Wednesday 14 May 2008, 10:50 AM
Tablet trouble
We've had Dell's Latitude XT convertible tablet at ZDNet Towers for a coulpe of days, and been impressed with its sleek brushed aluminium finish, near-ThinkPad-quality keyboard, integrated HSPDA, diminutive AC adapter and capacitative touchscreen.
About the touchscreen. We don't have a lot of luck with touchscreens, and now the XT has fallen victim to The Curse of ZDNet Reviews. The very morning we were planning to do a video review of the unit, it woke up looking like this:
The machine has suffered no more than the average London-Bedford commuter at this time of year (jostling, overheating, general sense of ennui). As soon as Dell has got to the bottom of the fault, or provided another sample, we'll bring you the review.
Wednesday 14 May 2008, 10:26 AM
New ooVoo Release (1.6)
A new release of ooVoo for Windows, 1.6.1.7, was made available yesterday. This is the first ooVoo release that is not designated as a "Beta", and it is the beginning of their move to a clearly defined "free" basic package and additional paid services on top of that. I consider it to be the "it's time to figure out how to pay the bills" release. This is definitely not a bad thing as far as I am concerned.
Before I get into the details of the new release, I would like to point out that one thing ooVoo has effectively done with this release is extend their "call any number in the U.S. or Canada for free" offer for one more month. You can download and install the 1.6 release, and choose either of the plans which included phone calls, and you get the next month for free before you have to decide if you are really willing to pay $5/month for it. This is still irrespective of where you are calling from, so wherever you are in the world, if you have friends or family in the U.S. or Canada that you want to talk to, get ooVoo now.
The first thing to be said is that I downloaded and installed the new release yesterday, and had my brother in Atlanta do the same, and we tested it (from the train) yesterday afternoon. It still looks and works the same as the beta releases, and if anything the video and audio quality looked slightly better than previous versions to me, but the cellular connection quality can vary so much that I can't be sure of that.
The more important and interesting part of the new release is the division of services into free and paid "options". The first piece of very good news is that they have left 3-way video chat in the FREE "Standard" package. The standard package also includes normal video, audio and text chat, file transfer, the ability to send video messages up to one minute in length, and a reduced version of the "video effects" feature that was introduced with their 1.5 release.
Their "Super" package, which will have a subscription price of $10 per month, adds up to 6-way video chat, extends video messages to five minutes each, adds the ability to record calls, and includes the full version of the "video effects" feature. It's going to be interesting to see what the interest in this package will be - I can easily imagine business users wanting/needing more than 3-way video and the ability to record calls, and although it may seem odd to include more video effects in this package, one of the "effects" is the ability to share your desktop in a video chat, and that too can be very interesting for business users.
On top of either of these packages, you can add the "Phone" option to get dial-out calls to the U.S. and Canada, for an additional $5 per month. The "Standard+Phone" package includes up to 500 minutes per month, and the "Super+Phone" package includes "unlimited" calls - up to a "fair usage" limit of 3,000 minutes per month. I haven't yet found how much any calls above these limits will cost, but I'm still looking and asking.
For users outside the U.S. and Canada who want or need to call there, these are excellent prices! They are significantly lower than Skype's much-ballyhooed recent announcement of "Unlimited" packages. Even better, they don't try to distinguish (and charge) based on where you are calling from, and they don't limit the calls to land-line phones only!
It is also worth noting that with ooVoo you can include any combination of video, audio and phone participants in a multi-way chat. This is a nice touch, and a rather "cool" feature to use - you can be viewing some participants in a conference, hearing others who don't have or can't use webcams, and even still including others who only have phone access!
There are a couple of minor disappointments for me in this new release and the related announcements. First, I would like to see the phone options include world-wide calls, rather than only the U.S. and Canada. I assume this is coming in later releases, so I don't consider it to be a major issue. Second, I wish that they had left 6-way video (or even 4-way video) in the free version. That's probably just me being selfish, though - if their intention was to get business users to pay for ooVoo, this was probably a very smart decision, and at least leaving in 3-way video for the free version was a good thing for the rest of us.
