鈥済ood software" is designed to shore up its monopoly at a time when open-source operators are offering products that can be downloaded from the internet, often for nothing.

Time was when big corporations 鈥� especially American ones 鈥� laughed off the EU regulators as a minor irritant.

With Google, Apple and Microsoft all under the microscope in Brussels, they鈥檙e not laughing now.

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The iPhone - Great at Home, Lousy Abroad

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 13 Jan 08, 16:18 GMT

鈥樷�滵o you know why this industry keeps failing to understand what consumers want?鈥�, a mobile phone company executive asked me recently. 鈥滲ecause none of us in the business pays our own phone bills.鈥� The same could be said for many of the journalists who review the latest handsets 鈥� so I tried an experiment. I bought Apple鈥檚 iPhone, for a hefty 拢269, and spent the last four weeks playing with it 鈥� and paying for it 鈥� at home, and abroad.

Here are my thoughts:

First, the upside. As a mobile internet device it is simply the best I鈥檝e ever tried, especially when connected to a wi-fi network. This morning I googled chart hits from the 70s, watched a few on YouTube, then downloaded tracks from iTunes as I lay in bed compiling a CD for a forthcoming party. And it was all very fast.

Special sites designed for iPhone make it easy to use, such as Facebook, Twitter or 鈥� my personal favourite 鈥� access to 大象传媒 podcasts on the move.

Away from wi-fi, it can be a bit of a struggle 鈥� the EDGE network is rather patchy even in London 鈥� but checking news feeds is still a lot easier than on 3g phones I鈥檝e used.

While my 拢35 per month tariff only offers 200 minutes of calls, it does allow me unlimited data, and I chewed my way through a hefty 72 MB in just three weeks. But then I headed to the United States 鈥� and my problems started.

I had already read horror stories about the price of using an iPhone abroad 鈥� the editor of Wired took his to China and got a bill for $2,100 for checking his email. So I turned off data roaming 鈥� and immediately found that what I was left with was a not very smart phone.

Without the internet, you can just call and text - and these are the phone鈥檚 weakest areas. Just answering calls 鈥� you have to slide a finger across the screen 鈥� is a challenge, and I鈥檝e not yet mastered one-thumb texting on the touchscreen. The camera is okay 鈥� for 2 megapixels 鈥� but make sure your subject is well lit and not moving. And I'm beginning to find video capture essential on a phone.

Things might have been better if there had been more 鈥� and cheaper 鈥� wi-fi in Las Vegas. The only time I managed to get online was while listening to a speech in the Las Vegas Hilton theatre, and I was soon surfing and sending pictures home.

I did turn on data roaming once 鈥� to use Google Maps to find a shop in the search for a present for my wife. I then worked out that the 300k of data involved in one search had cost me 拢2. Still, when you鈥檙e spending 拢10 on a tee-shirt, what鈥檚 another 拢2?

Back home, I found that just six days of calls had cost me 拢80, on top of my 拢35 monthly payment. On a couple of occasions I had tried using a Voip service offering cheap calls 鈥� but of course that involves going online and racking up extra data charges.

So what do I want to hear about iPhone from Steve Jobs in his Macworld keynote on Tuesday? Yes, I鈥檇 like a better camera, video capture, 3g, and one button to press to answer calls. But most of all I鈥檇 like a cheaper way of using my iPhone abroad. Given the way this global industry works to punish consumers who stray outside their own borders, I鈥檇 imagine that鈥檚 highly unlikely/

UPDATE:
Clearly, my appetite for web browsing on the iPhone is shared by others. According to the iPhone is already one of the most popular devices on which to browse the web while mobile.

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(Very) Amateur Video

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 13 Jan 08, 14:25 GMT

We're thinking of doing a bit of home-made video on this blog - and this is my first try. It's a look behind the scenes at the 大象传媒 operation at CES in Las Vegas last week, all shot on a mobile phone and edited using a free package on my laptop.

And I think the wobbly vision and dodgy sound edits provide incontrovertible evidence that a professional shoot/edit (like Steve Adrain, seen in the video) is still indispensable.

But it gives a bit of a flavour of what it's like to cover the world's biggest consumer electronics trade show.

Let me know what you think.

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Las Vegas Highs and Lows

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 10 Jan 08, 15:41 GMT

A former boss used to send out an email at the end of each week to me and other members of his reporting team called 鈥淗ighs and Lows鈥�, painting a distinctly rosy picture of our operation. A 鈥渉igh 鈥渨as that we had broken new stories on every possible 大象传媒 bulletin 鈥� a low was that some short-sighted editor had failed to recognise our genius. But let鈥檚 take a rather more objective view of the highs and lows that the Consumer Electronics show has given us this week.

