New iPhone to Shoot HD Video?

With Apple set to release its latest iPhone next week, rumours are flying as to what new features and capabilities it will have. The strongest tip, according to an Apple insider who has seen the new model, is that it will be able to shoot and edit high-definition (HD) video.

“Video without doubt represents the next wave of communication on the ‘net,” said the Apple insider. “We are seeing video news breaking every day – shot by normal people with their mobile phones, like the US Airways jet crash landing in the Hudson River.”

Combining a HD video camera with some basic editing functions in the new iPhone, users will be able to not only shoot video but also post it to the web or send it by email without using any other other digital device. Not bad!

Obama’s “Blackberry One” Confirmed

BlackBerry One

As predicted in this blog back in November last year, The Mangle can confirm that US President Barack Obama will be getting his own, specially-designed secure Blackberry – dubbed the “Blackberry One”. You can read about it in UK’s Register: “Obama awaiting super-secure BlackBerry delivery“.

While we got a couple of things wrong – we said it would be based on the 8700c model (see pictured design left), but it will be the Blackberry 8830 (see pictured design right) – we got most of it right. The Mangle had some details not yet confirmed in the press: only six units will be made, and the device itself will be secured using voice biometrics and a remote self-destruct capability. Understandably, some of this detail may never be released to the public, due to its obvious security implications.

Interestingly, Obama doesn’t want one of the touchscreen models, such as the Blackberry Bold or Storm. I wonder if this is a personal preference, or some sort of inherent security weakness in the touchscreen technology? Only time will tell. I wonder how hard the lobbyists from Apple worked to try and talk the White House into an “iPhone One”?

RIM Rumoured to be Creating “BlackBerry One” for Obama

 

 

BlackBerry One

US President-elect Barack Obama has been widely reported as reluctant to give up his trusty BlackBerry when he takes office in a few weeks time (see Chicago Tribune or Gizmodo for example).

However, news has now emerged that Research in Motion (‘RIM’) is working with US Government agencies to create “BlackBerry One”, specifically for the future President’s use. Based on Obama’s preferred model, the BlackBerry 8700c, BlackBerry One will be an ultra-secure handset that also complies with the Presidential Records Act, the main reason why Obama is being asked to give up the device when he assumes power.

A technical team from RIM has been seconded to the State Department, and they are creating a completely unique encryption algorithm for the BlackBerry One, and also designing a stand-alone BlackBerry Enterprise Server for deployment within the Pentagon, with a redundant server to be housed in the White House’s bunker.

It’s believed that only six units are being manufactured – all as back-up solely for the President’s use while in office – and, apart from unique encryption, the BlackBerry One will also feature two-factor authentication using voice biometrics and a remote self-destruct capability.

More old news: Visa makes ‘use once’ password cards

ZDNet Australia recently wrote about two companies “trialling” token-based credit cards: EMUE and RSA. ENUE even claimed that the cards were being trialled by a “major bank” in Australia (although this claim was denied by two of them: ANZ and National Australia Bank). Here’s an excerpt of the article:

Two cards containing microprocessors that generate one-time passwords are being touted to Australian banks as possible replacements for tokens and passwords delivered by SMS — and one is already being trialled by Visa.

Not such earth-shattering news, given that iTWire had a story in May 2007 about VeriSign doing exactly the same thing, and The Mangle wrote about a year before that (“Token-based Security for Visa?“)!

Scoop? I think not!

Associated Press Tests Cut and Paste Prototype Code

Having recently announced that it is going to charge people who cut and paste its content, Associated Press (AP) is trialling some embedded code into its syndicated content to ensure that it can police its new pricing regime and protect its content online. When users attempt to copy and paste from the browser, they will only be allosed to do so if they have a registered user name and password with AP.

The move to charge for content has caused huge furore – particularly in the blogging community (see Wired http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/06/the-ap-has-crea.html) – with a pretty valid argument for “fair use” raised.

However, media outlets and news services have a right to protect their content and also to generate revenue from that income. In Australia, we have seen this with Fairfax Media (eg. www.afr.com) - who no longer provides full text content to services such as Factiva, and also has adopted ‘cut and paste’-repellent content on sites like http://www.misaustralia.com.

The move has also fired up prominent bloggers such as TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.

However, we didn’t see the same angst when Fairfax moved to its new content protectionist stance – so maybe a technology solution is the answer? It’s certainly a creative one, and one in keeping with The Mangle’s philosophy!

