Our world is changing. Now that’s very cliched, you may say. But if you look around a bit, then our way of information gathering to idea spreading has changed over time. Much due to the advent of internet. Internet is shaping our culture in way which we wanted to. Web 1.0 era is over as we have seen much discussion about it and the new world order of Web 2.0 is here. And with the introduction of Web 2.0, came the concept of Social Media. And this very revolution has changed a lot of things: For us and the business models of the world. You can frame it largely as we are in “SPECS Economy” i.e. Sharing, Peering, Engaging, Collaborating and Socializing culture.

In the world where we are using tools like Twitter, Facebook etc to connect people across the boundaries, so why can’t we use these mass collaboration tools to help each other prevent some of the worst feared catastrophes which have more often than not paralyzed the entire human race. On this regard, Google has taken a new initiative to save the world via the internet. They (Google.Org) are funding a non-profit group called “InSTEDD“. The idea is to alert citizens of the world against disease outbreaks & natural disasters and coordinate relief efforts in the event of disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and Tsunami etc.

Today is one of the glorious day in the history of Indian business. The much talked about Tata’s 1-lakh ($2700) car was launched today in the Auto Expo Show at New Delhi.

I won’t go much into the details of the car or the euphoria surrounding the launch, since it will be all over the media tomorrow. But I want to share some thoughts about the launch. Actually I came to know about the launch details from Twitter (thanks to Gaurav Mishra). He actually twittered the news while Mr. Tata was announcing it.

Few things happened while this development was taking place. First, Tata’s Nano featured among the top most search in Technorati on 10th Jan, 2008 i.e. the world was searching for more information about Tata’s Nano and secondly, the blogosphere was buzzing about Tata Nano.

It’s very rare to see such euphoria among people across the world for a product launch like this and that too Indian product. But here the product has the capability to be a standard by itself, both for customers as well as industry players across the world. Tata’s have made it possible to break the myth that cheap products are inferior in quality.

The launch of this small “Big” car (as much the hype) can be traced back to the corridors of Apple’s Steve Jobs launching iPhone. So when Steve Jobs comes with his keynote speech about iPhone’s launch and people across 130 odd countries watch it, then much of the PR, Branding and Marketing is being done there itself. So now Indians have something to boast about. So when Mr. Ratan Tata comes out with Nano’s launch speech, people around the world want to listen to what he has to say (Citation from technorati).

So from a marketer’s point of view, the job has been well done and an incredible story of hope & dream has been passed to the people. Now the “Idea-virus” has to spread. So Tata’s main task would be to do some good PR activities (not much in marketing) to keep it hot unless it faces some crucial issues relating to customer services due to the initial hype.

Still I’m happy that an Indian brand has nudged the expectations of world-wide public and Tata’s Nano will definitely put India in the limelight for much needed innovation in the Indian context.

Once in a while, people ask me this question i.e. How to build traffic to my blog? The other day a friend of mine popped this question to me. I was far from surprised since I’m not a SEO guru or a internet traffic wizard. But yeah, I have been pulling some decent (trying to be humble) amount of traffic to my blog. So here are my 50 small tidbits for those who are interested or in a mood to have some fun:

1. Write which people will be interested in.
2. Don’t write about your ex-girlfriend or how your mom keeps pestering you.
3. Make love to Search Engines. Remember that Google is your new best friend.
4. Learn to be an expert in your field; At least try to be..
5. Be the first to break or announce news.
6. Long post sucks; believe in KISS (Keep it short & simple) philosophy.
7. Write timeless posts which can be read after one year even.
8. Bait inbound links by writing definite posts.
9. Being controversial helps.
10. Write about your sexy hot girlfriend. Give pictures if needed
11. Include bright and shiny widgets to grab attention.
12. Encourage comments by conversational posts i.e keep it open ended.
13. Give a free brownie to your commenter’s.
14. Tag your posts in Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Furl etc.
15. Have some influential bloggers talk about you. Period
16. Use images in your posts. Helps in assuming the idea of your article.
17. Work on the visual appeal. Yours is fine but more on the blog.
18. Include Categories, Most popular posts & Recent Posts.
19. Write about topics which are easy linkbaits for other bloggers like about gadgets, Google, Web 2.0 etc.
20. Have some influential friends who can help you spread your blog. Being Social is most important.
21. Use Twitter to perfection. Try to have followers/following ratio greater than 1.
22. Post on weekdays since there are more readers.
23. Post on weekends since there are less blog posts.
24. Use RSS and “Subscribe to Email” tab in your blog.
25. Keep a check on Technorati on top searches. Set Ping automatically or take help from someone smarter.
26. Don’t write about something which you will hate to read.
27. Learn SEO or buy “SEO for Dummies” for long term advantage.
28. Write in English or better write in Japanese.
29. Use third party way of driving traffic by posting in SlideShare.
30. Email friends about your new posts. Remember friends not foes.
31. Comments on other bloggers site, even though their posts suck sometimes.
32. Think I’m your pal..you know what to do!
33. Get back to your comments and give feedback.
34. Remember your blog’s url is your new name. So use it wherever possible. Try using it in your resume.
35. Sometimes not listening to other bloggers giving suggestion helps.
36. Create your own USP about your blog like Marketing, Social Media, Web 2.0, Technology blah blah.
37. Use Facebook to promote if you like Zuckerberg or use any SNS to let people know about your blog.
38. Increase your social circle..If not refer back to No 20.
39. Take ideas or get inspired by other people’s writing.
40. Stop being boring.
41. Surprise your readers. Write about Osama Bin Laden.
42. Create a niche for your blog through posts. Remember there is always someone interested.
43. Add some videos of Paris Hilton or some podcasts with J. Lo.
44. Create a buzz by publishing something newsworthy like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was wrong or something like that. But it should be true and not a rumor.
45. Don’t over promote yourself at the expense of your reader’s attention.
46. Love blogging and have passion for it.
47. Look for new topics to write on from other people’s twitter conversations.
48. Don’t be vague in your posts.
49. Make a lot of online friends in different SNS & Bookmarking sites. Again refer to No 20.
50. Last but not least, be patient.

