The future of cameras seem to be heading to is smaller, more portable, more disposable and mirrorless (DSLRs have a mirror). When Nokia’s Executive Vice President Anssi Vanjoki told 2010 that Cell Phone Cameras Will Replace DSLRs, I could not believe that on time. But it really seems to become more and more to truth in 2014: Nowadays you can take professional level (“good enough photos”) using consumer level cameras and smart phones. Technical quality is good enough for majority. There is going on a rampant replacement of point and shoot cameras of all flavors and varieties with smart phones and their built in cameras. Now the market is being effectively gutted. Gone. Non-existent. Same thing is happening to video as well.
Part of the technical race came to a (maybe temporary) end: “How can I match and exceed the quality of conventional metrics that we used to get from medium format film.” There’s nothing else pressing to solve, technically. Many photographers are fully equipped but uninspired to move forward. We have have set down for “good enough.” The engineering idea is that we’ve hit the sweet spot and to go for a Six Sigma improvement would be costly and unnecessary.
DSLR sales were down in 2013, worldwide, by 18.5% according to CIPA. The total decline in the entire dedicated camera market is closer to 43.5%. The decline will continue. Credit Suisse prediction: “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fullfil that criteria”. Mirrorless cameras are not a big market: According to CIPA is the total sales of mirrorless system cameras in N. America was slightly fewer than 39,000 units. Total.
The challenge will be: How do you bridge that gap between high photo-capture quality and high-quality camera devices and the cloud where every amateur photographer’s images live? The company which has the most innovative post-processing, easy to share photos feature set wins! The future of photography is same as future in pretty much everything: software and connectivity. Camera manufacturers have been slow on those: we are just now seeing cameras with full operating systems like Android The advantages to smart phones are size, constant (annoyingly constant) access, multi-task tool set, and the ability to send your images, electronically, to an audience just about anywhere in the world.
Several smartphone makers have clear strategies to take photography to extremes: 40 megapixel camera is already on the market and several manufacturers are playing with re-focus after shooting options.
Consumer video device trend is that separate classic video cameras have pretty much faded from market. New smart phones have high definition video cameras in them, so for most users there is no need for separate video camera. For special uses there are small “action” video cameras that are so tiny that you can place them almost anywhere and they can take some beating while you perform your extreme sports. If the video quality of those do not suffice, many people use their DSLR to shoot higher quality high definition video. For professional video production there is still some market left for professional and prosumer video cameras.
The world seems to be heading to situation where separate DSLRs and separate video cameras will be more like high fidelity audio, which used to be common selling point in 1970s, 80s and early 90s, but now only some geeks care about audio quality. This will more or less happen to photographs and video.
Connected TV technologies get more widely used and the content earlier viewable only on TV can be now seen on many other screens. Your smartphone is the screen in your pocket. Your computer is the screen on your desk. Your tablet is a screen for the couch. This development is far from ready. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable.
Video streaming has really become mainstream as Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Because of the rise in video services like Netflix and YouTube, peer-to-peer file-sharing has dropped (meaning less piracy of movies and TV series). Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime hours in September — well ahead of any other streaming service. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Post HDTV resolution era seems to be coming to TVs as well in form of 4K / UltraHD. It was introduced in the 2013, and the manufacturers start to push it more in 204 because all LCD makers are looking to move their business models on from cheap mass production to higher-margin, premium offerings. They try to innovate and secure their future viability by selling fewer, but more profitable displays. On this road giant curved TVs is gaining ground: LG announces that it will present the “world’s first ” 105-inch curved ultra-hd-TV in January in Las Vegas at CES. Almost at the same time , however, Samsung also announced the proposal at CES “the world’s first and curved” 105-inch ultra HD television.. TV screens are in fact higher resolution the basic 4k level of ultra hd: Samsung and LG screens resolution is 5120 × 2160 pixels in the image (11 megapixels).
4K resolution ecosystem will get more ready for use. Netflix is testing out 4K video streaming and Netflix’s House of Cards was shot in 4K. Amazon Studios also just recently announced that it will shoot all of its 2014 shows in that format as well.
4K and 4K streaming are definitely coming in 2014 regardless of how many people can actually view it. 4K will still require a lot of work “with the compression and decode capability” to be ready for mainstream use. There are a great many things that need to happen before 4K really becomes a reality or needs to do so.
PC hardware with 4G capable graphics cards is already available, so decoding the stream is not a problem. The biggest issue is that the market penetration of 4K-capable televisions needs to grow, but to that happen the prices must drop to ranges for the average consumer. Many users have already fast enough fixed broadband connection, but can the networks handle peak usage 4K streaming? According to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, it won’t require more than a stable 15 Mbps to stream 4K.
Extreme overkill resolution will also push to tablet and smart phone markets. There are already smart phones with full HD resolution. In high-end smartphones we may be moving into the overkill zone with extreme resolution that is higher than you can see on small screen: some makers have already demonstrated displays with twice the performance of 1080-progressive. Samsung is planned to release devices with 4k or UHD resolutions. As we have seen in many high tech gadget markets earlier it is a very short journey to copycat behavior. And we will see also see smart phones that can shoot 4K video.
For a long time music has been listened mainly with small portable MP3 player and such, which for most users provide “good enough” audio quality. The market had already shifted from separate MP3 players to the same functionality included to other devices (smart phones and tablets), so sales of music players sales have plummeted in year 2013 as much as as one-third. Separate music players mostly only used for listening music during fitness hobby, and growing popularity of fitness hobby is full of players saved the market from total collapse. Uncompressed music player to appreciate the need of a decent storage capacity, so some hifi people buy some high-end separate players, but that’s a small market.
Apple’s iPod continues to lead an ever-shrinking market of portable media players with a staggering 72 percent of the market for standalone music players. Apple has never been afraid of reducing demand for one of its devices by creating demand for another, in this case iPhone. The future of separate music players looks bleak.
Smartphones have taken the music player market. The growing popularity of smart phones and music streaming services will rise in the future to eat even music players sales. If smart watch will become a hit, the music player may be lost in exercisers shopping list.
1,214 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Terrestrial Broadcast TV Down, But Is It Out?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324391&
So, tell me, why are we so down on terrestrial TV broadcast? There seems to be a growing consensus that broadcasting isn’t just irrelevant but obsolete.
Part of me agrees. But another — perhaps nostalgic but maybe just skeptical of the conventional wisdom — wonders if it’s all true.
Many of us aren’t really pondering the future of terrestrial TV broadcast, given that a large-screen TV set in the living room is no longer the only place we watch video. Most TV-viewers get programs not via terrestrial but through cables, satellites, or broadband.
There are those in the media, many in the engineering community and even the FCC who seem more interested in the future for higher-speed WiFi, LTE broadcast and emerging 5G.
Obviously, I’m one of them.
If the upcoming ATSC 3.0 standard was all about broadcasting Ultra High Definition TV (and 3D TV), I’m pretty sure I would have walked away unimpressed. If that’s all there was, it’s the same old pitch, pigeonholing broadcast TV as just a medium for prettier pictures.
But if the future of TV broadcast – IP-based – can deliver programming to the home, and mobile content to LTE devices, as some suggested, broadcasters might yet change the broadband landscape.