 

RFID and Number Plate Recognition Systems Combine for Crime Control

UK’s Lancashire Constabulary and County Council have collaborated on a trial to control motor vehicle-based crime. The trial, which combines RFID vehicle registration tags and number plate recognition cameras, has been operating at a number of sets of traffic lights in the cities of Lancaster and Preston. The system records number plates and compares it to the information obtained from the vehicle’s RFID registration tag. Any discrepancies in the data will alert the traffic control systems and police resources, allowing traffic lights to kept on red, giving police in the vicinity time to reach the suspect vehicle and question the occupants. If no police are in the vicinity, photos of the vehicle will be taken, followed up on by authorities and used as potential evidence in any criminal proceedings.

So far, the trial has been very effective, with a number of significant arrests made and some large motor vehicle re-birthing rings uncovered. A police spokesperson also claims that it has had a flow-on effect in preventing other crimes, such as violent robberies and ram raids.

The spokesperson went on to say, “this is just the start of the potential application of this technology. We also see a role for parking enforcement officers to provide valuable data for the system. They will be provided with RFID scanning equipment, and can manually check for any discrepancies, sending an alert to the authorities, with GPS location data also provided automatically with the alert.”

Civil liberties groups and local motorist associations are not convinced. Comments in This is Lancashire have slammed the initiative, with one person claiming “this is yet another infringement on our rights and an invasion of our privacy. Who knows how this information is being used by our authorities?”

GetOnce about to NameItsPrice

GetOnce, an Australian website that quietly launched itself onto the Internet back in 2005 and has puttered along without much fanfare ever since, is set to take off with the imminent launch of a new service.

GetOnce provides a central point for shoppers of CDs, DVDs, computers, games, auctions, experiences, etc. by linking in to various online stores and providing pricing information and availability across a range of stores. For example, shoppers looking for the DVD of “300″ (to hark back to a previous blog entry on this site) will see which online stores offer the product, whether or not it is available, and how much it costs. You can also sort by price, ensuring you get the best deal on the product you want to buy.

 

It’s a great service, but pretty passive, and not very “Web 2.0″. The exciting thing is that GetOnce is about to take the site to the next level. Users to the site will soon be able to “NameYourPrice”. They will be launching first with the DVDs section of the site, so let me explain how it will work. If I go the site, and I want to buy a copy of “300″ (I don’t know why I actually would, but that’s another story), I type in “300″ into the search field and scan the results. If the price doesn’t suit, I select the item I want to buy and I click on a button “NameYourPrice”. I enter the dollar amount that I am willing to spend to buy the DVD and hit enter.

Imagine that 100 other people have done the same thing as me. Obviously, the “NameYourPrice” amounts will vary for each person, but at the other end, the online stores can go in, look at the cumulative figures for NameYourPrice on the “300″ DVD, and make a decision on whether or not to make these 100 people an offer on the product. Let’s assume the RRP is $29.95, but the majority of the 100 people have named their price at around $20. The retailer can look at its margins on the product, weigh up its options and make an offer to those 100 people. The retailer clicks on the “MakeAnOffer” button, enters the price for which they are willing to sell the DVD and then is bound to sell the item for the offer made to those 100 people. Some of the buyers may have put in a lower amount, but when they see the offer for, say, $20, they figure it’s the best price they are likely to get and accept anyway.

“The great thing about this service is that we know that we are likely to sell a considerable quantity of the product if we offer the right price. While the margins might not be as good as selling the DVD in the normal way, the revenue and overall profit we generate from the quantities we sell in one hit more than makes up for this,” said a spokesperson from leading online retailer EzyDVD.

The service is expected to launch in a matter of weeks. My source confirms that GetOnce has all its major DVD retailers on board, and a concerted marketing campaign will start soon.

Hundredpoints.com About to Launch

An Australian entrepeneur is close to finalising deals with a number of major websites, including eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Friends Reunited before launching “www.hundredpoints.com”. The site’s name derives from the Australian banking concept of requiring “100 points” of documentation to establish your identity when opening a new bank account. Particular documents that could be used establish a person’s identity are given a point value, such that no single document would be enough to verify you. These could include a passport, driver’s licence, student ID, birth certificate, Medicare card, etc.

Hundredpoints.com takes this same concept and applies it to the Internet. “Websites and Internet users are so exposed these days. There’s that old cartoon from the early ’90s “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog” – and it’s still so true today! Sexual predators, paedophiles, fraudsters and criminals are able to set themselves up at will on sites like Myspace and Skype and, if they are discovered, just setting themselves up again,” said the site’s founder Dirk Bronte.

So how will the service work?