Finally, I should also mention that the Mac version of ooVoo is still in beta release. It does not yet include phone out capability, video call recording or video effects. I'm sure ooVoo is working on adding these, and when the full release of the Mac version comes (hopefully soon), some or all of them will be included as well.
jw 14/5/2008
Tuesday 13 May 2008, 2:39 PM
Telescopic oversight
Microsoft Research's new WorldWide Telescope, in the brief time we've had to play with the beta, looks wonderful. A real productivity-killer, in fact -- especially as I'm lucky enough to have a powerful PC and a 30in. screen to view it on. So it would be churlish to poke fun at a typo we found in the 'Many worlds' guided tour wouldn't it?
Ah well, here it is:
Eruopa eh? Those Amreicans could sure use a spelling lesson!
More sensible stuff on the WWT soon.
Wednesday 7 May 2008, 12:59 PM
Could Novell kill OpenSolaris?
Sun's just opened its developer conference with the long-delayed launch of OpenSolaris, the open source version of its Solaris operating system. But after all this time, will it live?
It's taken Sun since 2005 to turn OpenSolaris into a proper release, which Sun intends will stand alongside Solaris as a community operating system - like Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
But some say the OS is doomed. "OpenSolaris Arrives Just to Die", says Practical Technology, pointing out that Linux has come on in leaps and bands over the last three years, and is now happily filling an expanding role for general purpose open source operating systems.
More scarily, as a Unix-based operating system, Solaris could be vulnerable to IP lawsuits, warns the site. Sun launched OpenSolaris with the blessing of SCO (then apparently owner of Unix) on the basis that its original deal with former owner AT&T gave it the right to open source a Unix-based Solaris.
Now, with SCO down, Novell is definitely the owner of the Unix intellectual property - and, as a Linux vendor, it might not want competition from OpenSolaris.
Practical Technology has sifted Groklaw's transcript of the Novell v Sco trial (now all finished bar the verdict), and come up with the following:
"Fundamentally, it simply would have been contrary to Novell’s business interests to enable something like [OpenSolaris],” Greg Jones, Novell’s VP of Technology Law said in court, after earlier stating, “it simply would not have been in Novell’s commercial interests."
In 2002, Novell was already planning to go into Linux, and would not have done anything to help out a competitor, he said. "Sun and OpenSolaris’ real trouble is that after Novell finishes grinding SCO into the ground, they’ll be next on Novell’s list," warns Practical Technology.
But OS News says Novell would never commit such a public relations blunder. Suing Linux vendors got SCO nothing but trouble. It could do the same to Novell - and alienate its substantial Linux user base by showing hostility to another open source product.
All this leaves aside the question whether OpenSolaris is actually a threat to Linux operating systems. A first look from ZDNet US' Jason Perlow rates it highly as a competitor to Unbuntu on the desktop, so it could at the very least be an alternative - but it's not supported commercially.
Users comparing the two will have to factor in the costs of an upgrade to a supported version of either, and make a judgement of the likely future plans of Sun and whichever Linux vendor they go with.
Our blogger at JavaOne, Adrian Bridgewater, picked up some distrust of "company-controlled open-source projects", so maybe Novell should keep its powder dry.
Thursday 1 May 2008, 3:43 PM
Delphi HTMLParser
HTMLParser is really easy to use. I have made an sample project for anyone who likes to use HTMLParser for their project.
http://www.tiaon.com/wordpress/2007/07/30/delphi-htmlparser-sample-1-reading-tags/
Wednesday 30 April 2008, 2:12 PM
Skype 3.8 Release Available
Skype has released 3.8 "Gold" for Windows.