So here are my 50 advices to get traffic to your blog. So feel free to give your ideas (satirical, humor or relevant).

Neither 2007 nor 2008 are the Years of Wireless. They’re the transition years.

The significant events that shaped the U.S. wireless industry in 2007 will carry over to 2008 and most likely 2009 before the industry receives a long-time-in-coming, much-needed makeover that — hopefully — will benefit all the players: the carriers, the infrastructure providers, the handset manufacturers, the developers and, best of all, you, the consumer.

Looking back at last100’s coverage of the U.S. wireless industry, three significant themes emerged that, taken singularly, could have qualified 2007 as the Year of Wireless: Life Remotes (the introduction of the iPhone), Disruption (Google’s game-changing involvement in an industry outside its own), and Mobile Lifestyle (mobile apps).

Yet each of these are far from complete, or even fully developed, so to say 2007 is the Year of Wireless is premature. We examine some of the events of 2007 and look forward into what promises to be an active, topsy-turvy 2008.

Life Remotes: The iPhone leads the next wave of cell phone design

Kenny Hirschorn, a chief strategist for European telecommunication giant Orange, once told Howard Rheingold for his book “Smart Mobs” not to think of the telephone as a device to talk into but one evolving into a “remote control for your life.”

Hirschorn’s observation is coming true. The cellphone has evolved beyond voice communications and a tool used by businessmen to a can’t-live-without, multi-facetted device used by everyday people — young and old — to connect to family, friends, and their interests at home and on the go. Increasingly, the cell phone is evolving into an information device — a life remote — to help people manage their busy lives.

Just note the success of the BlackBerry Pearl and Apple’s much ballyhooed iPhone. Months before the iPhone release, Research in Motion launched the Pearl, a consumer-focused smartphone that extended RIM beyond its usual business/enterprise customer. RIM’s revenue doubled from a year ago. The reason? About 34 percent of new subscribers were consumers and small businesses.

The Pearl’s release, however, was buried in the hype over the impending iPhone launch, which came at the end of June. At the time, we asked if the iPhone wasn’t the most emotional product of all time, a somewhat lofty statement but one that’s held true to this day.

Why emotional? There was unprecedented interest in it, not just leading up to the release but ever since. It’s hailed by many as the Gadget of the Year, lauded for its design, user interface, ease of use, and how it’s changing the wireless industry. For the first time, a manufacturer chose a carrier, not the other way around — an early sign of things to come.

But what’s striking about the iPhone is its emotional impact. It’s creating a “halo effect”, introducing non-Apple users to other Apple products such as its desktop and laptop computers, iPods, and iTunes store. It’s getting people to look beyond their current phones to see the possibility of what the iPhone and similar phones represent — another sign of things to come.

In a recent article in InfoWorld, Elizabeth Montalbano wrote, “In my case, it [iPhone] has changed the way I live. . . . Four months later, I’m still smitten. Until iPhone, I never thought a mobile device could so drastically change my daily life.”

Now, as 2008 begins, the Apple love-fest known as Macworld is just weeks away and iPhone speculation begins anew. The iPhone was a surprisingly stout first-generation product, but it still had many flaws, the least of which was using AT&T’s slow Edge network and the choice of going with Web-based applications over user-installed third-party apps.

These rough edges are due to change with the second generation iPhone, which is expected to be compatible in the U.S. with the faster 3G networks open to third-party developers when the software developer’s kit is released in February. Expect a second-gen iPhone to be available in the spring, no later than its June anniversary.