Video is predicted to occupy “80 to 90% of all IP traffic by 2017,” Rick Doherty, research director at The Envisioneering Group, pointed out.
I know that broadcasters, over the years, have entertained lots of different ideas for changing the status of linear TV broadcast. They’ve tried everything from interactive TV to Internet TV and mobile TV.
But as Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, told me, “The track record is not so good for broadcasting (as we now know it) to deliver advanced services that consumers will want.”
Why are we so down on terrestrial TV broadcast? There seems to be a growing consensus that broadcasting isn’t just irrelevant but obsolete. Part of me agrees. But another part of me wonders if it’s all true.
Look at the recent mobile DTV projects (which are now quietly being buried at NAB) and the longer-ago projects that brought the Internet to TV sets, such as Web TV. Even the BBC recently killed its 30 year old Ceefax data-via-broadcast TV signal. That used old technology, but the key factor was [the lack of] consumer interest in a TV-based service when so many alternatives are available.
“In 1999, 2000, we worked with Nokia. We based the DVB-T standard on high-arc modulation. We had three tablets. They were like several bricks bolted together. They were capable of receiving mobile television. This industry did not believe there was an opportunity in mobile 15 years ago.”
He said, “The failure of ATSC mobile was a failure on the part of not all broadcasters embracing it as an opportunity.” In his mind, “It was a massive failure because an industry did not put its will behind it. And because there was not a uniform roll-out, and no tough discussions with rights holders, consumers never had the opportunity to see it, and device makers never had the incentive to build devices.”
Consider LTE Broadcast.
There is no denying that the wireless industry is on a mission to offer broadcast-like services over their networks with LTE Broadcast. This goal is the result of standardization processes at the 3GPP standards body, Aiken explained. The 3GPP “is looking out over the horizon” to where the wireless industry wants to be in five years and what is being deployed in the shorter term to support that goal.
ATSC 3.0 standard could offer multiple IP-based streams to different devices at the same time from a single 6MHz channel.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Court Rules Embedding YouTube Videos Is Not Copyright Infringement
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/10/27/0051224/eu-court-rules-embedding-youtube-videos-is-not-copyright-infringement
“The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that embedding a copyrighted YouTube video in your site is not copyright infringement.”
Embedding Is Not Copyright Infringement, EU Court Rules
By Ernesto
on October 25, 2014
Breaking
http://torrentfreak.com/embedding-copyright-infringement-eu-court-rules-141025/
The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a landmark verdict this week. The Court ruled that embedding copyrighted videos is not copyright infringement, even if the source video was uploaded without permission.
One of the key roles of the EU’s Court of Justice is to interpret European law to ensure that it’s applied in the same manner across all member states.
This week the Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling on one such case that deals with a crucial and integral part of today’s Internet. Is it legal to embed copyrighted content without permission from the rightsholder?
While EU law is clear on most piracy issues, the copyright directive says very little about embedding copyrighted works. The Court of Justice, however, now argues that embedding is not copyright infringement.
The full decision has yet to be published officially by the Court’s website but TorrentFreak has received a copy (in German) from the defendants’ lawyer Dr. Bernhard Knies, who describes it as a landmark victory.
The Court argues that embedding a file or video is not a breach of creator’s copyrights under European law, as long as it’s not altered or communicated to a new public. In the current case, the video was already available on YouTube so embedding it is not seen as a new communication.
“The embedding in a website of a protected work which is publicly accessible on another website by means of a link using the framing technology … does not by itself constitute communication to the public within the meaning of [the EU Copyright directive] to the extent that the relevant work is neither communicated to a new public nor by using a specific technical means different from that used for the original communication,” the Court’s verdict reads.
The Court based its verdict on an earlier decision in the Svensson case, where it found that hyperlinking to a previously published work is not copyright infringement. Together, both cases will have a major impact on future copyright cases in the EU.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An ‘embed’ link isn’t a new infringement, says EU Court of Justice
No change, no new audience, no offence
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/27/an_embed_link_isnt_a_new_infringement_says_eu_court_of_justice/
Tomi Engdahl says:
GEEK: A New USB Awesomifier for Headphones
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gavn8r/geek-a-new-usb-awesomifier-for-headphones
An on-the-go, high-res DAC and headphone amp that plugs into your computer’s USB port. Your videos, music, & games will rule!
Light Harmonic is a manufacturer of high-end audio equipment based in Sacramento, CA. We are known in our industry as the engineers and builders of one of the best digital to analog converters (DAC) in the world, called Da Vinci DAC.
GEEK takes a lot of the technology we developed when we were researching Da Vinci DAC, and squeezes it into one tiny little package that we plan on selling for $299 retail. Stick it into your laptop and plug in your headphones!
Two outputs on all types (2 x 3.5 mm jack): line and headphones, both are variable in digital domain (64bit precision)
Volume control: two buttons and software
Line-out output impedance: 47 Ohm (on all types)
Headphone output impedance: 0.47 Ohm (on all types)
Max output voltage (line-out and headphone): 2.65 Vrms (Geek), 3,4 Vrms (Super Geek), 4 Vrms (Super-Duper Geek)
“Class A” analogue output stage, THD+N better than 0.005 %, SNR is 103dB (none-weighted), 109dB (A-weighted)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Test Microsoft’s “own Chromecast” – phone picture and movies easily on TV
Screen Sharing for Microsoft Lumia Phones HD-10 is quite a mouthful, but the device can save the family TV night.
Google’s solution is to Chromecast , Apple’s turn to Apple TV. Microsoft’s corresponding widget is a long time coming, and now it’s here.
In fact, MSSSfLP with a diameter of eight centimeters and 115 grams heavy tile. Its link to watch it could not be much easier: HDMI cable (not included in the sales package) onto the telly port and power supply onto the micro-USB port.
MSSSfLP is paired with the phone either lähilukuhipaisulla or phone settings can be found sharing a screen menu. Since screen sharing device has the NFC chip that contains the pressure plate, the device itself may be hidden behind the telly and used for mating just a small plastic sheeting.
Once the connection is established, transferred to the phone screen on TV (or projector) identical copy. When the phone is turned and the image will rotate to horizontal, the instrument will turn the telly view. When the phone is locked picture, such as the home, the image appears only in the vertical direction.
MSSSfLP the image produced is a good standard, but the alignment is not perfect. The test image drawn by the phone device cut in the edges slightly off, resulting in the need to adjust the whole TV switch settings.
The device will transfer up to Full HD, or 1920 x 1080 level video and 5.1-channel surround sound.
The connection is lost every time the phone goes to sleep. My MSSSfLP can set your phone as a trusted device, and the connection will be renewed quickly.
What is it it work?
MSSSfLP has one big difference Chromecast and Apple TV compared with: Microsoft’s solution, the phone does all the work. Video and music will be demolished and the phone itself is processed and sent to the telly image is an identical copy of the phone’s screen. Competitors, in turn, apply for the contents of your Wi-Fi network, and the phone is just a remote control.