They made one change that is half-good. Incoming contact requests pop up without the picture. That's a start. But why don't they get it? A new contact request from SexySandra or whoever doesn't need to pop up automatically in the middle of your display! The names that the hordes of Skype Sex Spammers are using now are nearly as embarrassing as the pictures that come with them (which are still only one click away from your children). A contact request should be treated like any other event, it can be flagged the same as a missed call, to be dealt with at a later time. That's actually a good comparison - is a new contact request from someone, whether it is MostlyNakedMary or an old friend, really more important than a missed call from someone with whom you already communicate? The former pops up blaring in the middle of your screen, and the latter is indicated by a very discreet little flag overlaying the Skype icon in the Windows system tray which many, perhaps most, users either don't notice, don't recognize or don't understand what it means anyway?
Other than that, Skype makes the usual claims about improved audio, fixing video bugs, better handling of audio devices and such. If you then go to the Skype Community (the mutilated Skype User Forums), you find that people with 3.8 beta are still complaining about video freeze, audio dropout, and much more.
I have installed the new release on my test system, and the one thing I can personally report is that the Skype "presence reporting" is still broken. The one major contact I still have on Skype has been shown as offline most of the day, and I know he has been online because I've been chatting with him on ooVoo. The few other contacts that I still show on there have been bouncing online and offline all day, but are they really doing that, or is Skype "presence" just totally hosed? Beats me.
Do I need to say it again? If you are looking for a video/audio/text IM program, do yourself a favor and get one that works - ooVoo, SightSpeed and Gizmo5 are all vastly superior to Skype. I know it can be tough to get your contacts who may already by using Skype to convert, because I've been through that. But believe me, both you and your contacts will be happier if you change over.
jw 30/4/2008
Wednesday 30 April 2008, 8:53 AM
Windows XP SP3 Installed
I have downloaded and installed Service Pack 3 for Windows XP Professional on my Fujitsu Lifebook S6510. Everything went smoothly, and it seems to work just fine. I don't see anything particularly better after the installation, but more importantly I don't see anything worse either.
Overall I am very happy with the S6510 running XP since my latest retreat from Vista last week. As I have said so many times before, it works, it is stable, it is fast, and everything else that I own works with it.
What kind of strange world is this, when the company which controls the market can stop sales of an operating system that works, in order to force purchases of an operating system that has been proven, over and over again, to still have so many bugs and performance problems that it is clearly inferior to the one being withdrawn? I sincerely hope that OEMs such as Fujitsu, Dell, HP and the like, who will have to take the brunt of the customer support calls and dissatisfaction, continue to pressure Microsoft to allow them to continue selling XP. I mean, honestly, if Intel alone could pressure Microsoft into doing something that was clearly technically "wrong" (changing the minimum requirements for Visa), one would hope that a group of OEMs could convince them to do something that is obviously technically "right".
Of course, that's not the way this world, and this market, generally works. Unfortunately.
UPDATE:
According to an article by Mary Jo Foley on the ZDNet.com site, Microsoft has suddenly decided not to release XP SP3 to Windows Update and the Download Center. For those who still want to download it via the direct link to the executable, as I did, please read the excellent article by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes on the same site, explaining the considerations of such a direct download, and the link to the executable patch file.
The problem seems to be a compatibility issue with a rather obscure Microsoft Business product. Moreover, they have not only held back XP SP3, they have also stopped Vista SP1 from Automatic Download (again) for the same reason. This seems very mysterious to me - I am sure that Microsoft isn't doing this out of the goodness of its heart, nor out of concern for their general customers. There must be more to it than meets the eye - perhaps it is a security issue, or they are afraid that it could provide the basis for another huge lawsuit or some such. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Tuesday 29 April 2008, 2:18 PM
Zattoo puts live TV on the desktop
A bit puzzling, this. Zattoo is a free live streaming TV service which, like so many, has its own client (Mac, Linux, XP and Vista) and does peer-to-peerage. Unlike the rest, Zattoo comes with all of the BBC's terrestrial and digital channels, ITV (local and regional), Channel 4, Five, and a bunch of other stuff you normally only find when flicking around on a dull weekend.
