An Age Old Problem

With an increased number of services hitting the internet space, control of these services needs to improve and include control mechanisms that prevent the ‘unauthorised use’ of these services. I am talking about one form of control in particular though – age verification.

The current model of age verification is a simple question and click box “Are you over 18?” – yes or no. Hardly a 100% fool proof method of verifying the users age. Even when prompted to enter a birthday into a website, it doesn’t take a teen too long to figure out that they need to knock a couple of years off their DOB in order to bypass the age verification system.

Japan has recently installed new cigarette vending machines, which are able to perform age verification before serving up a package of branded smokes. The system works by using a digital camera, some facial recognition and a clever piece of software that is able to pick up on features of the potential customers face and verify their age. Apparently it has a pretty high success rate and unless you have particularly young looks for your age, the system is flawless.

But how do you transfer that methodology to the web for customers of online film rental for example? The answer is that you can’t – yet. Credit card authentication goes some way to verifying the customer and can be extended to verify the customers age, but expecting every customer to pay via credit card as opposed to debit cards or other methods of payment such as Google checkout or PayPal (which are amongst the preferred payment methods for online transactions).

Its an issue that needs to be addressed (for film age verification purposes, online shopping purposes, etc), and I’m sure there are a number of R&D departments across the globe thinking up ingenious methods to verify your age.

Worldwide Telescope

Our understanding and knowledge of space is miniscule (especially mine), and there are vast areas of space that are yet to be discovered, yet alone be explored by the human race of planet Earth. However, the ability to view the stars is no longer limited to only the amateur astrologists with a telescope in the back garden.

BillG donated a pocket full of cash and the skill set of Microsoft to the “Worldwide Telescope” project. The project aimed to build one of the biggest telescopes to photograph the night skies and create a “Google Earth” style star chart plotting the galaxy and linking in a vast amount of information based on about what we understand of the universe and bringing it to the masses.

It was an ambitious project and the end result will be a centralised mass of many terabytes of the mysteries of the universe that will only grow as our understanding deepens.

Check out more on the project here.

Unlock the Power Within

There’s little denying that the number of mobile devices people are using every day are only increasing. It is assumed that the vast majority of people in the developed world now carries around with them at least one mobile phone, along with the shift users are making to buy laptops instead of the traditional desktop alternatives – every year a reduced estimate of when laptops will finally outsell desktops appears on the net (the earliest I’ve read is that its likely to happen by is September 2009).

But research and development is already way ahead on the next computer form factor and its only a matter of time before the flexible display, digital ink, miniature integrated projectors are all worked into mobile technology as well as a multitude of other inconceivable technologies and services that we have yet to even dream of, unless your at the heart of one of these R&D labs.
The thought that struck me today though was that of methods of powering these devices. The traditional batteries that are installed in devices often only provide a limited hourly charge, which decreases rapidly when processing power increases with an intense workload and when wireless networks and other devices are plugged in and operated. Fear not though, because it seems those clever R&D people are already looking at developing fuel cells that are able to produced increased amounts of power and other new types of batteries are also being developed and tested to various degrees of success.

One article I read stood out to me though – the use of kinetic motion and heat dissipation to create energy. Its an area I’m reading a lot about at the moment due to the rule changes that are happening in Formula 1 at the moment, ready for next year when cars will be fitted with a KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), which will allow the teams to capture the excess power and energy from things like braking that is normally lost and use it to collect a “boost” which will then be used to produce extra power in the engine so drivers are able to pass and overtake each other.

If mobile devices where able to apply similar technology that captures the heat dissipation from the processor and power supplies or movement of the laptop as its transported from one place to another or from the user interaction of pressing down on the keyboard’s keys and turn that back into useable energy and back to the battery. Similar kinetic energy recovery has been in wrist watches for years now, granted you’re more likely to move your arm around in day-to-day activities than you are to swing a laptop around, but in mobile phones it’s perfectly feasible.

Is the Technology Era Over?

In Mary Jo Foley’s recent book “Microsoft 2.0”, which is aimed at answering the question of “how Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era” whilst exploring the infrastructure, leadership and significant products of the Redmond based software giant. It’s an interesting read, but one part (so far – I’ve not reached the end of the book yet), really stands out to me – is the technology era over?