HIGH

One high was finding products that actually made you stop and stare. Much has been written about OLED televisions, but you have to see how rich and deep the colours are and how thin the screen is before you get the appeal. Mind you, at $2500 for an 11-inch screen, this is just a toy for the rich right now. Other products that caught my eye were the Eye-Fi wireless card for sending photos directly from camera to computer, and a couple of very smart mini-laptops, or mobile internet devices, as they like to be called. Finally, the promise of life without wires seems to be coming true.

LOW

But 3-D TV anyone? I can鈥檛 believe many people will want to don those daft sunglasses to watch a dubious three-dimensional effect that certainly didn鈥檛 work for me. New 3-D televisions that don鈥檛 require glasses are here 鈥� but they apparently give you a headache. I鈥檓 also underwhelmed by home automation that still seems to be trying to solve problems that aren鈥檛 there. Do I really need my house to dim the lights when I get into bed?

HIGH

It was great to get extended interviews with Bill Gates 鈥� in more animated and relaxed mood than usual 鈥� and with Nicholas Negroponte, whose passion about the role that computers could play in ending poverty is inspiring.

LOW

But it鈥檚 depressing to read the comments of a few respondents to this blog who believe that any interview with Bill Gates is a crime against humanity. One man wrote:

鈥淵ou were chosen for your job because you are the kind of chap the 大象传媒 can trust to choose the right questions for Mr Gates. If Mr Gates was unhappy, you would find your contract would not be renewed.鈥�
I must whip that contract out of the dusty drawer and check for the clause forbidding tricky questions to Bill Gates but I certainly do not recall it.

HIGH

But let鈥檚 end on a high. For once, our own technology worked. I started my career in television working with film, which had to be processed before you could start editing. Then, for many years, we relied on satellite feeds to get our reports back to London. But this week, for the first time in my experience, we delivered all our video and audio reports from CES via the internet and they all arrived in time to hit their slot. (Actually, we did do a couple of radio lives via our M4 satphone 鈥� a rather crumbly piece of technology - and that did fail once, keeping us off the Today programme.)

It is those behind the camera, who make this work. Steve Adrain, shooting, editing, fiddling with the internet connection, - and taking on the responsibilities of what used to be the work of a whole team. Andrew Webb did a similar job for web video. And Catherine Wynne, producer extraordinaire, marshalled the whole operation with quiet, but forceful, efficiency. Thanks to all of them.

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Networking with Negroponte

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 9 Jan 08, 04:52 GMT

Just before we sat down for an interview in his suite on the 28th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton, Nicholas Negroponte got up and popped out into the corridor to have a word with someone. The founder of One Laptop Per Child wanted to catch Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, as he passed by with his entourage. The two men have met many times, and Negroponte describes the Rwandan president as one of the few world leaders who really understands IT.

In his mission to sell his vision of a little laptop which could transform education in the developing world, Nicholas Negroponte has been a tireless networker, charming and badgering politicians from Lagos to Lima. He had just flown in from Mexico, where he has been trying to seal a deal to sell more XO laptops. Yet in recent months he has been struggling against a tide of mounting criticism of his project, and you sense that the bust-up with Intel has been the most aggravating episode of all.

His PR minder had told us he would only answer one question about Intel, but he answered four before we moved on. And in that time there was some strong stuff. He accused Intel of behaving like a cheating spouse in repeatedly pushing its classmate laptop and badmouthing the XO. It is a charge which the chipmaker rejects with contempt.

Off camera, Mr Negroponte was also pretty cheesed off with some of those who built up the XO laptop and are now knocking it down. A couple of reviewers had been unkind about the XO laptop, complaining that it was slow, and touch-typing was a challenge. He grumbled that it was aimed at kids, not fat-fingered old journalists.

Then his mood brightened when I told him about one young fan of the laptop. When I filmed in Nigeria in November OLPC volunteers gave me an early prototype to bring home to my 9-year-old son. Rufus got the hang of it much more quickly than I had, and supplied an enthusiastic review for the 大象传媒 website.

The trouble is, it isn鈥檛 the likes of Rufus who鈥檒l make Mr Negroponte鈥檚 laptop a success. He needs to convince a lot more African and Latin American governments that they can afford what is still a pretty hefty investment in computers in schools. And whatever you think of Intel鈥檚 motives, it is training teachers and supporting the spread of computing in the developing world. In the end, a mighty corporation with a professional marketing operation may have a better chance of achieving that mission than the world鈥檚 best digital networker.