Price-quality ratio Google will win because Chromecast price is less than MSSSfLP’s about 80 euro price. On the other hand Microsoft’s stance on the screen to move it all. Chromecast requires application-specific support or phone screen mirror support, which is only a few phones. Microsoft’s device is also a bit less expensive than an Apple TV.
Source: http://www.digitoday.fi/vimpaimet/2014/10/25/testissa-microsoftin-oma-chromecast–puhelimen-kuva-ja-leffat-telkkariin-helposti/201414819/66
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon’s Fire Stick tries to make Mozilla Matchstick a damp squib
Amazon’s Chromecast rival goes mini
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2377966/amazons-fire-stick-tries-to-make-mozilla-matchstick-a-damp-squib
AMAZON HAS BECOME the latest company to join the streaming HDMI stick market started by Google’s Chromecast.
The Amazon Fire TV Stick boasts a dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage. It comes with a remote control but is also capable of ‘flinging’ content from devices.
According to the marketing fluff: “Fire TV Stick is not a gadget, it’s a seamlessly integrated service that brings together the features customers expect from Amazon.”
The competition in the streaming stick sector has become fierce. Roku and Google Chromecast lead the charge, alongside a plethora of cheap Chinese Android devices.
Mozilla has recently raised nearly $500,000 to fund its own Mozilla Matchstick streaming device, which is due to ship early in 2015.
Tomi Engdahl says:
WD Purple range hits 6TB capacity for even more surveillance
Improves playback, reduces judder
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2377986/wd-purple-range-hits-6tb-capacity-for-even-more-surveillance
WD HAS ANNOUNCED that it is to begin shipping larger capacity drives in its surveillance series.
The WD Purple range, launched in February, will now include a 6TB version designed for use in video surveillance environments.
WD Purple drives are capable of recording in groups of eight hard drives, monitoring a total of 32 high-definition camera feeds.
“Video surveillance has long been a pioneering Internet of Things application,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president and general manager of WD’s Storage Technology group.
“Driven by machine-to-machine interaction between high-resolution, high bit-rate video cameras and high-capacity surveillance video recorders, IoT brings access and big data analytics to improve users’ security. WD Purple 6TB drives enable innovation in this fast growing market.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Half of YouTube’s views now come from phones and tablets
More people are watching videos on smaller screens
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/28/7080917/half-of-youtubes-views-now-come-from-phones-and-tablets
Where are people watching videos on YouTube? A little while ago, the majority were on desktop, but now the company says that half are tuning in from mobile devices like phones and tablets. On stage at the Code Mobile conference, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said that metric’s grown alongside the popularity of its app on places like Apple’s App Store, where it ranked among the top apps last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tim Cook says Apple killed the iPod classic because it couldn’t get the parts
Apple CEO justifies shelving iconic device at WSJD Live
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/28/7082095/tim-cook-says-apple-killed-the-ipod-classic-because-it-couldnt-get
Apple quietly discontinued the iPod classic last month, just short of the iconic MP3 player’s 13th birthday. Tonight, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained why the company decided to shelve its revolutionary device — it couldn’t get the parts any more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LG Electronics exit suggests end is near for plasma TVs
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/us-lg-elec-plasma-idUSKBN0IH0KI20141028
South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc said it will wind down its plasma television business by end-November, as a technology long overtaken by liquid crystal display takes one step closer to its demise.
LG Electronics said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that the decision reflects a decline in demand for plasma TVs, with the business accounting for 2.4 percent of its 2013 annual revenue. The exit was widely anticipated as LCD TVs have become the mainstay in global markets.
“No matter how much we try to keep it going it’s just not a business anymore.”
Japan’s Panasonic Corp said in October last year that it would pull out of the plasma TV business. Once LG exits, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd would be the last major player.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Apple iTunes music sales down, so what next for Beats Music?
Report claims iTunes downloads have fallen by 13%-14% as Apple mulls its next move in streaming music
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/27/apple-itunes-music-sales-beats
Taylor Swift fans who pre-ordered her latest album 1989 are waking up today to a notification from Apple that it’s available to download from iTunes – the latest high-profile album to shun streaming services like Spotify in favour of Apple’s music downloads store.
That puts Swift in the company of big artists including Beyoncé, Coldplay and U2 in 2014 so far, showing iTunes’ continued clout within the music industry. But the rise of streaming may be eroding that status faster than Apple or its label partners had expected.
The Wall Street Journal is responsible for the latest claim on that score, reporting that music sales on the iTunes store “have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year”, representing a much faster decline than in 2013.
Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales
Dive of at Least 13% in Download Sales Underscores Music Industry’s Fragile Recovery
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/itunes-music-sales-down-more-than-13-this-year-1414166672-lMyQjAxMTE0OTI5NDgyMzQyWj
The growing availability of cheap music—from free videos and streams to $10-a-month unlimited subscription plans—is sapping demand for digital downloads at the world’s biggest seller of music, Apple Inc.
Music sales at Apple’s iTunes Store have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. The decline is stark compared with a much shallower dip last year. Global revenue from downloads fell 2.1% in 2013, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
The plummeting download numbers help illustrate why Apple bought the $10-a-month subscription streaming service Beats Music earlier this year, as part of its $3 billion acquisition that included headphone maker Beats Electronics. Apple is rebuilding Beats Music and plans to relaunch it next year as part of iTunes, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FCC Kicks Off Push to Regulate Internet TV Services Like Cable
http://recode.net/2014/10/28/fcc-kicks-off-push-to-regulate-internet-tv-services-like-cable/
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday circulated a proposal to regulate Internet TV providers like Aereo, a move that could make it easier for online video services to compete with cable providers.
FCC officials are looking at updating rules designed to regulate cable systems and expand them to cover services that deliver TV to consumers over the Internet instead of satellite dishes or cable lines. The move comes as several media companies, including Dish Network and Verizon Communications, are planning to launch Internet-based video services.
This could be a big deal because it might make it easier for Internet TV providers to negotiate for access to must-have channels, like local broadcast stations. That would allow them to create online video services that could be a replacement for larger, more traditional pay-TV services like cable or satellite.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tidal launches as a hi-fi music streaming service with editorial curation and videos
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/10/28/tidal-launches-hi-fi-music-streaming-service-lossless-files-editorial-curation-videos/
Aspiro Group, the company behind the WiMP Music streaming service in Europe, has launched a new service, Tidal, in the US and UK with a focus on high-fidelity audio, editorial curation and video content.
Tidal costs $19.99 a month and uses the ALAC and FLAC lossless format at 1,411 kbps, 44.1kHz/16-bit. That amounts to roughly four times the 320 kbps bitrate of most music streaming services, although Deezer launched its own high-quality service in the US last month.
You can listen to Tidal on the Web via Chrome and through its iOS and Android apps. The company boasts that this is the first time that lossless music streaming has come to mobile.
I’m not particularly picky when it comes to audio quality – 320 kbps is enough for me – but I did notice a difference between Tidal and Spotify on a test set of BeoPlay H6 headphones. While the improvement felt negligible on some tracks, Tidal generally seemed to have a fuller sound.