BillG invented the “Technology Era”, he pioneered the early PCs aimed at business users as a tool and expanded that ethos further into the home consumer market via MS-DOS and then the GUI interface. Anyone remember the early Microsoft slogan “A PC on Every Desk and in Every Home”? Well, during the technology era, Bill and Microsoft made this happen. It’s now more unusual to find a desk without a PC than it is one with a computer or some description.

Ms Foley speculates however that we’re way past this technology blitz and the IT scene is now charting new explorations into new territories and new era’s are coming to fruition – for example, Apple has pioneered the “Design Era”, with their ‘hip’ iPod/iPhone/Mac designs. Sony and Nintendo currently leading the “Gaming Era”. Google pioneered the “Search Era” and also the “Online Advertising Era”. Facebook has pioneered the “Social Networking Era”.

All of these new areas of development, Microsoft have entered or increased their involvement within, however Gates and Microsoft are getting further and further away from this technology era that they developed and lead their competition and markets into. They achieved their goal, and are now its all too easy for people to forget the developments and constant improvements Microsoft have made without people being able to hail them as the next big thing. Its almost as if the underlying Operating System is taken for granted now a days, as these new services are deployed on top of the OS.

Its important to remember though that Microsoft still own more than 90% of the worldwide Operating System market and MS Office continues to be the office suite of choice in the vast majority of cases (and I still expect Vista to eventually become good, and even if I’m wrong its still likely that the next version of Windows will still incorporate most of the Vista features and be refined and improved further). They are by no means out of the game and no one should count them out or write them off for a long time yet – the next collection of eras (design, social, gaming, search, advertising, etc), may be happening, but rest assured Microsoft are right in there as a big player in areas outside of their very own “Technology Era”.

Adapt...the OS that WILL live!

It’s no secret that I’m one of those rare IT people, who is actually a bit of a fan of Microsoft’s unloved Operating System, Windows Vista. I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve never had a problem with it (all my applications work and I understood that there would be early teething problems when first released), or because I like innovation and development towards something new and fresh, or it could be that I’ve already convinced myself that this is the future of Microsoft Operating Systems no matter what.

This week, a short demo (or rather a tease), of Microsoft’s next OS – “Windows 7” – was shown this week by BillG and Steve Ballmer, highlighting the “Touch” capabilities they are going to build into the OS (and if you remember earlier posts, you’ll know my mind is already open to the use of touch to interact with devices). Anyone who’s seen videos of the demo may have noticed that underneath the touch interface, there was the same “Vista” framework.

Alright, Microsoft are far from a new Windows 7 operating system at this time (its not scheduled to be finished until 2009/2010), but its difficult to believe that the underlying structure of Windows will be all that different (I could be wrong of course, Microsoft have remained tight lipped on features within Windows 7), and that the Vista will have its place, even if that’s just a stepping stone to the next generation.

What I still haven’t got my head around yet is why Vista is not successful. I spoke to a couple of colleagues of mine about why they haven’t updated (and also the benefits and pitfalls of Office 2007), and the reasons were because Microsoft have changed too much and abandoned what has been their “traditional” user interface with something a bit different and more intelligent which makes it difficult to find the tools they are looking for (especially in Office 2007 with its “Ribbon” interface). I’m a bit more open minded than that and after using these new interfaces for a couple of hours, they become as second nature as the “traditional” approach people are used to from previous versions.

My counter argument was the difference in approach Microsoft took and the difference people endured during the transition from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95, a radically different interface and a very different approach to the user interface – these same users who struggle to change their mindset to Vista lived through the transition to Windows 95, they have just forgotten how to open their minds and adapt, which is very sad to me.

Near Field Communication

Currency has already made many transitions over the decades – from cold, hard coins, to paper money with sophisticated anti-fraud devices, to the plastic card era and the internet banking transactions that now take place due to banks being online and the widely adopted support of services such as PayPal and Google Checkout.

But is the next paradigm change on the horizon with the introduction of the digital wallet – or more likely, the introduction of payment methods via your mobile phone. We all know that most people now carry a mobile phone, which is likely to be in some way linked to your bank account (pay monthly contracts or top-up via credit card services), which makes it a perfect medium for digital transactions.

