PlayStation to record digital TV

PlayStation 3 (PS3) users in Europe will soon be able to record and playback digital TV on their console.

Sony has unveiled a TV tuner which plugs into the PS3 and turns it into a personal video recorder like Sky+.

The company has held a press conference at the Leipzig games show in which it highlighted key multimedia capabilities for the PS3 and handheld PSP.

More than 200,000 gamers are expected at the German show, playing some of the year’s biggest games.

Games on display at the show will include Halo 3, Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Crysis, Warhammer Online and the new expansion pack for World of Warcraft, The Lich King.

Wireless internet
PlayTV for PS3 is a twin TV tuner that will launch in early 2008 in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with other countries to follow.

Recorded programmes can be streamed over a wireless internet connection to the portable PSP or transferred permanently to the handheld console via a USB cable.

In a statement, David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said PlayTV would extend the “broad entertainment credentials of PS3″.

It is the first time a console has been given PVR capabilities. Gamers will have access to free channels that are delivered over digital terrestrial.

Rival Microsoft has touted its Xbox 360 as a platform for internet TV but no partner has yet come forward while its Xbox Live video download service has not launched outside the US.

Instant messaging
No price details for the PlayTV tuner were given.

Sony also used the conference to give more details of a video chat and instant messaging system for the PSP, called Go!Messenger, developed in conjunction with BT in the UK.

PSP users in Europe will be able to send messages, and video chat with each other once the software behind the tool is released in January.

Sony also unveiled a GPS add-on for the PSP, called Go!Explore, and said a UK video download service for the console, developed in conjunction with Sky and called Go!, would launch in the UK in January.

Price details for the new services were not given.

Sony will be hoping that the new multimedia functionality for its PlayStation 3 and PSP consoles will make them more attractive to both gamers and non-gamers.

Both machines lag behind sales of rival devices from Nintendo and Microsoft, such as the Wii, DS handheld console and Xbox 360.

Increase shipments
Sony said it aimed to increase shipments of the PS3 to 11 million units by 2008.

Unlike other major games conferences, Leipzig is open to the public and 200,000 gamers are expected to attend the four-day event to get their hands on the latest titles.

“This year we are expecting over 9,000 trade visitors and some 2,800 journalists from over 35 countries,” said Josef Rahmen, managing director of the Leipziger Messe, in a statement.

The industry has gone on a charm offensive in recent years to improve the profile of games in Germany, which has a rigorous ratings and regulatory system.

The country is the third-biggest market for video games in Europe, behind the UK and France, with PC titles dominating the market.

Forget iPhone, the Gphone is here

Google, the nearly $13.5 billion search engine major, is believed to be a fortnight away from the worldwide launch of its much-awaited Google Phone (Gphone) and has started talks with service providers in India for an exclusive launch on one of their networks.

Talks are believed to be taking place with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, respectively India’s first and third largest mobile telephony operators, and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Sources close to the development said a simultaneous launch across the US and Europe is expected, and announcements would be sent to media firms in India and other parts of the world. US regulatory approval, which is expected soon, is the only hurdle that Google is waiting to cross, they added. Google plans to invest $7-8 billion for its global telephony foray.

In India, it is also believed to be in talks with Indian providers to offer data and content and platforms including Instant Messaging (IM) and Search functions. However, these could not be confirmed.

A Google spokesperson said, “We don’t comment on market rumour or speculation. However, Google is committed to providing users with access to the world’s information, and mobile becomes more important to those efforts every day. We’re collaborating with partners worldwide to bring Google search and applications to mobile users everywhere. However, we have nothing to announce at this time.”

Reports of the Internet major getting into handset manufacturing as an answer to Apple’s iPhone has been doing rounds in cyberspace and international media for some time. These reports suggest that Google has developed a prototype that will hit the markets in a year’s time. The US-based company has neither confirmed nor denied these reports. The Wall Street Journal too had reported that Google had invested “hundreds of millions of dollars” in the project and was involved in discussions with US-based T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

Globally, Google is likely to participate in the upcoming auction for 700 MHz spectrum for which it is prepared to spend up to $4.6 billion. The firm is also introducing ads to YouTube videos which could be replicated on mobile phones. Ironically, Google recently partnered Apple to produce services such as e-mail and maps for its iPhone handset. And Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said recently that more Google services for the iPhone would be rolled out.

Play your iPod with your teeth

Japanese train commuters who don’t want to reach conspicuously into their bags or pockets to start their iPods will soon be able to do it more subtly — by simply clenching their teeth.

Japanese researchers have developed head gear that uses infrared sensors and a microcomputer to let people operate music players by clenching their teeth.

The computer receives a command when the user clenches his or her teeth for about one second — which differentiates the action from other activities such as chewing gum and talking.

The research team at state-run Osaka University hopes to put the device to commercial use for music players and believes it can eventually be adapted to run cellphones, wheelchairs and other products.

“You are able to operate the devices without using your hands,” said Fumio Miyazaki, an engineering science professor who heads the laboratory working on the project.

“You would be able to listen to music hands-free or operate your cellphone in a crowded train. Handicapped people would also be able to move wheelchairs,” he told AFP by telephone.

Kazuhiro Taniguchi, who is playing a leading role in the research, said the system can be used by anybody who can chew food with their teeth — real or artificial.

“I just thought it’s inconvenient” to have to use your hands to switch on iPods or phones, especially on packed trains, Taniguchi said.

In the laboratory, grinding right teeth can play and halt music on an iPod while clenching left teeth makes it skip to the next track, he said.