It works, too - I know I shouldn't be surprised when something like this just loads and runs under Ubuntu, but it did and I was. Registration is pretty light, the service (which has a million users worldwide and runs in quite a few countries) does IP localisation to make sure you can't be very naughty and watch what you shouldn't (although rumour has it that it's not the smartest suit in the tailor's when it comes to spotting proxies).
Video and audio quality is fine (a pal spotted that the feed was coming off-air from a Humax PVR), and it takes around 7-800 kbps in bandwidth. And it is really peer-to-peer; watching Netmeter, I could spot other people popping on and taking streams from me - and when I started up another client on another computer on the same network (you need two accounts for this, but it's easy to multiply regsiter), it reliably found and fed from the first computer, when that computer was watching the same channel. Haven't looked into the client in too much depth yet - it seems to be using the FAAD audio decoder and FFmpeg for video, both LGPL - but it works fine. And there's an EPG, just not terribly well populated.
So far, so good. Where's the catch?
That's where I get confused. I can't see one for users, although I can for the company itself. For a start, I don't know how they've got around the various rights issues that are keeping other people from running video streams of UK terrestrial stations. But I'm watching snooker in another window as I type this, so something's working (even if it's not me).
And the other question is: how on earth are they going to make money at this? It's P2P, which keeps the costs down, but it doesn't really matter how low the costs are if there's no income.
I'm sure they've got all that covered, though. Meanwhile, grab a copy of the software and give it a go.
Monday 14 April 2008, 8:20 PM
Video IM - Pulling It All Together
I got a very nice example this evening of how all of the things I have been writing about here can come together and work really nicely. I was on the train, on the way home, and was text chatting with a friend via ooVoo. I mentioned to him that I was on the train, and was connected via my cellular modem. He thought that sounded pretty cool, and asked if I would like to try a video call. I was skeptical, because my previous tests with that modem, even with an HSDPA connection, had not produced very good results even on audio-only calls. But I'm just about always willing to at least try, so he called me... and it worked great! I mean, not just "acceptable", it was really good! Audio was flawless, and video was consistently smooth and clear. I have written before about all of the things that were involved in this:
- ooVoo: the new release, 1.5, is just great. There's just not a lot more to be said about it, it works really well, and it doesn't make a big fuss about it.
- Sierra Wireless AirCard GSM data card: At the time I made the call, it said that it had an HSDPA connection; although the card is supposed to be HSUPA capable, I have never seen it report an HSUPA (or HSPA) connection. I don't know if that is because Swisscom isn't doing HSUPA yet, or if the software isn't able to report it yet. I checked one of the VoIP speed test sites before making the call, and it said that I was getting approximately 250Kbps both up and down.
- Fujitsu Lifebook S6510: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, Vista SP1, and a built-in Logitech webcam, Realtek audio and integrated speakers and microphone, it was ready and up to the task.
- Logitech Premium Notebook Headset: I decided that the people around me on the train weren't interested in what I was doing, and didn't want to be bothered by it, so rather than use the built-in audio, I plugged this in quickly.
It is really gratifying when a number of different things that I have been talking about, and recommending, work together to produce something really useful. I hope that it provides some useful information and examples to some other people as well.
jw 14/4/2008
Friday 11 April 2008, 3:18 PM
Nokia squares up to Apple
Much buzz on the tubes right now about the, er, Tube. This would be the Nokia 5800, Espoo's first touchscreen phone (yes, I know, I shook my head in disbelief at that for a moment too, but it's true).
Although it's really a prototype, it's being touted by the blogerati as an iPhone-killer... isn't anything with a big touchscreen these days? Anyways...
TV-out socket. Haptic blah-blahs. Wi-Fi. HSDPA. A decent camera (probably). A proper 3.5mm headphone socket. All of these come with the "allegedly" proviso, because Nokia won't talk about it on the record (but that's their standard line for anything they haven't officially launched yet).
Pics here at Gizmodo.
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