Nokia (amongst others), are investigating and developing “Near Field Communications” or NFC, which is the RFID standard being build into future handsets. NFC allows interaction between your mobile phone and near-by RFID tags that can be embedded with a variety of information or ‘tags’ which can then contain items such as URLs to the internet, telephone numbers, advertisements, tourist information, etc.

By delivering this information directly to your phone, it provides a digital link between your physical environment and your mobile phone. NFC though is being developed further to provide online payments via mobile phone – its currently in the testing phases at the moment and there are many difficulties yet to overcome (as with any wireless technology, how do you know that wireless advertisement tag belongs to the item your hoping to purchase and/or valid and free from risk). But imagine being able to approach a vending machine and your mobile phone wirelessly connecting to the machine, and then either via SMS or some other form, selecting the product you wish to purchase and then having the cost deducted from your mobile phone (or added to your mobile phone contract bill or some alternative, depending on if mobile phone carriers would want to get into the banking/credit game on a mass scale).

It’s a technology that needs work, but the development is happening and the issues will doubtlessly be overcome, if not in this form, then the digital wallet will happen in some other way.

MS Mobile Improvements

I can’t help but follow up my post on Android OS with a post on the up and coming improvements that Microsoft is touting for their mobile OS. Anyone who’s had the pleasure to use a Windows Mobile device will have no doubt found the experience a little less satisfying than those same experiences found on say the iPhone with its intuitive touch screen functionality.

I’m not saying that touch isn’t as good on the Windows devices, but improvements to the UI can be made with introductions of items like zoom and other gestures. Microsoft are already aware of some of the minor issues with its Mobile OS and from what I’ve read have already had discussions with the industry and its users on where the improvements will be focused. These are likely to come with Windows Mobile 7, which is due around 2009/2010 according to some sources, and Windows Mobile 8 available two years after as Microsoft continue with their continuous updates to its OS software it has neglected in the past (look at the time difference between the release of XP and Vista).

In the short term, Microsoft are releasing an update to its Windows Mobile 6 platform (which will be known as 6.1), later this year. Whilst the update isn’t claiming to fix all of the issues or provide any significant updates, it does deliver some tweaks that users have requests (conversational style text messages for example). One of the biggest updates 6.1 delivers however, is the management of multiple mobile devices within a corporate environment. Using “System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008” (SCMDM), corporate phones are going to be able to connect into Active Directory for the first time and utilise the same business applications and security protocols as those found on the desktop. For example, SCMDM adds support for 130 security policy settings, as well as OTA (over the air), provisioning, inventory and reporting of the mobile device.

There is no doubt that this level of control is perfect for the business corporate environment and brings the mobile device into the fold as a ‘proper business device’. Certainly no advantage to ‘non-business’ Smartphone users, but clearly more evidence of the attempts to bring mobile devices and desktop/laptop PCs closer together, which is something Microsoft have promised big steps on by the time Windows 7 comes along.

Another area that has received the Microsoft focus has been something they are calling a “Device Manners Policy” (or DMP). Microsoft has recently applied for patients for this technology. DMP works by connecting to your mobile device and based upon the settings of the area you have entered, can switch on or off specific parts of the mobile device. As an example, if you walked into a public library, the DMP policy may automatically switch your phone to vibrate mode, or switch off the telephony features of your device, whilst at the same time activating the wireless network settings on your phone, in order for you to connect to the libraries internet connection on ‘online’ systems. Other examples are ‘quiet’ areas on trains could switch off telephony and music playback or “no photography allowed” areas could disable mobile devices camera options. As you leave these ‘restricted areas’, the devices capabilities are re-activated back to your “normal” settings.

Not a lot is known about how these “restricted” areas will be set or how Microsoft plan to implement this technology on non-Microsoft mobile devices, but it is certainly a technology that would be useful in certain areas/situations. But at the same time may also frustrate other users.

There’s little doubt that there are some exciting developments to come in the mobile device world and the integration between mobile device and PC will continue to get closer together. Microsoft have some competition for the mobile OS space, in the form of iPhone and Android, but I believe if they can deliver on the improvement plans they are talking about for Mobile 7 and the closer integration into Windows, they can take a dominant lead in the mobile OS market.