The service boasts 25 million songs and 75,000 music videos
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. regulators to vote on treating Internet TV like cable
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/28/us-usa-fcc-video-idUSKBN0IH29T20141028
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission in coming weeks will vote on whether Internet TV should have the same access to television programming as cable and satellite TV providers, which could shake up competition in the video industry.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CEA clarified Ultra HD standards
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has revised its televisions and video projectors Ultra HD standards. New requirements include:
At least eight million active pixels, of which 3840 horizontal and 2160 vertical
A minimum of 16: 9 or wider aspect ratio
The quality of the scale of the HD Ultra HD KSI
One or more of the HDMI interface, which supports 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution, 24, 30 and 60 frames per second
One or more of the above-mentioned interfaces includes an HDCP 2.2 (or the like) of the copyright protection
Aid ITU-R BT. 709 color standards
At least 8-bit color depth
Since the majority of consumers in the pop-native 4K content is likely to happen online streaming services via the CEA has set the basis for the material reproduction of the appropriate display terminals. They have to meet the above mentioned UHD standards; to be able to decode the High Efficiency Video Coding (High Efficiency Video Compression) standard according to the image content; to receive and play back multi-channel audio; take advantage of Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or other network connection; to support the manufacturers of various services and applications user interfaces.
Source: http://www.hifimaailma.fi/uutiset/ceo-tarkensi-ultra-hd-standardeja/
Tomi Engdahl says:
NATO declares WAR on Google Glass, mounts attack alongside MPAA
Yes, the National Association of Theater Owners is quite upset
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/30/nato_declares_war_on_google_glass/
Moviegoers will soon be asked to stash their Google Glass before taking in a flick, much like they’re asked to pocket their mobile phones today.
The National Association of Theater Owners (NATO… no, really!) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said in a joint statement that NATO’s member theaters would classify wearable technology as recording devices, making users who wear the camera-equipped specs subject to ejection if the offending eyewear is not stowed.
The declaration was added to the groups’ joint anti-piracy policy, which the organizations hope will allow member theaters to better decide how to handle customers who wear Glass to the movies.
Studios fear that Glass wearers will take advantage of their headsets’ recording capabilities to capture and make copies of the movies they attend, and they’d like to see theater owners take a more proactive role in preventing that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fairchild’s Audio Jacks, Technology Worth Listening To
http://www.eeweb.com/blog/eeweb/fairchilds-audio-jacks-technology-worth-listening-to
In the portable electronics market, cell phones and MP3 players have greatly expanded the use of headsets for listening to music, making phone calls, and watching videos. The advent of the earbud has brought these devices into the modern era. Over time, by adding function and features, electronic device manufacturers have implemented these headsets in many different configurations. Without a cohesive audio-jack standard body, these accessories have diverged in ways that have made universal support difficult. The ability to support multiple versions of headset devices as well as support advanced features of these headsets would help the ultraportable product vendor deliver a value-added experience for the end user. Fairchild recognized the difficulty manufacturers were having with this and devised a family of audio jack device (ADJ) products.
The early days of the ‘earphone’ was a monaural device
very commonplace use of the 3.5mm audio jack
The next version of the earphone-style headset was the move to stereo. There were two ear pieces that each needed their own wire and return for a total of three wires. The 3.5mm audio jack now needed to be modified to support the third connection.
When cell phones started using headsets the need for a microphone and hence a fourth wire was necessary, so the 4-pole 3.5mm jack was adopted. In addition to needing a fourth connection device, makers wanted to add additional functions such as a send-end button for answering and hanging up phone calls as well as buttons for pause-play or volume up-down. The camera industry also adopted this 4-pole connector to port audio and composite video from their devices. This additional capability complicated the use of the four-wire approach. There also have been different implementations of the jack pin out, which has been a major driver in the need for Audio Jack Detection products.
There are two basic methods for audio-phone implementations, one from the Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP), and the other is the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) standard in North America. Both are in use today and mobile device manufacturers would like their devices to work for both.
To further compatibility complexity there are differences in the implementation of the headset itself, even using a similar pin out. Speaker impedance, amplification, microphone characteristics, and button resistances all spell trouble for anyone working on compatibility. Resistive detection, production testing, and battery charging are yet even more capability being added to this interface. For makers of large-scale application processors, call processors and audio codecs don’t have the agility to keep up with the changes happening in the 3.5mm jack world. This phenomenon has spawned the audio jack detection (AJD) product market.
Many different types of headsets exist
3-pole passive audio headset (typically 16-32 Ohms impedance).
4-pole, CTIA passive audio headset (typically 16-32 Ohms impedance).
4-pole OMTP passive audio headset (typically 16-32 Ohms impedance).
3 or 4-pole active (amplified and noise cancelling) headset, typically high impedance.
4-pole headset with send-end key, sometimes with volume up-down keys.
Card readers such as Square or PayPal that utilize any of the 4 pins with low or high impedance.
Data cables such as universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) for production testing or customer problem testing.
Docking cables for use as auxillary inputs to stereo systems and car audio systems.
Ultraportable devices using an FM radio typically use the headset as an FM antenna as well as an audio headset.
Text telephone (TTY) devices for the hearing impaired.
As shown by the above list, the headphone jack is being used for more than just audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
YouTube Finally Supports 60FPS, And It Looks Awesome
http://kotaku.com/youtube-finally-supports-60fps-and-it-looks-awesome-1652460542
Earlier this year, YouTube announced plans to support videos running at 60 frames-per-second—plans that would make a huge difference for footage of video games. Today, the video network has finally started rolling out the new service, and you can already tell that this is going to be wonderful.
You need Google Chrome to watch YouTube videos at 60FPS, and you need to watch them in HD, but my god, they look goddamn phenomenal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huge potential FCC ruling sets the stage for Apple and Amazon to replace your cable company
http://bgr.com/2014/10/28/cable-vs-netflix-fcc/
We’ve known for a while that over-the-top Internet streaming will be the future of television and now a new potential rule change from the Federal Communications Commission could make that future closer than ever before.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler on Tuesday proposed a new rule-making process in which the FCC would consider revising its rules to ensure that over-the-top Internet streaming services are given the same treatment as cable companies and satellite television companies. This means that broadcasters would be barred from stopping online video providers from carrying their content and that online video providers would be empowered to negotiate fair licensing deals with content providers.
If Wheeler’s proposal is approved, this could pave the way for tech companies that have clear ambitions in television — such as Apple, Amazon and Google — to effectively compete with cable and satellite TV providers by being classified as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs).
Tomi Engdahl says:
Audio bus technology from ADI takes on MOST, Ethernet AVB
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/20-20khz/4436332/Audio-bus-technology-from-ADI-takes-on-MOST–Ethernet-AVB-
Analog Devices (ADI) has developed an audio signal distribution system for automotive use that could emerge in some environments as a strong competitor to established infotainment bus systems like MOST and Ethernet AVB.
It reads like the dream of an infotainment system designer: ADI’s Automotive Audio Bus (A2B) promises to reduce the weight of the cable loom by up to 75%, minimize connector size and replace bulky wiring systems through a simple unshielded twisted pair cable. Nevertheless, A2B transports high-quality audio signals over 32 discrete channels to any place in the car interior (well, at least as it is less than 10 meters away from the center stack).