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Battles over Bill

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 8 Jan 08, 03:19 GMT

If you want to start a fight, interview Bill Gates. The founder of Microsoft divides opinion like no other figure in the technology world. And as soon as our interview appeared, the Bill-backers and Bill-baiters started slugging it out on this blog.

We got viewers, listeners and readers to suggest the questions but that did not prevent some of you from accusing us of giving Mr Gates an easy ride. Of course, we chose which questions made it into the final interview - someone had to -聙聯 but Microsoft imposed no conditions on what we could ask. Darren Waters and I spent many hours agonising over the choice. We tried to ensure it reflected the genuine interest expressed by many correspondents in Bill Gates' views on technology - while also covering their complaints about the quality of his software and Microsoft'聙聶s attitude to the Open Source movement.

Some felt we failed to give him a real beating, a few seemed to think the interview should never have taken place or asked why we had not interviewed other major figures from the technology world.

Believe me, we spend much of our time bombarding the likes of Apple and Google with interview requests. One reason that Bill Gates appears reasonably regularly on 大象传媒 output is that he quite often says yes.

I would love to repeat this experiment by taking your questions to Steve Jobs or Jonathan Ive at Apple -聙聯 or to Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google. And, believe it or not, I got an e-mail from a spin doctor at one of those companies this morning, musing on whether this might be a good idea. Perhaps we've started something.

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Bill Gates - You Asked The Questions

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 6 Jan 08, 19:09 GMT

I've just emerged from the Microsoft machine, shaken but unscathed. I've interviewed Bill Gates three or four times over a 12 year period, and each time I come out impressed by the sheer professionalism of the Microsoft PR operation but wondering whether we've been successfully spun.

This time we tried a new tactic - getting 大象传媒 viewers, listeners and readers to ask the questions. We had thousands, covering every aspect of Bill Gates and Microsoft - past, present and future. Over two hundred were seeking jobs, one gentleman was proposing himself as the next CEO of Microsoft, and another wondered whether the secrets of Windows software had been recovered from a crashed UFO.

We did not ask that one, but managed to get through around fifteen questions during our allotted fifteen minutes. As ever, Mr Gates appeared very well briefed. Yes, Vista was a success, despite the frustrations expressed by Barry from London. Sure, he understood the anger felt by people like Daniel from Aberdeen about the reliability of the Xbox 360, but it was being sorted. Yes, Microsoft had missed some trends - the importance of search - and perhaps over-estimated others -the tablet computer, for instance. And no, Mr McInerney from Southampton, there isn't a single Mac to be found in the Gates household.

Throughout the interview the Microsoft chairman reached over to a handily placed table covered in mobile phones, all of them running Windows Mobile. Surely, I chipped in, this was one area where the likes of Google (with its new Android operating system) and Nokia, would prevent Microsoft from dominating? Windows is on 20 million phones, Google is on zero, though Nokia is pretty big, was the response. (I had arrived in the Microsoft tent bearing a blackberry, a Nokia phone and an iPhone, not quite realising how provocative that might be.)

The formal part of the interview over - and timed to the exact second by the Microsoft PR people - we went to have a look at Microsoft's surface computer. Bill Gates demonstrated it for me, afterwards admitting that this was just his second rehearsal of the demo he'll perform in his keynote tonight. And finally he stuck his neck out, predicting that this kind of computer will be in tens of millions of homes within a few years. Such predictions have sometimes gone awry - remember the wristwatch computer?

But Bill Gates, who is stepping aside from his day-to-day role at Microsoft to concentrate on his charity later this year, was in a relaxed mood. Whatever you think of the man or of Microsoft, he has undoubtedly been the leading figure in the world's most important industry over the last two decades.

Have a look at the interview, which will appear in various forms on this site and on television in the next 24 hours. And let us know what you think of the answers - and the questions.

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Wireless in Vegas

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 6 Jan 08, 04:06 GMT

Wireless in Vegas

Where and when do you want to have access to the internet? In my case it鈥檚 everywhere and all the time, and in Las Vegas this week there are plenty of devices aimed at giving you just that kind of access.

A couple of hours ago I was sitting in the back of a car driving down the Strip, updating my Facebook status and sending a photo home. Sad, I know. But the thrill was in the fact that I was using the car鈥檚 own self-generated wi-fi hot spot. A small company called US Telematics, started just a couple of years ago, has developed an in-car communications system, designed principally to keep American kids entertained during those endless journeys.