SideShow (with the Bob)

If you read my recent post on the wonderous potential of RSS, and my prediction that it will continue to be developed further to a system that “pushes” information to you, rather than people wondering down the ‘search’ route. The primary delivery of that ‘data push’ referred to in my article was the “Windows Sidebar” (although there are many applications that are capable of RSS operations).

Today though, I want to talk about an extension of the “Sidebar” out from your primary desktop device and onto another device – using “Windows SideShow”. Prior to Windows Vista being unleashed on the general public, I remember watching a Microsoft demonstration on how the OS was capable of communicating seamlessly with other devices in a connected world and one of the main things that stood out to me was that connected to the PC the lady was using to demo with, had a digital photo frame connected to the machine (presumably via USB), that displayed a number of ‘pop-up’ system messages much like your desktop – for example when new email was received or when a new person signed onto the Live Messenger application.

I now understand that technology to be the “SideShow”. Of course, it’s only available within Windows Vista, but I think it’s a bit of a cool technology and anything that connects devices together in an intelligent way can only be a good thing. But SideShow isn’t only available on your digital photo frame, a couple of laptop manufacturers have build smaller screens directly into the lid of their laptops, to provide a “quick view” of your email data or an indication of who’s logged in, etc. Microsoft have taken it one step further, and recently released a ‘beta’ of “SideShow for Windows Mobile Devices” (punchy name!).

You install the .Net Framework 2 for mobile onto your phone and then copy the “SideShow for mobile” cab file and run. Switch on your Bluetooth connect and pair up with your Vista PC. As simple as that, you can then open up the SideShow on your mobile and using the ‘gadgets’ perform a number of functions between your devices. At the moment, with the product only in ‘beta’ release, and with not many gadgets available it can only perform limited functions, but those it can do right now are pretty exciting – you can use your phone to control PowerPoint presentations (no more separate remote control devices), remote control for Windows Media Player (not sure if this works with Media Centre just yet), read your RSS feeds received by your PC on your phone (which is a good feature if you haven’t already got a mobile RSS application installed on your phone), and the email and Live Messenger functions I mentioned earlier.

I don’t know why only Bluetooth connectivity has been selected for SideShow and obviously limits how far you can roam between your Vista PC and your connected device. It would have been better if you could connect via IP over your private wireless network, but this feature may be implemented either in the final or in a future release. The other bit that concerns me is that as an unloved OS, the potential gadgets that could be written to expand these services further won’t be picked up by some developers and therefore this technology may take longer to reach its potential than Microsoft might first have imagined.

However, extending the functionality of devices and with the elements of integrated communication between those devices excites me and it’s a good thing to see as the “Digital Lifestyle” connectivity expands further and marches on.

Androids

Android. No longer just a robotic cyberman, but now a mobile phone operating system thanks to Google.

Ever since Apple released the iPhone with its plethora of Google enabled services acting behind the scenes, including the popular Google maps with the Apple designed interface, there has been a lot of noise about a “Google Phone” being ‘in-development’ with various Photoshop mock-ups of what the “gPhone” might look like.

What Google did instead though was announce it was developing an Open-Source mobile operating system, much like Microsoft’s “Mobile” OS strategy, that could be loaded onto a number of handsets and provide the same plethora of applications and more, thanks to the open source availability of the code, allowing developers to, well, develop new and interesting applications that will work right there on the Android OS.

Last week, at the Google conference the Android OS was shown off to a crowd. The stand-out feature reported was the inclusion of a digital compass, build into the device, which when used with Google Maps, allowed the maps to be rotated to the user’s point of view, so that when following directions, the map accurately reflected what the user should see in front of them. It’s a clever idea, but it’s something that SatNav companies have successfully done before using their mapping technologies and I’m not sure if it’s the “ultimate app” that will make people sign up and buy a “Google Phone”.

Whilst I don’t want to count the Android OS out just yet, I’m left wondering if this can ever be as popular as the Microsoft Mobile OS. The Microsoft model has a direct line back into its desktop OS and is able to interact with the magic Microsoft Office applications that most users will used for their Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, Google of course have their “Google Apps” (formerly known as “Docs and Spreadsheets”), but whether than can breakdown further the MS Office strong hold remains to be seen. That said, the iPhone doesn’t offer any way to create and edit documents either, so I could be wrong about what users really want to do on their mobile devices.