Its signal transport is fully deterministic – and by the way, it also supplies the required power for the end nodes. All over a simple UTP cable.
While already filed as a trademark in April 2013, ADI now has introduced the first real product for its Automotive Audio Bus. The AD2410 transceiver is a cost-effective audio transceiver, offering a bandwidth of 50 Mbps. It supports all popular audio sampling rates and enables daisy-chaining of multiple slave nodes.
In contrast to most existing digital bus architectures, the system delay is deterministic. For these reasons, the AD2410 is suited for time-critical applications such as active noise cancellation, in-car communications and electronic microphone beam forming
The AD2410 is fully configurable using ADI’s SigmaStudio graphical development tool
ADI reports that Panasonic Automotive of Amercia is one of the first users for the A2B technology. First OEM deployments are expected in 2016.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The curved surfaces are difficult to video projectors: Deep sharp image requires that the shutter aperture is almost closed – less light through the aperture becomes, the darker the image. This problem can be solved with lasers, but the solution is a costly projector applications.
Fraunhofer Institute researchers have developed a LED based projector, which allows a very precise clear image can be projected for all kinds of curved surfaces.
The researchers set a number of micro projectors next to each matrix. The principle is simple: a clear image is produced by the addition of light sources. According to researchers, the matrix has a thickness of about one centimeter. Its dimensions may, for example 10 x 10 cm, depending on how many mikroprojektoria matrix is desired. The matrix consists of a square centimeter-sized elements (=100 projectors needed for 10x10cm matrix).
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1988:lediprojektori-heijastaa-kirkkaasti-kaarevalle-pinnalle&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Radiohead(ache): BBC wants dead duck tech in sexy new mobes
Gov backs Antiques Radio Show
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/14/radiohead_ache_bbc_dead_duck_tech_sexy_mobes/
The UK government is supporting a push by broadcasters — including, notably, the BBC — to put DAB into new smartphones.
Communications Minister Ed Vaizey will back the Universal Smartphone Radio Project initiative, also known as RadioDNS or Hybrid Radio, in a speech today, the Telegraph reports.
Much of the initiative is eminently sensible. It seeks to provide a common spec (pdf) for smartphone apps to discover and receive broadcast radio transmissions, as well as on-demand radio shows. The stumbling block is the digital radio transmission hardware.
Digital broadcast radio is fragmented across an alphabet soup of incompatible specs: DAB, DAB+, DRM/AMSS, and HD Radio, and all these require dedicated hardware. And, unlike FM radio, digital radio is also a power-guzzler.
So, integrating discovery and social media, which RadioDNS has already done, is the easy part. The hard part is getting a global giant such as Apple or Samsung to integrate chips and antennae that support DAB+ or DRM into their sleek and modern devices. It’s been a long time since DAB, which was devised in the 1980s, looked like the future.
And when you consider the transmission chain from a hardware vendor’s point of view, DAB looks even more like the odd one out.
Since the transmission began as IP, and a smartphone already has a high bandwidth IP path, why not just miss out the bit in the middle? Digital radio makes smartphones more expensive, cumbersome and awkward, draining the battery.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cutting the Cord? Time Warner Loses 184,000 TV Subscribers In One Quarter
http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/10/30/1347211/cutting-the-cord-time-warner-loses-184000-tv-subscribers-in-one-quarter
Time Warner Cable’s results have been buoyed recently by higher subscriber numbers for broadband Internet service. In the latest period, however, Time Warner Cable lost 184,000 overall residential customer relationships
Time Warner Cable Cuts Sales Forecast on Drop in TV Users
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-30/time-warner-cable-misses-estimates-on-drop-in-tv-users.html
Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), the cable company awaiting approval to merge with Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), reported profit that trailed analysts’ estimates and cut its sales forecast as it continues to lose video subscribers.
Time Warner Cable and Comcast are relying more on broadband users for revenue growth as new TV subscribers prove harder to come by. Netflix Inc.’s streaming service and HBO’s upcoming online subscription are going after younger viewers who prefer to watch shows over the Web rather than paying $50 a month or more for traditional cable.
“The numbers were weak,”
The falling number of Americans paying for TV is part of the driving force behind Comcast’s proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable.
Today, the company forecast 2014 revenue of about $22.8 billion, or about 3.1 percent growth.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Just don’t blame Bono! Apple iTunes music sales PLUMMET
Cupertino revenue hit by cheapo downloads, says report
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/26/apple_itunes_sales_fall/
According to the Wall Street Journal, iTunes revenue witnessed a rapid decline of around 13 per cent to 14 per cent over the course of the past 10 months. The newspaper cited sources familiar with the matter.
Here in the UK, digital recording revenue first overtook physical in 2012, however, CD sales fell only 6.4 per cent last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hey, YouTube lovers! How about you pay us, we start paying for STUFF? – Google
It’s too late for Psy, though
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/28/money_for_youtube_why_not/
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has confirmed that the Google vid service is open to introducing subscriptions.
This is not exactly news – one of the most controversial sagas to rage this year concerns complaints from independent music companies over YouTube’s yet-to-be launched subscription music service. Indies requested emergency action from the European Commission’s competition regulator, and weeks later a Chocolate Factory music boss quit.
Nor are subscriptions entirely unheard of at Google. Google Play Music All Access, a Spotify-like service, asks for $9.99 for offline access – just like all the other streaming music services. Android users are bombarded with it. But charging for the YouTube video service is rather different.
There’s a weird currency in Silicon Valley’s kingdom of the unicorn: popularity in the real world is usually followed by money. But on the internet, expect to be paid in hugs, credits, and upvotes – which are somewhat less convertible into something that pays the rent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Roose / New York Magazine:
Why podcasts are back: shows are better and cheaper, playing smartphone audio in a car is easy — What’s Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance? — The mid-aughts audio scene is making a big comeback.
What’s Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/whats-behind-the-great-podcast-renaissance.html
In 2001, Steve Jobs announced the original iPod, a music player that would make it possible for people to carry their entire album collections in their pockets. Over the next few years, a genre of narrative audio that took the device’s name — “podcasting” — became a thriving mini-industry. There were podcasts about politics, sports, literature, comedy. There were podcasts that sounded like NPR, and ones that sounded like Rush Limbaugh. Many lacked polish, but most had a kind of energy to them that suited their audiences well.
And then, sometime around 2009 or 2010, the podcast scene seemed to wither.
Today, a very different problem exists: There are too many great podcasts to keep up with.
What’s happening? And why now? The word podcast is roughly ten years old, after all, and the “pod” to which it refers has been discontinued. Still, the genre seems more alive than ever. I spoke to the people behind several popular shows, and they agreed: We’re in a golden age of podcasting.
There are a few possible reasons for the resurgence. The first is that today’s podcasts are simply better. Most podcasts used to be pretty amateurish — two people talking about sports for an hour, say, or a businessman ad libbing MBA lessons. And some still are. But today’s top podcasts — and I’ll refer you to The Atlantic’s list of some of the best — are full-scale productions with real staff, budget, and industry expertise behind them.