A unit installed in the roof uses a souped-up 3g phone network to access the internet and then creates a wi-fi hotspot in the car. The kids in the back can watch television streamed from their home via a Slingbox, while the parent up front uses a wireless device to check Google maps or book a hotel.

Now while I loved the experience of getting online from the back of the car, I can鈥檛 see myself shelling out between $500 and $1000 for the unit, then paying a monthly fee to the phone company. Howard Leventhal, the founder of US Telematics, says he gets a panic attack if he is away from the internet for too long and he is convinced there are enough people like him to provide a market for his idea.

There is a battle shaping up between the different wireless technologies , from wi-fi to wimax, to HSDPA. Just a couple of years back, the promise was that universally available wi-fi networks might make those phone companies that had spent a fortune building 3g look pretty daft.

Now the 鈥渨i-fi for all鈥� movement is fading. Having struggled to get easy access to wireless hotspots as I trudge through the endless acres of Las Vegas hotels on the way to press events I can see the attraction of alternative technologies.

The big question is just what consumers will pay for connectivity. A taxi-driver overheard me marvelling at my experience of in-car wi-fi. 鈥淔orget it, 鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose phone companies just want to lock you in to a monthly fee. The working guy can鈥檛 afford it.鈥� And having just found out that I will be charged 拢7 a megabyte to access the internet from my phone while in Las Vegas, I think he may be right.

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Talking tech with tech

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 5 Jan 08, 14:43 GMT

Why am I here? It is the kind of existential question you will find many a jet-lagged Las Vegas visitor asking at 5 a.m. but my inquiry relates to the Consumer Electronics show, rather than the blackjack table at my hotel鈥檚 casino. What can you show me?聙聺 - is the even trickier question being asked by my editors back in London.

Worryingly, some seem to think they鈥檒l be seeing the latest personal jet-pack or a robot-enabled home of the future. Instead, what we will find at CES is important, but incremental, changes to the way we live our digital lives. Thinner, smarter, better-looking televisions (oh, that we could say the same about your reporter). New ways of managing the flood of digital content now arriving in homes - from home servers to media extenders. New wireless technologies making it ever easier to take that content with you wherever you are 鈥� I鈥檓 filming some of that in a car in the next couple of hours.

This is my fifth visit to Las Vegas for a major trade show. I used to visit COMDEX but the IT show faded as the consumer electronics version flourished and it doesn鈥檛 get any easier to turn it into compelling pictures or audio. Seething masses of visitors climbing over packed stands look more like a bad day at the Oxford Street sales than a vision of the future.

But we have brought our own collection of gadgetry to help us tell the story. On my first trip to Comdex in 1999 I came with one producer who had just learnt to wield a handycam. We shot everything that moved, got back on a plane, and put a few pieces out in London later in the week - including one report on the huge threat Psion posed to Microsoft. Oh dear.

This time I鈥檓 accompanied by a very experienced producer and what we call a shoot-edit. As well as a camera, Steve Adrian has got laptop editing gear and the nous and nerve needed to edit and feed stories via an internet connection which may or may not be rock-steady.

I too have brought with me a somewhat random collection of gadgetry aimed at getting me on air and online. So I have just unpacked my laptop, two mobile phones - one to make calls, the other to do a little filming with its rather good video camera- a blackberry, a digital audio recorder, a digital picture frame, a second ultra mobile laptop and a device for measuring the energy output of electrical products. The last three items may sound like coals to Newcastle - exporting the latest gadgets to CES - but we are filming them over the weekend before the show opens.

So now all we have to prove is that we can use the gadgetry to make gadgets look and sound interesting on TV, radio and the web. Then we can get round to answering a few more existential questions.

Continue reading "Talking tech with tech"

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Intel says bye to One Laptop

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 4 Jan 08, 09:42 GMT

Sitting in Gatwick airport waiting for a flight to Las Vegas, news comes through that Intel has dropped out of the One Laptop Per Child Project.

To me and Jonathan Fildes, the 大象传媒 technology correspondent who has followed this more closely than just about any other reporter, this does not come as a great surprise.

We travelled to Nigeria in November to report on OLPC鈥檚 pilot project at a school there. We were impressed by the enthusiasm of the children using the laptops and the commitment of the teachers but were concerned that a lack of technical and financial support might stop the whole project from taking off. The children were showing remarkable ingenuity in mending broken laptops 鈥� but the bill for the internet connection was about to land on the head teacher鈥檚 desk and it wasn鈥檛 clear how it would be paid.