I expect the Android OS to take its share of the market – no doubt about that – especially amongst those users who shun Microsoft products and a percentage of developers will relish the chance to customise their handsets to work exactly how they would like them to (it’d be interesting to see what type of support Google will offer when applications go wrong and how that will work).

It’ll be exciting when it arrives, and people will buy – but will it ultimately dominate the mobile OS market – well, no one manufacturer has managed to do that as of yet.

Join the Syndicate

If you’ve read some of my earlier posts, you’ll know that despite the vast majority of people taking a dislike to Windows Vista, I have been a firm supporter of the “unloved” Operating System. One aspect of the OS I’ve always overlooked though, so far, has been the Sidebar.
I remember seeing screenshots of the “Longhorn” OS showing off the sidebar and thinking that it was a cool addition to the desktop. A place where information can live and breath on the desktop and display useful ‘gadgets’ or ‘widgets’ to bring the most important information for each particular user directly to the forefront of the desktop.

The hot topic on most IT company’s radar, since Google exploded, has been “Search”. Everyone wants a slice of that market and the advertisement revenues that accompany it. Whilst ‘search’ is important, the sidebar got me thinking about how it delivers information directly to me, rather than me going searching for it or having to plough through the Windows menu systems or control panels.

A major element to this, especially when receiving data from the outside world is the use of “RSS feeds” (Really Simple Syndication) that uses a form of XML to push data directly to those who ‘subscribe’ to the syndicated feed. The most popular version of this is news reports or blog articles delivered directly to you without the need to search or visit sites regularly for your fix of the latest. Podcasting uses a similar syndicated feed, to alert users to download the latest copies of the audible delights.

There is little doubt in my mind that RSS will continue to expand and the services and types of data that it will “push” to subscribed, ‘opt-in’, users will increase as more ‘services’ are migrated onto the internet space and information is delivered to users electronically…all without having the user search or leave the desktop’s sidebar.

Shifting the Paradigm

As of today, I have a new favourite word to add to my list of many, that word is--- “Paradigm”.

According to the dictionary definition by thefreedictionary.com its meaning is as follows:
1. One that serves as a pattern or model.
2. A set or list of all the inflectional forms of a word or of one of its grammatical categories: the paradigm of an irregular verb.
3. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline.

Why “paradigm”? The word has been highlighted in my vocabulary by Mr Bill Gates, who uses this word when describing changing markets (or patterns/models), in the technology world. It’s a tool that Gates uses to search for “The next paradigm shift” or the next evolution in the market or technology – and by asking himself this question, is able to get ahead of the game and already have a pre-planned strategy for the next future goal or objective.

Ask yourself today, where your next paradigm shift is coming from in your industry and get yourself ahead of the game.

Sky Without the Satellite

I think just about everyone is aware of the PVR (Personal Video Recorder), features that are utilised by set-top boxes from Sky, Virgin Media and freeview manufacturers, which provide the ability to record television programmes directly onto your hard disk – al-la Sky+.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get in front of my TV for this weeks 2 hour season finale of “Lost” season 4, shown on Sky One this Sunday. Of course I had set up the “Series Link” for the show and everything was due to be downloaded to the hard disk as normal. However, getting two hours of the main TV to myself to watch the recording is difficult, and it was obvious that an alternative arrangement needed to be made….

“Sky Player” is the on-demand, online version of Sky, which makes available a portion of the more popular shows, online, direct to your computer. A 2 hour, season finale proved the excellent excuse to sign up and trial the “Sky Player”. Signing up to the service was quick and easy – Sky actually allow you to authenticate yourself using either the last few digits of your bank account (the same account you pay your Sky bill with), or via your viewing card number. Once signed up, you download a small applet that lets you browse (after logging in), the available shows.

Once you’ve located and selected your show from the online library, depending on the show you have a couple of options – either play the show directly or download and watch offline.

I managed to watch a portion of a movie online – which aren’t available as downloads for obvious reasons, but the episode of “Lost” was available as a download, which I was able to play back via Windows Media Centre, much to my delight. The quality was excellent, especially as my laptop with its “BrightView” technology really showed off the video perfectly.

