Yasound, is this the future of web radio?

Yasound launched its French "platform to create your own web radio station"  web site last night at a painful press conference  - for one thing, we were all kept standing for three hours. The i-phone app should follow in a few days as soon as Apple has approved it. A preliminary version has been up since March. UK and US versions of the service are in the pipeline. The different country versions are all kept separate for rights reasons. As the system is closely tied with i-Tunes, I don't think there's much chance of seeing an Android version in the near future.

So, what is Yasound?  How does it let you "create your own web radio station" in just a few clicks. Entirely legally and at no cost. 

Basically, you upload the titles of your personal play-list to Yasound. Their server checks whether it already these songs on its database. If so, it just plays it out in sync with what you are listening to on your i-Phone. There is, naturally, a social networking aspect.


What the whole thing boils down to is that you can now chat with other people who are listening to the same piece of music as you at the same time.

But this is not radio as we know it, with interviews, phone-ins, reports, panel discussions and maybe even advertising.

Built-in laptop batteries: buyer beware

A worrying trend has hit recent ranges of laptops: the battery is built in, necessitating a return to the fatory in the event of a change being necessary. There are several culpits. The one that sticks to mind is Sony. The new laptops are sleek, thin and nicely streamlined. The use of ultra thin polymer batteries helps, as it enables the battery to be spread over the whole surface of the base. Great, until the time comes to replace the battery.
In my expeirence, typical battery lifetime is around three years. So, this effectively means that the ultra sleek, and expensive, laptops can now be expected to last just three years.

Skype Android upgrade sucks

A while ago I accidently installed a new version of Skype for Windows. Its main disadvantage was that it did not provide an option to not automatically download future updates - a definite problem when you are using a download quota such as most 3G subscriptions. Fortunately, I had stored a copy of the previous version. Particularly as the update did not introduce anything much in the way of improvements but completely rearranged the onscreen presentation. A learning curve for no clear reason.

Now Skype have done it again, this time with the Android version. This time the download was voluntary, after all, it promised video which has been lacking.
BUT, the new version has discarded the online contacts list. Instead it wants to go through all the contacts on the phone, much like Viber does. In Skype's case, the reason is most probably to make it as easy as possible to dial phone numbers using Skype and so encourage users to buy Skype credit.
Anyway, I finally decided to let Skype snoop into my address book to find my contacts. The scan took over four hours and then it didn't find any contacts at all. It's just as well I didn't need to place any urgent Skype calls this afternoon!

D-Link DCS-930L wifi surveillance camera

My dealings with surveillance cameras go back to the days when an anologue camera on the end of a long thin coaxial cable connected to the sitting SCART socket on the family TV in the sitting room.
 Many years later I picked up a second-hand D-link DCS-5300G. A motorised wifi device enabling surveillance over the Internet, its features included the possibility of controlling it remotely. The downside was: it was a headache to set up and I eventually gave up.

Now this new machine, the D-Link DCS-930L,  is a doddle to set up. No need to know or care anything about routing ports, DHCP or whatever. The price has come down a lot too, at just €99. It can be used with the MyDLink system. Basically you just log into the MyDlink web site and you can watch (provided you have Java Runtime installed) what's going on back home.
There are MyDlink apps for both Android and IOS.
This camera is not motorised though. Nor does it have the snazzy features of the other machine I reviewed here a year ago, the Logitech Alert 750i, which had motion detection, could initiate email alerts in the event of intrusion and store images on a memory card.
In other words, it is a distant surveillance camera, full stop.

The Down side 

It's not compatible with my netbook which is Linux based. I contacted  DLink support about this. They told me to use a different computer!

The Android app installed without any difficulty on my ZTE Skate and worked straight away. But I still haven't managed to install it on a non-Google approved Android slate.

Finally, this device is really a monitoring camera rather than a surveillance camera. It doesn't work in low light levels, so it can't be used to monitor an appartement with the curtains or shutters closed while you are away  - unless you leave the lights on the whole time. It is fine for monitoring a baby's bedroom, but for burglary surveillance, the other camera I reviewed earlier is a far better bet, with motion detection, recording images and email alerts, but it then it costs three times as much. 

ZTE Skate android phone

I've just been given one of the new ZTE Skate phones to play with.
There are plenty of reviews on the net so I won't harp on about the basic specs. Suffice it to say that it has a large 4.3 inch screen, and sports Android 2.3.1. Rather, I will talk about some of the aspects that don't generally get into the reviews. Small, features that are not particularly expensive to implement, but which make a difference.

I really liked the possibility of disactivating data via mobile: seems really obvious. But I've come across many phones, including the earlier ZTE Blade,  that don't allow you to to this. I suppose the manufacturer's thinking is that the user wants to be always connected - even if it means paying exorbitant mobile data rates.Obvious, but I couldn't believe ít when I come accross  phones I've tested on.

Built -in SIP that links seamlessly to the phone: I was delighted when it registered in a jiffy after entering the ID, password and SIP host. But then when I tried to actually use it, the phone rebooted as soon as the person I called picked up the phone! I'll download another SIP app later on. Meanwhile, there's always Viber - when it works..

Samsung quietly drops its e-book reader

Samsung held its press show for this season's new products in Paris yesterday. Smartphones, wireless screen docks, fridges, notebook computers. And even tablets - something they're not doing in Germany right now! But one notable absent was their e-reader. The E-65 is still on sale at the full price of €299 in Paris stores (e.g. Surcouf). I spoke to the person at Samsung who had been in charge of e-Readers in France. He confirmed that Samsung had indeed pulled out of that particular market, giving the reason that Samsung do not control the e-ink technology and have to buy it in. Plus the fact that the bottom has gone out with the rise and rise of tablets - even though they are very different products addressing different sectors.

Sarko's Internet show - e-G8 Paris Summit

At least Sarko (French President Nicolas Sarkozy, just in case you don't know) learnt his lesson after his earlier foray into international Internet events. His presence at Web 3 in December 2006, when he was a presidential candidate, did not go down at all well. Most of the audience just didn't know what he was there for! This time, he staged his own event, paid for by industrialists - with whom he has good relations. It does rather remind one of the wealthy amateur singer who hired a concert hall to show off her talents. This time, Sarko's speech was at least relevant. And he even took a small handful of questions - admittedly rather tame ones which gave him the opportunity to expound some more. Perhaps that was why press accreditation did not allow entry into the inaugural speech. But as has been widely pointed out, Sarko's actions related to the Internet since he came to power have not been uncontroversial.

The programme for the rest of the event looks very interesting. It's played out in video on www.eg8forum.com