The system could also allow users to flip through pages of a PowerPoint demonstration, allowing the presenter to gesture freely by clenching teeth instead of pressing buttons.

MySpace, MTV give candidates unfiltered contact with young voters

In the latest effort to embrace new media and encourage young adults to vote, MySpace and MTV are teaming up to stage a series of live, interactive forums with the leading presidential candidates.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and several other White House hopefuls will each sit down separately for an hourlong discussion with a live audience and, at the same time, respond to questions and comments streaming in through instant messages, e-mails and text messages.

Former Sen. John Edwards will be the first to take the stage on Sept. 27.

“We’re taking advantage of Web 2.0 in a way that’s never been done before,” said Jeff Berman, MySpace’s senior vice president of public affairs. “This gives us a chance to reach such a critical mass of young people in this country that we believe can really move the needle.”

The 2008 race is widely being recognized as the first MySpace-YouTube election, one that is taking advantage of the newest Internet tools to tap and interact with potential voters. No longer dependent on traditional media such as newspapers and television, politicians are broadcasting their latest moves and appearances through mobile services such as Twitter. They have set up profiles on social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook, becoming friends with hundreds of thousands of supporters.

Last month, CNN and YouTube, the popular video sharing site, held the first live Democratic debate, which incorporated video questions submitted by YouTube users and selected by CNN.

MySpace and MTV said they are taking it one step further. Although the discussion will be moderated, the direction and questions will be determined by the crowd, and constant polls will gauge the audience’s response.

“It’s an unfiltered conversation,” said Ian Rowe, MTV’s vice president of strategic partnerships. “It’s a true back-and-forth with each candidate. It’s different from other debates that have transpired before because you have a true digital representation of the community.”

MTV and MySpace are still working out the details, including the schedule, and how the flow of messages will be managed. To participate, MySpace members will have to download the site’s instant messaging program. Everyone will be able to send e-mails and text messages. The forum will be held on college campuses, aired on MTV and mtvU and Webcast on MTV.com and MySpaceTV.

Although the YouTube and CNN debate accepted user-generated questions, one of the chief criticisms was that CNN controlled the ones that were presented.

“When the questions can be voted on or decided by the electorate instead of one or two people in the press, then I think we will see a revolution,” said Shabbir Safdar, co-founder of Mindshare Interactive, a digital public affairs firm.

Still, it established the influence the Internet is having on the impending elections.

“There will be trials and errors and experiments that don’t work,” said Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, a think tank in San Francisco. “But the general trend is that these new technologies have come of age.”

The largest social networking site on the Web, MySpace drew more than 46 million users last month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Although the site is known for its young audience, 81 percent of users are 18 and older, a separate comScore Media Metrics report said.

“Politics has always been about social networking,” Leyden said. “It’s who you know and getting them to vote.”

Collective search is next focus, Ask.com CEO says

Ask.com, the small rival to Google Inc., aims to tap the collective search habits of its 50 million users to improve the relevancy of Web search, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Jim Lanzone told an Internet marketing conference that his company, a unit of Barry Diller’s e-commerce conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp, was looking to merge technologies that unlock the collective insights of its broad audience.

“What Ask becomes is a collective search engine where 50 million users are leaving bread crumbs,” Lanzone said.

In an on-stage interview at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Silicon Valley, Lanzone contrasted Ask.com’s more social approach to improving Web search to the industry’s current push to offer greater personalization.

He said attempts at automated personalization often fail in practice to give users what they want.

Instead, Web search can be improved by understanding the aggregate behavior of different types of users. This collective approach means users stand to benefit from what users with similar interests have gleaned from previous searches.

“Collective search is something that Ask really believes in,” Lanzone said, adding that personalizing what different users see is only a small piece of further improving search.

To be sure, the changes are one of degree, rather than an absolute shift. All major Web search systems rely on algorithms that analyze the collective surfing habits of their users in order to determine what is relevant to the biggest audience.

This affinity-group approach means users who work as Web marketers might see searchers that other marketers found useful, while baseball fans might see a different range of search results, Lanzone said.

Lanzone downplayed the potential threats to personal privacy that can be gleaned from understanding the aggregate behavior of different types of users.

“In 15 years, search engines have had one mishap in this area,” he said of the threat of major Internet companies exposing data on consumer Web surfing habits. A year ago, AOL researchers caused a huge privacy uproar when they released data on the surfing habits of hundreds of thousands of users.

Ask.com revealed in April that it was working on a new project to merge its different search technologies under a combined service.

The project, known as Edison, will combine its Teoma ExpertRank technology for automatically gauging the relevance of Web sites to particular searches with its DirectHit technology, which calculates the popularity of different searches based on the number of clicks users make.

Ask is looking to build on improvements it introduced in June with its new Ask 3D search service. Ask 3D combines the classic text links to Web pages with links to images, videos, dictionaries, blogs and other ways of refining searches.

Separately, Lanzone said his company has begun talks on a new, Web search advertising deal worth multiple billions of dollars to replace an existing three-year deal with Google that is set to expire later this year.

In 2002, Ask.com, then known as Ask Jeeves, struck a $100 million deal with Google. A renewed deal from 2005 to 2007 was for undisclosed terms. A third such deal would start in 2008.

“We are in negotiations today,” Lanzone said in an interview following his speech. “Whether we renew or not, it is going to be a multi-billion deal,” he said earlier, during his conference presentation.

He declined to specify whether Ask.com was in talks with Google or potential rivals including Microsoft Corp or Yahoo! Inc..