Xbox LIVE, AOL and the Changing Face of the Internet

And so today brings us news that intrepid geeks have found a way to trick BBC's iPlayer into working on the PS3 - to many a shout of "about bloody time someone did, damned Auntie". And what does this say about the state of the internet. Many would say not much. I say a lot.

As Sony and Microsoft rush to tell us their PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 are the place for entertainment, the place for internet features...Wii beat them both to the punch by simple virtue of being more friendly. Wii scored a major coup in being the first "Living Room Platform" other than the failed Windows Media Center Standard to get iPlayer support.

But why the Wii you ask? Simple. Microsoft, to address them first, wanted the content, but not the brand. Yes, they want their customers to be able to access iPlayer, but they want it to be called Xbox Media Stream or some such nonsense name as they come up with arbitrarily. BBC said no, Microsoft wouldn't do the deal.

And that kills iPlayer's chances on Xbox LIVE for the time being. Because Xbox LIVE is a subscription based, gated community web service. Does that sound familiar? It ought to.

Exhibit A, the world's foremost dead-in-the water internet boom company. America Online, Inc. AOL's entire business model was a subscription based, gated community web service. Yes, Microsoft has more strings to its bow, as does Xbox alone, but the fact is: Xbox LIVE is AOL.

What then of Sony, with their "open" free web system? Open my ass. iPlayer isn't officially on PS3 because Sony don't want to do the deal. They won't let the BBC open the service to their customers as it stands for arbritary technical reasons.

What the real reason is? I don't know. But face it, it can't be very good.

But Nintendo? BBC said "hey, we have this iPlayer, it's pretty popular...". Nintendo said "What's that Flash? Use 7 and we're there".

Then they got even chummier "if you want, we can work on a Wii Channel for your service, I think our customers would love an iPlayer Channel, our competitors would hate it and it's a good use of our downloadable software platform."

Auntie was like "Hell to the yes."

Nitendo? Totally Firefox (Well, Mozilla).

So who does that make Sony in this second internet war?

Arbitrary technical blocks on service customers want for purely political reasons? Come on, you know this.

They're being Microsoft.

To summarise:

Microsoft's Xbox LIVE: America Online, Inc.'s AOL
Sony's PLAYSTATION Network: Microsoft Web Services (Comprising Internet Explorer, MSN Group etc.)
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection/WiiConnect24: Mozilla (/Firefox)

Jens Out

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So, today, I went to Toys R Us.

I played a little Tux Racer on the Eee they had on display, then took the ticket to the checkout, shoved my card in the slot, entetered my pin, claimed my Eee and left. Took about 10 minutes total including some time ogling the Doctor Who stuff. Painless.

I've got it setup and I love it, It works like a charm. Been hitting up forums, the chatroom from Forumula1.net, watching YouTube, iPlayer and MP4s. Even chatting with my frinds via Microsoft's Windows Live network.

The biggest job was redoing Firefox using the Minifox theme, Tinymenu extension and moving the navigation toolbar contents into the menu toolbar, before removing the empty navigation toolbar. All done to maximise viewing space.

I also did away with the status bar as irrelevant.

Right now I'm letting it charge for a while because it's been taking a pounding since it achieved full charge at around 1 or 2 (I forget). I ran it to dead at about 4ish I think and ran from outlet power for a while, before allowing it to charge a bit, then punding it again.

It's pretty, small, light and it was dirt cheap.

Love it.

Jens Out

Regarding iPlayer

Huzzah and so on, the BBC have moved to a streaming system for the iPlayer, in line with similar efforts by the American broadcasters. This change makes it much simpler for us to view content - we no longer have to download the ghastly Kontiki platform or use Internet Explorer.

Furthermore, now the system no longer requires registration to use it.

Good job BBC.

Jens Out.

Telephone

Well, I bought the phone. There were only 3 left and 2 had fairly beat up boxes. But I got one and it's sitting on my desk right now, just waiting for me to grab the necessary box to connect it to the VoIP network.

I'll be doing a review just as soon as I have it set up. I'll be releasing it initially on All Your Disney, but I might reprint it here with a tighter focus on telephony rather than the phone.

Phones are a really interesting area right now. Between Apple's iPhone and the OpenMoko project, mobile phones are going through their long-awaited revolution. Meanwhile, VoIP is making "landline" telephony simpler and better - both through cheaper services and great ideas like GrandCentral.

And all the while, the conventional landline operators are making efforts to move outward - BT for example is launching an IPTV service - and their new competitors are moving in on their territory - BSkyB offers Broadband now..!?

Yes, it's truly a time of change for telephony.

And meanwhile, the allegedly advancing television sector continues to diapoint. Between lacklustre uptake of HD broadcast and slow changes to aging systems, TV has lost a lot of its wonder.

A lot of the problem is that companies are failing to see the bigger picture. The internet is the obvious venue for expansion, yet the companies with the power continue to limit the expansion of TV into the internet. BT Vision has internet, but it's a sandbox.

iTunes TV Shows is great, but the broadcasters are being jerks.

BBC's iPlayer is hideoulsy crippled.

4OD makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

Come on TV companies, get your heads in the game.

Jens Out

Bedeep Beep Beep

Well a few thinks got updated today. My Wii and Apple's iMac (As well as their iLife and iWork software suites). First, I'll deal with these in that order, then we have some other things to talk about.

The Wii update adds a couple of useful things, such as a clock on the Wii Menu screen - above the date. My favourite part of the updated though is to the Forecast and News Channels. The News Channel's boot screen now displays a slection of current headlines as does its icon. The Forecast Channel, not to be outdone, now similarly displays the current weather status for your location on its icon.

The new iMac is gorgeous and I appreciate the use of a glossy screen which is also glass as opposed to plastic. Think iPhone.

Of particular note is the iMac's new razor thin aluminum keyboard, which borrows the profile of the MacBook. I love this keyboard, and I'm seriously considering grabbing one. It also lends credence to the idea that the MacBook Pros - which I suspect will be updated at MacWorld in January - will be receiving a similar keyboard.

iLife '08 is an update which is, in essence, exactly as I had previously speculated (Not here) that it would be. Apple have updated all Apps in line with progression and have, as I predicted, added superior photo editing facilities.

iWork '08 is also updated as I expected. Pages and Keynote have had some features added and, as I speculated, a new Spreadsheet App has been added - which is called, as I had previously heard rumoured, Numbers.

Numbers means that iWork combined with iLife is now a perfectly reasonable replacement for Microsoft Office for most users. I'm struggling to think of an application Office gives you which is not catered for by iLife, iWork or a built-in app to OS X and which will be used by the majority of users. If you can think of one, let me know.

Now then, my next order of business is to tell you the following things:

• Do not use the BBC iPlayer. It's barely functional and backdoors your connection for P2P facilities even when you are not aware of that.
  
• Use BT Vision only with caution. We've had nothing but trouble

On a lighter note, I'm hearing that the new iPod revision is due next month or late this month. It is said to sport a 16GB Flash Drive and is (Obviously) still a video player. This 16GB news might not make many of you happy, but bear in mind that this means 32GB and 64GB models will follow. Possibly sometime next year.

This 16GB model will be great for people like me who like music, but don't have particularly much of it, but also would like to take some videos with us. Wonderfully, this new iPod's arrival in September makes it a perfect candidate for my main 16th Birthday gift.

Jens Out