Another reason that podcasts may be growing is that the economics are compelling. Producing an average podcast costs far less than producing a TV show or a radio show (all you really need is a microphone or two, a copy of Audacity or some other editing software, and a cheap hosting service for the audio files themselves). And the advertising rates on a successful podcast are big enough to pay for the costs many times over. Several top podcasters told me that their CPM (the cost to an advertiser per thousand impressions, a standard ad-industry unit) was between $20 and $45. Compare that to a typical radio CPM (roughly $1 to $18) or network TV ($5 to $20) or even a regular old web ad ($1 to $20), and the podcast wins. Podcasts can charge higher ad rates because of the personal nature of the single-host format — as an advertiser, it’s far better to have “Serial”‘s Sarah Koenig reading your copy out loud than to burst in with a prepackaged ad that nobody will pay attention to.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using Cell Phone Screens with any HDMI Interface
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/02/using-cell-phone-screens-with-any-hdmi-interface/
Thanks to the worldwide proliferation of smartphones, tiny high-resolution displays are common and cheap. Interfacing these displays with anything besides a phone has been a problem. [twl] has a board that does just that, converting HDMI to something these displays can understand, and providing a framebuffer so these displays can be written to through small microcontrollers.
[twl] is using a rather large FPGA to handle all the conversion from HDMI to the DSI the display understands. He’s using an Xilinx Spartan-6-SLX9, one of the most hobbyist friendly devices that is able to be hand soldered
MIPI DSI Display Shield/HDMI Adapter
http://hackaday.io/project/364-mipi-dsi-display-shieldhdmi-adapter
A controller for LCD/OLED screens with MIPI DSI interface. Arduino shield format, HDMI-to-DSI adapter & built-in framebuffer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What’s Behind the Great Podcast Renaissance?
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/whats-behind-the-great-podcast-renaissance.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Birds Found Using Human Musical Scales For the First Time
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/14/11/03/2310202/birds-found-using-human-musical-scales-for-the-first-time
The flutelike songs of the male hermit thrush are some of the most beautiful in the animal kingdom. Now, researchers have found that these melodies employ the same mathematical principles that underlie many Western and non-Western musical scales—the first time this has been seen in any animal outside humans.
Birds found using human musical scales for the first time
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/11/birds-found-using-human-musical-scales-first-time
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pop starlet Taylor Swift DUMPS Spotify: It’s not me, it’s you
You’re just a streamer, says cowgirl, but I need something more
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/04/taylor_swift_dumps_spotify_its_not_me_its_you/
Taylor Swift’s record company has removed her entire catalogue from Spotify, becoming by far the most popular artist to snub the streaming service.
Swift’s new album 1989 is expected to be the year’s biggest seller and the accompanying tour to exceed $200m in gross revenue.
Popular artists, including Adele and The Black Keys, have withheld their new releases from streaming services for good reason: “windowing”. An artist may make between 70p and £1.20 from the sale of a digital album on iTunes or Amazon, but only fractions of a cent from each play on a streaming service.
Artists less popular than Swift have consistently rankled that back catalogue plays yield far lower rates than before, with the songwriters at the pointy end of the “new economics of music”. One estimate of Pandora’s statements was that one million plays yielded the songwriter as much as they’d get from selling one T-shirt.
Perhaps fewer artists would complain about lower rates if the promise of a global distribution network was fulfilled, and they made up in volume what they lost on a per-play or per-unit royalty. But this hasn’t happened. Spotify is the largest streaming service and boasts only 10 million paying subscribers, and 30 million ad-supported subscribers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In Europe, Spotify Royalties Overtake iTunes Earnings By 13%
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/04/in-europe-spotify-royalties-overtake-itunes-earnings-by-13/
Spotify may be smarting from the removal of Taylor Swift’s music catalogue from its platform, and Taylor Swift may not care, since she is riding a sales blockbuster in the form of her new album 1989, but it turns out that in the bigger picture, Spotify’s streaming service continues to gain an edge over downloads, specifically via iTunes.
The numbers support findings reported in the Wall Street Journal last month noting that iTunes music sales are down about 13% this year. iTunes is still a massive business — up $300 million to $4.6 billion in sales in the last quarter — but that doesn’t point to how well music is doing within that.
Kobalt also notes that streaming services as of Q2 2014 account for 10% of all publishing income for its clients in Europe.
The tip of the balance to streaming services is a relatively recent phenomenon, Kobalt notes.
In Q3 2013, iTunes’ earnings were 32% higher than that of Spotify in Europe. In the last two years, streaming revenues tripled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Xiaomi To Invest $1B In Online Video Content
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/03/xiaomi-onlinevideo/
Xiaomi just announced on its official Weibo account that it plans to invest $1 billion in online video content to support its smart television ecosystem.
Xiaomi’s smart TVs, which first launched in September 2013, are part of its plan to create a hardware ecosystem around MIUI, its Android skin, which syncs between its smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and smart wi-fi routers. The company’s business model is to sell hardware at-cost, which means that it is important for the company to create software and online content—including online video—that will eventually generate revenue.
At stake is China’s rapidly growing smart TV market. According to Digital TV Research, China is now the world’s largest smart TV and OTT (over-the-top) content, with 20 million to 30 million sets sold each year.
Xiaomi’s smart TVs compete against rival platforms from domestic competitors Baidu and Alibaba, as well as Samsung and Apple. Baidu’s smart TV, called TV+, has an edge because it streams content from iQiyi and PPS, which combined create China’s largest online video provider. In addition to online video, TV+ also gives users free access to movies and TV series.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sonos adds multi-account support to its connected loudspeakers
https://gigaom.com/2014/11/04/sonos-adds-multi-account-support-to-its-connected-loudspeakers/
Sonos wants to make sure that your kids questionable taste in music doesn’t ruin your Spotify recommendations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Only 11 Real Audio Designers in the World? Do You Really Need a DSP?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324522&
Is it true that there are only 11 real audio designers in the world? Are today’s low-cost, high-performance general-purpose microcontrollers pretenders to the DSP throne?
The following graphic provides a visual explanation of why Paul estimates there are only 11 real audio designers in the world:
Audio engineers tend to originate from one of three disciplines — sound engineering, embedded software development, and DSP engineering. As we see in the Venn diagram that Paul constructed, the end result is the magic number of 11.
I’ve seen this kind of data before in a survey undertaken by EETimes. That survey showed that engineers have to work in as many as five disciplines at any point in time, yet they only study one in college.
So, if we accept that it’s incredibly hard to find people skilled in multiple disciplines, what are design teams to do? Paul’s solution was to build a software tool called Audio Weaver for very fast audio prototyping and design. This tool is based on MATLAB and is based on drag-and-drop components.
Audio Weaver looks like with an STM32 Discovery
It really is astonishingly easy to use Audio Weaver — which you can obtain from DSP Concepts — and it’s free to use (with a royalty for production).
Paul’s other heretical question shown in the title to this column was whether you really need a dedicated DSP to do good-quality audio design. The simple answer is “Probably not.
Paul told me that 80% of his consulting work is no longer focused on the use of DSPs, but on ARM-based devices like the STM32F407. This is really good news for designers, because now you can design audio products with lower cost parts that consume less power, all with tools that allow you to prototype in a day.