“Basically, we will be a central repository to provide 100 points for new sites to verify their new users, and also provide greater peace of mind for other Internet users,” said Dirk. “We are at the point where many Internet users have developed long histories on various sites like eBay and Amazon, and they should be able to use this history to establish themselves as trustworthy identities new and emerging sites, such as the emerging powerhouses like Facebook.”

Essentially, hundredpoints.com will allow users to register and provide information on their various user profiles to establish an “Internet identity”. They can then use hundredpoints.com as their identification when they register for new sites. That way, information such as their eBay rating, statistics on their network of contacts on LinkedIn or their reviewer ranking on Amazon will be associated with their user profile on every new site for which they sign up. Users will also be able to beef up their existing profiles on sites like eBay with statistics from these other sites, updated in real-time.

“It’s ridiculous that we are still in the same situation on the Internet that we were in in the 1990s where it is possible to hide your identity on the Internet,” says Dirk. “And I’m not saying that we need to know who you are in the traditional sense, I just want to know that if I am dealing with you over the Web that I know you are a ‘Net citizen with a history and track record I can trust. I mean, think about the number of people living in SecondLife these days – you can be whatever crazy avatar you want to be, but I would be much more comfortable knowing that you have a feedback score of 200 and a 98% positive rating on eBay, and you have 68 connections on LinkedIn.”

How Big was the Sydney Harbour Bridge Diamond Anniversary Event? 172.5GB

One of Australia’s most recognisable landmarks – the Sydney Harbour Bridge – recently celebrated its 75^th anniversary. To commemorate the event, authorities closed the bridge to traffic, allowing Sydneysiders to walk across. Over 200,000 did so, and now the University of Sydney’s Department of Statistics has published some great research on the event.

In fact, the research is so revolutionary, that it may have opened up a completely new genre in relation to how we officially record the scale of events. The University was able to estimate the quantity of digital images capturing the Sydney Harbour Bridge 75^th anniversary celebrations.

University volunteers, stationed at the southern end of the bridge over the duration of the event, randomly surveyed walkers as they made their way off the bridge. They asked two simple questions:

1. Did you use a digital camera on your walk across the bridge today?
2. If yes, can we please have a look at your camera?

The researcher then checked the camera, noted down its megapixel resolution, and asked the subject how many photos were taken while walking across, and at what resolution the camera was set during this time.

Based on the sample taken, University researchers calculated that 20,000 digital cameras were in operation during the bridge walk, with an average resolution 4.9 megapixels. An average of 23.3 photos were taken and, based on the breakdown of camera picture settings, statisticians worked out that the average file size per digital photo was 388.1KB.

University of Sydney’s Department of Statistics then crunched the numbers to come up with an official estimate of the size of the event based on the digital photography:

388.1 x 23.3 x 20,000 = 180,854,600KB, or 172.5 gigabytes

The Department of Statistic’s spokesperson, Roger Rumford, did point out that this was only the first attempt to measure the scale of an event based on digital photography. “It was a fun exercise, and a really different way to look at the size of our big events in history. What we haven’t taken into account in our research include mobile cameras phones, digital video cameras and professional photographers taking pictures from other vantage points around the bridge.”

The University has also offered a new acronym for this measure of an event’s size – the Digital Photography Scale, or “DPS”.

So what was the DPS of the Sydney Harbour Bridge 75th Anniversary? 172.5 of course!

 

Philips Teams up with Flickr on Wi-Fi Photo Displays

In a revolutionary development for digital photo displays, Philips has teamed up with online photo community site Flickr to develop a WiFi-enabled digital photo frame. The frame, based on the very successful 9″ (9FF2M4) and 7″ (7FF1M4) models, has built-in Wi-Fi capabilities that enable photos to be uploaded for display remotely. Rumours are that the product will be launched in May at CeBIT Australia.

How does Flickr fit in? The Philips photo frame comes with a web-based admin tool that will allow users to subscribe to one or more Flickr Accounts or Sets – users and albums of photos posted online. These Users and Sets are then displayed via the photo frame, with updated Sets automatically downloaded for display. The frames will come with a standard 1GB flash memory, with expansion slots for additional storage space.

A source from Flickr said, “It’s great to see the capabilities of our site extend beyond the PC-savvy community. Imagine a kid giving a Philips digital photo frame to his Grandma, already pre-configured and subscribed to his photo site on Flickr. Not only will she see lots of photos of her grandson, but she will also see any new photos he uploads to Flickr. And Grandma doesn’t need to know how to use a computer, or even own one!”

Pricing has not been confirmed, but expectations are US$399 for the 9FF2M4/FL and US$349 for the 7FF1M4/FL models.