By contrast, across town, Intel was pouring large sums into a pilot of its rival Classmate project in a school which had been virtually rebuilt around the computers. The company insisted that it was collaborating with OLPC and had no desire to crowd it out of the new market for cheap computing in the developing world.

But Intel鈥檚 arrival as a participant in the charity project came very late, and after criticism that it was acting to frustrate the aims of OLPC. Now Intel has dropped out after OLPC reportedly demanded that it ended its involvement in the Classmate PC. Intel was never going to drop a project which had the personal backing of Craig Barret, Intel鈥檚 chairman, who鈥檇 visited the shiny new Nigerian school a few days before we filmed there.

OLPC was always going to face an uphill battle when confronted with a mighty corporation like Intel. Now it has suffered another crushing blow to its efforts to put what was supposed to be the $100 laptop in the hands of millions of children. Only last week chief designer Mary Lou Jepsen stepped down from the project.

We鈥檒l be talking to the OLPC鈥檚 founder Nicholas Negroponte and to Intel鈥檚 Paul Otellini in Las Vegas.

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Gadget gluttons or tech tired?

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 3 Jan 08, 12:03 GMT

I was packing for my trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas - the annual celebration of gadget gluttony 鈥� when . Shares in Europe鈥檚 biggest electrical retailer - owner of Currys, PC World, and Dixons.co.uk - plunged this morning after it issued a profits warning.

The firm blames poor sales of laptops and heavy discounting of flat screen televisions for its problems. So does this mean that consumers are losing interest in the latest kit? Should I be cancelling my trip to Vegas? Well, what do you think I鈥檓 going to say?

Consumers are anything but bored with gadgets - from games consoles to flat screen TVs to laptops, sales are booming. But DSG鈥檚 woes are due to long-term changes in the way we shop. Remember the days when anyone wanting a new television or a computer would pop into a Dixons or a PC World, knowing little or nothing about the technology, seek advice from a spotty salesman, and walk out with both the product and a pretty pricey extended warranty and a few accessories? Well we have all moved on.

One veteran analyst put it like this to me: 鈥淧C World has always been predicated on the unintelligent consumer. As people get more knowledgeable, that approach becomes less relevant.鈥�

To be fair, DSG has moved on, ditching the Dixons name on the high street in favour of Currys Digital, closing many of its stores and putting far more effort into its online operation. It鈥檚 also launched a technical support team called The Tech Guys, in an attempt to provide the kind of end-to-end service it thinks the modern electronics consumer is seeking. The trouble is, the margins online are slimmer than on the high street and shoppers are less likely to buy those extended warranties that used to be the bedrock of Dixons鈥� profits.

I have been looking back at the firm鈥檚 share price over the last eight years and remembering the heady days of March 2000 when, under its original Dixons brand, the business was firmly lodged in the FTSE 100 - the index of Britain鈥檚 most valuable companies. And even higher up that index was Freeserve, the free internet service, launched by Dixons鈥� boss Sir Stanley Kalms in 1998, then floated within months at the height of dotcom mania.

Back then, it looked as though the old dog had learned new tricks, transforming itself into a hot new digital property. But after the dotcom bubble burst, Dixons seemed to decide the online revolution had passed and it could go back to the real world of the high street.

Meanwhile, from Dell to Amazon to Tesco.com, the online retailers kept on growing 鈥� and offering keener prices to an increasingly knowledgeable public. The move to flat screen televisions has bolstered DSG鈥檚 profits in recent years but now prices are plunging, down by around 35% over the last year.

A new man has just taken over as CEO at Dixons Store Group, and as the man who got Tesco.com off the ground John Browett seems ideally suited to change the focus of the business. My friendly analyst isn鈥檛 so sure - 鈥渉e must have been blinded by the size of the cheque to take on that job.鈥�

Mr Browett has sent a team of top executives to Las Vegas to try to spot what will be the hottest gadgets to win customers back to his stores next Christmas. I am sure the appetite for the latest kit - from ultra mobile PCs to laser TVs - has not been sated. But DSG may find that canny consumers inspect the gadgets in its stores - then head online in search of a better price.

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A 'review' of 2008

• Rory Cellan-Jones
• 2 Jan 08, 08:06 GMT

Enough of the iPhone, away with Facebook 鈥� let鈥檚 forget about 2007 and look forward - not entirely seriously - to the technology year to come in 2008...