Audio Weaver™- the Only Cross-Platform Audio Design Platform
http://www.dspconcepts.com/products/audio-weaver
Tomi Engdahl says:
How a Real 3D Display Works
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/06/how-a-real-3d-display-works/
There’s a new display technique that’s making the blog rounds, and like anything that seems like its torn from [George Lucas]‘ cutting room floor, it’s getting a lot of attention. It’s a device that can display voxels in midair, forming low-resolution three-dimensional patterns without any screen, any fog machine, or any reflective medium. It’s really the closest thing to the projectors in a holodeck we’ve seen yet, leading a few people to ask how it’s done.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lytro Branches Out from Photography, Offers Unprecedented Access to Their Tech for $20K
http://petapixel.com/2014/11/06/lytro-branches-photography-offers-unprecedented-access-tech-20k/
The folks at Lytro have always believed that light field technology is the future, and not just for photography and storytelling. They believe that anything with a lens and a sensor can benefit from the technology, and with today’s announcement of the Lytro Platform, they’re opening up their proprietary tech to anybody who wants to partner up with them and expand light field into new markets.
The goal of the Lytro Platform is to “bring the transformational power of the light field to an entirely new set of imaging applications for the first time,” and the first step is the release of the Lytro Development Kit (LDK).
The LDK, hardware illustrated above, costs $20K and “provides imaging researchers with the highest degree of control of Lytro’s advanced light field capture devices and processing engine.” In English, that means unprecedented access to Lytro’s hardware and software so that researchers in all fields can begin experimenting with the light field.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Storyteller’s Kit: The Gear You Need to Tell Stories with Your Photography
http://petapixel.com/2014/11/05/storytellers-kit-gear-need-tell-stories-photography/
Gear does not make the photographer, allow me to state that for the record before we dive in here. A talented artist can make an image with whatever falls into their palm, but for those of us who have the luxury of choice, be it the pocket sized Ricoh dangling from Moriyama’s wrist, or Crewdson’s cherrywood 8×10, a powerful image is about the framing of a moment, the machine it is seen through when chosen properly, serves to simplify and streamline the process.
To keep things simple, I’m going to be speaking in terms of Prime lenses in 35mm equivalents, so the numbers I’ll be mentioning mainly apply to a full frame 35mm standard, even though I will be mentioning photographers who work in medium and large formats as well.
Photographers for the most part, strive to tell stories. Whether found in the completely candid instant, or carefully constructed, equipment choice can be key in creating the a package that allows the photographer to do their work with ease, unobstructed by the bells and whistles that are so common in modern camera equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This 360° Action Cam is Kodak’s Interesting Response to the GoPro
http://petapixel.com/2014/11/04/360-action-cam-kodaks-interesting-response-gopro/
Kodak, or rather JK Imaging pretending to be Kodak, recently launched a new entry into the action camera market. It’s called the Kodak PixPro SP360, and its intriguing form factor and lens allow it to capture 16-megapixel photographs and 1080p video with a 360º field of view.
The SP360 action cam pairs with your iOS and Android devices via WiFi and a proprietary app that allows you to not only use your phone as a live view screen, but also choose how the 360º image you’re capturing will be displayed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Amazon’s Echo: a $200, Multi-Function, Audio-Centric Device
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/11/06/236230/amazons-echo-a-200-multi-function-audio-centric-device
Amazon today quietly unveiled a new product dubbed Amazon Echo. The $200 device appears to be a voice-activated wireless speaker that can answer your questions, offer updates on what’s going in the world, and of course play music.
Amazon Echo is a $200 voice-activated wireless speaker for your living room
http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/06/amazon-echo-is-a-200-voice-activated-smart-wireless-speaker-for-your-living-room/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Taylor Swift on why she left Spotify: streaming services perpetuate “the perception that music has no value and should be free”
Taylor Swift Shuns ‘Grand Experiment’ of Streaming Music
“I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the…creators of this music,” says superstar of Spotify and other services
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/taylor-swift-shuns-grand-experiment-of-streaming-music-20141106#ixzz3IUeDXT3p
Tomi Engdahl says:
Zuckerberg: Most of Facebook Will Be Video Within Five Years
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/11/07/192236/zuckerberg-most-of-facebook-will-be-video-within-five-years
Facebook will be mostly video in 5 years, Zuckerberg says
http://www.itworld.com/article/2844410/facebook-will-be-mostly-video-in-5-years-zuckerberg-says.html
If you think your Facebook feed has a lot of video now, just wait.
“In five years, most of [Facebook] will be video,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday during the company’s first community town hall, in which he took questions from the public on a range of topics.
He was responding to a question about whether the growing number of photos uploaded to Facebook is putting a drag on its infrastructure. But Facebook’s data centers have it covered, he said. The real challenge is improving the infrastructure to allow for more rich media like video in people’s feeds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Disney Downplays a la Carte Plans as ESPN Preps OTT Services
http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/disney-downplays-a-la-carte-plans-as-espn-preps-ott-services-1201350086/
Walt Disney Co. chief Bob Iger likes experimenting with digital platforms, yet while ESPN — one of Disney’s biggest moneymakers — is getting ready to launch over-the-top services to stream more sports programming, don’t expect the move to lead to Disney backing a la carte options for its cable channels anytime soon.
“We’re well-positioned to go direct to the consumer if the marketplace demands it, but we don’t feel a need to do that now,” Iger said during a call with Wall Street analysts to discuss Disney’s strong fourth quarter and fiscal year results on Thursday.
ESPN currently generates over $8 billion in carriage fees for its channels each year, and receives over $6 a month from pay-TV operators for nearly every cable subscriber. Another 74 cents per subscriber comes from ESPN 2.
This fiscal year, Disney generated $15.1 billion from its cable holdings alone, a gain of 5% over last year, increasing profits by 7% to $6.5 billion.
“The package of NBA games that will be on ESPN will be stronger than anything we would ever offer on over-the-top,” Iger said. “It may enhance the enjoyment of the sport but not replace it.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft had to
A simple headset could help millions through the art of sound
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7164623/microsoft-3d-sound-headset-guide-dogs
Microsoft blindfolded me and led me around several streets before leaving me on the ledge of a freezing cold canal in London yesterday. Not in the interest of torturing me, or product secrecy; it was simply the best way to transport me to a reality that 39 million people face daily: blindness. For millions of blind and visually-impaired people, venturing out of the house can be a dangerous and daunting task. Microsoft is aiming to change this with 3D Audio technology and a smart headset the software giant is trialling in the UK.
Microsoft’s system works by creating a 3D-soundscape of audio that’s transmitted through your jaw bone. You wear a bone conduction headset that pairs to a smartphone that can pick up nearby beacons and guide you around. The bone conduction here is key, as it means you can still hold conversations with people or hear the environment around you because you’re not wearing headphones that cover your ears, which is crucial if you’re visually impaired and rely on sound as a primary sense. Microsoft has created a clever system of audio cues for nearby stores, points of interest, and journey details, alongside regular GPS instructions and a unique audio ping that keeps you straight on track when you’re navigating. Like Oculus’ Rift, it’s a technology you really need to try to fully experience, so I did.