The only downside I found, was that I wasn’t able to watch the show ‘live’ (or slightly delayed), online as it went out on the regular TV transmission. ITV are showing all of the Formula One action, live, online this year – with the only downside being a slight delay to the transmission which goes out to the TV audiences (I expect this is down to the further encoding and transmission of the pictures via IP compared to satellite). If Sky could incorporate that into the “Sky Player”, they could change the way most people watch Sky Television.

Zen and the Art of Calm

It was inevitable…
It has finally happened….
It didn’t feel good…

Yep, that’s right, my Apple iPod Video has given up on me yet again - much to my annoyance. It’s the second iPod I’ve actually owned, the first gave up on me after quite a lengthy spell due to a hard disk problem, but it served me well and I knew it was time to buy a new one, which is why I plumped for the iPod Video. After a year and six months, and a battery replacement, even that has given up on me now. It’s a strange error – the unit will play quite happily, until I switch it off, then it refuses to switch back on. Thinking that my replacement battery was at fault, I unclipped the lid and reset the battery pack and hey presto, the Apple device burst back into life.

But that burst of energy was short lived, and as soon as the device was switched off again, it refuses to switch back on. I’ve tried all of the obvious troubleshooting, flashing the firmware, formatting the hard disk, checked that the battery was charged, etc. All with no success. Now I’m aware that Apple has come in for quite a bit of criticism over the lifespan of the iPod range, with various components failing for many different people who I’ve spoken to about them.

It pained me to finally throw in the towel on such a wonderful product – I loved my iPod, it was used every day, connected to my car stereo, sat in a speaker dock at home and entertained me on the move and at my desk at work. It’s always been my companion on my many adventures. But as much as I love the iPod, I cannot afford to pay for a replacement device every time it breaks down, so I’ve been looking around for an alternative to try.

My first choice would have been for an iPod-a-like “Microsoft Zune”, but as they are not available in the UK at this time, and I was confronted with messages of “Not available in your area” from the Microsoft website when I tried to download the software for a sneak peak and a thought about buying an imported model, I quickly gave in. Microsoft should really have their act together on the Zune in the UK and Europe; frustrated Apple users need an alternative over here.

As it became apparent that my first choice wasn’t viable, the search began. I needed something with a storage of equal proportions to the iPod, but wasn’t overly expensive either. As I researched, I remembered reading a review about the SanDisk Sansa and how it was a reasonable alternative. I read the reviews and although the Sansa only offered a 16GB capacity, it does have a MicroSD slot for expansion and it was within my price range – perfect! That was until I visited my local Currys store to check out the device – and that’s when the Creative Zen caught my eye. It’s a tiny device, with the same SD expansion slot and it has a gorgeous colour screen. I had to know more about it before making my choice.

As soon as I reached home, I fired up the laptop and scooted across to Google for a couple of reviews. It seemed to score high marks comparable with the iPod, and as a plus, it’s able to play content purchased from iTunes, which provided an added bonus to choosing a different brand, but I’m not limited to using the iTunes software or the included Zen software, which means I now have the option to choose. I like that, especially as long to start using Microsoft Media Centre. The Zen also appears to handle video playback much better (from the reviews I read), and conversion of film and video to the device is made easy – something that I’ve never ventured into with my iPod Video to avoid any frustration for myself. Also, the inclusion of an FM radio provides a cheeky bonus (why does it seem that Apple is the only manufacturer not to provide any radio features?)

I ordered the Creative Zen soon after, having made my decision. Although I’m excited by its arrival, I am still disappointed that my Logitec iPod speakers are not compatible and the Sony Stereo in my car with iPod adapter will no longer have any device plugged into the iPod connection (It does have an AUX port for “other” MP3 players, so its not all bad). Apple dominate the MP3 market – just look for a speaker dock for any other type of MP3 player and you’ll be hard pressed to find one in the crowd of iPod docking-station enabled speakers and stereos.

I’ll miss my iPod, but I have good feelings about the Zen’s ability to help me move on and forget, without looking back. I’ll post more as soon as it arrives and I’ve had chance to ‘road-test’ it.