January

At CES in Las Vegas, Bill Gates makes his final keynote before stepping down at Microsoft. Guess what? The digital home of the future is here at last and it is powered by Windows Media Center.

One week later in San Francisco, Steve Jobs uses his Macworld keynote to show us round the iHome (鈥渨ay cool鈥�). It is run by a revamped Apple TV set-top box, and allows you to get all your stuff 鈥� movies, music, photos and groceries 鈥� piped to you through iTunes.

February

The mobile phone industry gathers in Barcelona for its annual jamboree in its usual state of paranoia. Last year, it was the imminent arrival of the iPhone which caused the jitters. This time it is the impact of Google鈥檚 Android. Relax, guys, customers have tolerated lousy user interfaces, bossy network operators and sky-high roaming charges for years 鈥� why should anything change?

March

Sony unveils the Play Station 3.5. It boasts simpler graphics than the PS3, a fun controller called the miiiiii2, and a range of new games from Cribbage to Tony Hawk鈥檚 Tiddlywinks. 鈥淲e are reaching a whole new demographic, " says Sony鈥檚 Howard Stringer on a visit to an old people鈥檚 home in Merthyr Tydfil.

鈥淲hy has nobody tried this before?鈥�

April

The UK government insists it is pressing ahead with the National ID card, despite another embarrassing breach in data security. A clerk at the Passport Office plugs his iPod into the computer at work to update, then goes on holiday to Albania. Finding it incapable of playing anything but a weird mix of what sounds like morse code and hiphop, he flogs it to a bloke he meets at a caf茅 in Tirana. A government spokesman insists there is no cause for concern, unless you have taken out a passport in the last decade and been foolish enough to pay for it with something other than cash.

May

Facebook denies that it is in crisis after a study shows that its name has failed to appear in a single newspaper column for three months. A spokeswoman denies that a status update reading 鈥淢ark is 鈥︹�etting a little bored with all this poking, vampire-biting, fish-sending, nonsense鈥� reflects the views of the company鈥檚 founder on the future of social networking.

June

The companies in the HD-DVD alliance announce you can now get their players for as little as 拢49.99. The Blu-Ray team respond by giving their product away with the Daily Telegraph. Consumers fail to notice because they are too busy downloading movies from Russia鈥檚 allofhddvd.com.

July

Security software firms unite with the government鈥檚 Getsafeonline campaign to send millions of computer users a simple message, 鈥淵ou Are All Doomed.鈥� A spokesman explains: 鈥淚t is a simple but effective way of getting people to understand that once they turn on their computers, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse will be riding through the door in a jiffy. Unless, of course, they invest in new security software every time they log on, and buy a shredder.鈥�

August

Google continues the spending spree which has seen it buy Marks & Spencer, News Corp, and the Channel Islands since the beginning of the year. When EU regulators block its bid to take over the European Central Bank, a spokesman responds: 鈥淲hat these Brussels bureaucrats fail to understand is that we鈥檙e just trying to organise the world鈥檚 information鈥�.and money, and shopping. What鈥檚 the problem with that?鈥�

September

Apple鈥檚 second generation 3g iPhone goes on sale. This time, as well as signing up to Apple鈥檚 network partner, customers have to bring a DNA sample to enter on the company database before the phone can be activated. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just trying to make sure iPhone users all feel part of the Apple family, 鈥� a spokesman explains.

October

Nokia brings out its latest smartphone, the N99. As well as featuring music, live television, a manicure set and a device for getting stones out of horse鈥檚 shoes, it offers an ice-cream cornet with a chocolate flake. 鈥淎nd, unlike, the new 3g iPhone,鈥� a spokesman explains, 鈥渋t is 4g, making the mobile internet work properly for the first time.鈥�

November

A wave of panic spreads though parents in the UK and the USA as it becomes clear that stocks of the Nintendo Wii console are in short supply in run-up to Christmas. 鈥淲ho could have predicted that people would want to buy it as a Christmas present?鈥� asks a Nintendo spokesman. Sony points out that the PS3.5 is available in all good stores.

December

While high street stores complain that Christmas is later than ever this year, online retailers predict a 50% rise in sales compared to last year. 鈥淲hether you want an ipod, a wii or one of the new robotic teasmaids, we鈥檒l get it you by Christmas,鈥� a spokesman for the Online Retail Group promises.
As Boxing Day dawns, Ebay announces that record numbers of unwanted gifts are up for sale. The top sellers include 3g iPhones, complete with unlocked DNA samples.

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