Microsoft is now working on a second phase of the headset, integrating the technology more deeply instead of just bolting it onto the back of an off the shelf AfterShockz headset. I had to push hard to find what technology was involved here, and Microsoft seemed reluctant to discuss it, focusing on its benefits instead. This small gadget, backed by complex algorithms, cloud data, and new technology could just change the world of 285 million visually impaired people. That’s the sort of challenge you expect the new Microsoft to be working on, and it’s exactly what we’re going to see a lot more of with Nadella at the helm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Interesting idea:
Interactive Sound with Glove and Tape
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/09/interactive-sound-with-glove-and-tape/
Here’s a way to explore new spaces in untraditional manners: a sonophore, or a glove equipped with a tape heads meant to explore spaces with magnetic tape tracing the walls.
This project is a followup to the analogue tape glove from a few years ago
This project takes a glove similar to the analogue tape glove, but the tape is spread out along the walls of the installation. There’s no way of knowing what strange voices are contained on the tapes; the only way to know is to explore the space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Samsung slams door on OLED TVs, makes QUANTUM dot LEAP
LG says will stick with it, but be ready to watch it cave in…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/10/samsung_slams_door_on_oled_tvs_goes_to_quantum_dot_next/
Samsung has said that it intends to focus on UHD TVs using LCD panels augmented by quantum dot technology, instead of pushing OLED as a commercial replacement for LCD. This is the kind of decision that might mean that OLED never takes off in the larger form factors.
Kim Hyun-Seok, the head of Samsung’s TV business, told reporters that the firm doesn’t intend to change its OLED strategy this year or next – meaning that it will look to quantum dots to wring the life out of LCD instead of taking the plunge to OLED.
Chief OLED rival LG said it will continue to pursue the OLED dream.
OLED has been vaunted as the next-gen display technology for a few years now, with its improved colours and contrast over LCD. But the high cost of manufacture means that it was always unlikely to dethrone LCD until its cost came down, and that meant its yields had to rise dramatically.
Quantum dot (QD) technology also promises to improve the picture quality of LCD, but without requiring the industry to completely overhaul its manufacturing processes and retool. Like telcos and ISPs investing and clinging to copper lines instead of taking the plunge into fibre, the display manufacturers are married to LCD – and the divorce looks messy enough to deter them from change.
QD-LED arrays right now suffer the same cost problems as OLED, but to a much worse degree.
Quantum dots are nanocrystal particles made out of semiconductor materials. Due to their incredibly small size, the particles display the quantum mechanical property of quantum confinement – hence their name. The dots emit light according to their size, and are triggered by light or an electrical current. Smaller dots are nearer the violet end of the visible light spectrum, while the larger ones are at the red end.
The dots can be assembled into a full QD-LED array using a similar process to manufacturing OLED, but in LCD the dots will be used to create a colour filter film for the LED backlighting that negates crosstalk between the colour channels – which will allow engineers to calibrate the displays to output much better colour, while remaining relatively cheap to produce.
So what is next for OLED? It currently has a vibrant future in smaller panels, particularly in smartphones and tablets. Laptops could be the next major growth area, but not if the industry spends no more on R&D, to get it to be the central large-screen technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Boxing clever? Amazon Fire TV is SO CLOSE to being excellent
Telly box with gaming for the price of a tank of petrol
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/07/review_amazon_fire_tv/
Review Amazon has made its Fire TV video streaming device available in the UK; an inexpensive set-top box that runs the company’s de-Googled version of Android, as also found in the Fire Phone. Confusing matters, Amazon also offers the Fire TV Stick. This will be available on November 19, but only in the US.
The Stick has the same OS, but is a smaller device that plugs directly into an HDMI socket, like Google’s Chromecast device and the Roku Streaming Stick.
What’s the difference? The Stick is less than half the price (currently $39 versus $84 in the US), comes without a remote (though it is a compatible extra) so you control it through an app, and has lower-spec hardware.
In short, the Stick is less powerful but depending on how you use it you might not care, and lacks the voice remote that comes with Fire TV.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Flat Panel TV Sets Application Guide
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/nxp/flat-panel-tv-sets-application-guide/
This document is an application guide of flat panel TV sets application. It introduces TV portfolio and features a variety of forward-thinking solutions from NXP, including power solutions, RF reception stage, IF demodulators, analog audio and video interfaces, HDMI interface, smart-card reader interface, data transfer interfaces, interfaces and control, discrete components for the main processing board, components for the backlight and panel, and RF communication with remote control unit.
NXP Semiconductors offers a wide portfolio of advanced solutions for flat-panel TV sets. All are built on our deep understanding of the needs of set designers and manufacturers, and of market requirements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CobraNet® Clocking Modes
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/cirrus_logic/cobranet-clocking-modes/
This application note presents the CobraNet® system clocking modes that can be configured to operate in various ways. The document also describes the important concepts regarding CobraNet Clocking, as well as the core clock security of a CobraNet Interface and using 0×10 mode with CS1810xx, CS4961xx or CM-2 if designer desires to synchronize CobraNet clocks with an externally supplied word clock.
Cobranet HOME
http://www.cobranet.info/
CobraNet technology, the de facto standard of digital audio networking technology from Cirrus Logic, has established itself as the product of choice for multivendor networked audio.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Micromirror arrays deliver up to 4 Mpixels
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4437024/Micromirror-arrays-deliver-up-to-4-Mpixels
wo programmable chipsets for 3-D machine vision and lithography applications, the DLP9000 and DLP6500 digital micromirror arrays from Texas Instruments offer developers higher-resolution imaging, extended wavelength support, and faster pattern rates compared to previous devices. The DLP9000 provides WQXGA resolution at greater than 4 million pixels (2560×1600), while the DLP6500 offers 1080p resolution at 2 million pixels (1920×1080).
DLP LightCrafter evaluation modules are available to allow developers to assess each chipset. They come with standard USB, HDMI, and I2C interfaces and a simple-to-use GUI for real-time chip programming.
The DLP9000 and DLP6500 micromirror arrays are available now in volume.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Containing Sound and Light
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/fujitsu_semiconductor/containing-sound-and-light/
Technological advancements in this modern time give customers the satisfaction they want. Customers want stream videos and music via their handheld gadgets almost every where they go. This article discusses the challenges that design engineers are facing in the aspect of audio and video transmission.
A/V Containers
So, what is an A/V container? Simply put, an A/V container is an information framework where encoded audio and video samples reside.
Another term to describe A/V containers is a “file format.” A container is NOT an encoding/ compression method. Many A/V containers are actually encoding/compression method agnostic. They simply describe how A/V samples coexist inside of a “file.” AVI, MOV, ASF, MPEG-1 System Streams, MPEG-2 Program Streams, MPEG-2 Transport Streams, and MPEG-4 System Streams are all A/V containers.
The basic concept of an A/V container is that it is simply a “box” into which audio and video streams are placed for shipping to a destination. “Destinations” include a hard drive as a file, a CD-ROM, a DVD, a remote location over a LAN or via the Internet. In some cases, the receiver has no idea what is in the container until it is opened. All container formats have “headers” that inform the receiver as to the contents of the container.