Also expect some counter-punching from feisty, long-established handset manufacturers with proven track records — LG (already released the Voyager), BlackBerry (new touch-screen Pearls are rumored on the way), Nokia (the world’s leading cell phone maker), Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.

What we’ve learned from 2007 is that design, user interfaces, and a pleasurable user experience are important innovation points and differentiators in a crowded, staid market that’s about to be turned upside-down.

Disruption: An outsider takes aim on wireless

Back in March, Google announced its interest in bidding on the 700 MHz spectrum that will be auctioned off by the U.S. government at the end of this month. The usual maelstrom followed in the tech world: What is Google up to? Why is Google bidding? What will a wireless industry be without the biggies AT&T and Verizon telling consumers what phones we can buy and what applications we can use on their networks?

As it turned out, Google got half of what it wanted when the FCC voted at the end of July to approve the rules governing the auction, which undoubtedly will change the U.S. wireless industry landscape. The commission decided to give consumers more choice and freedom, mandating that one-third of the spectrum auctioned must be “open” to any phone and application for use on any network. That was a big victory for Google and, theoretically, consumers.

That got us thinking. What would a Google phone look like? What would be its specs? Would it be an actual phone produced by or for Google or a Google-powered phone for others to develop and deploy on different carriers? It didn’t really matter. Google’s involvement was sure to rewrite the rules.

As it turned out, Google isn’t developing a separate Gphone, per se, but thousands of them through a Google-powered open-source operating system known as Android. The effort also has the backing of a diverse set of companies, which formed a special interest group known as the Open Handset Alliance (OHA).

There is no guarantee that Android or the OHA will succeed, but Google’s leadership and involvement is largely seen as a good thing as it shakes up a lumbering industry and reshuffles power structures and business models. In fact, it already has.

Among early OHA members were the carriers Sprint and T-Mobile, indicating they would open up their networks. Verizon, the No. 2 carrier in the U.S., has been dead-set against opening its network to any phones and applications it does not sanction. AT&T, the No. 1 carrier, has a somewhat open network (based on GSM standards) but didn’t flaunt that fact to customers.

When Google officially said it will bid on the 700 MHz spectrum, Verizon soon announced it was supporting Android and open networks and AT&T, oddly, said its network was already open, they just didn’t tell their customers about it.

Open networks, Google’s involvement in wireless, Android, the OHA, the upcoming spectrum bid, and let’s not forget the iPhone all began in 2007 and all will continue impacting the wireless industry through 2008. Exactly what happens will be fun to watch.

Mobile Lifestyle: mobile apps are the way to go

Consumers are going to need something to do with improved hardware and open networks, and 2007 introduced huge advancements in mobile applications — again, a sign of where things are headed. But like hardware and networks, innovation and development for mobile apps are no where near maturity.

During 2007 we saw advancements in the mobile Web, mobile applications, mobile gaming, mobile TV and video, mobile music, location-based services, mobile social networks, user-generated mobile content, and sharing, among others.

We think the mobile Web remains illusive until the hardware and networks are improved. We question why we need to watch a complete football game or TV shows on a mobile phone but understand its popularity overseas and where it might be headed in the States.

Mobile application developers understand the limitations of tiny cell phones and displays and are designing for mobile, not just porting desktop apps to the mobile platform.

Developers realize that word processing and spreadsheets on a phone attract a niche audience and only were marginally successful on PDAs. Instead, developers are pursuing the concept of “snippets” and widgets — smaller, scaled-down applications built for mobile that allow people to view and interact with their information in basic ways, stripping out the complexity and program overkill.

Examples are everywhere: Apple’s Calendar, Mail, Notes, and Photos on the iPhone. Google Maps. Mobile YouTube. Weather widgets. Mobile Facebook. Mobile versions of Google applications: search, Gcal, Gmail, Reader, Docs, Notebook, and others for use with the iPhone and Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Linux platforms.

The concept of “snippets” and cell phone-appropriate programs is reaching into mobile gaming (short attention games), location-based services, e-commerce and micro payments (quick transactions), and mobile social networks (specific interfaces for Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn), among many others.

And these are based on what was introduced in 2007. Telecom backbone infrastructure providers say they have technology in the labs waiting for introduction, they and the carriers just need to know what to do with it. Ad hoc social networks, micropayments, advertising, HD streaming to mobile devices, real-time gaming, in-world communications (for Second Life and others), advanced location-based services, augmented reality are all possible and some will show themselves in 2008, others in 2009.

Carriers realize change is afoot, and while they might react slowly and begrudgingly, they know they need to change and introduce new products and services that take advantage of new hardware, open networks, and advanced infrastructures. One example is music.

The carriers have long realized phones on their networks can be used as portable music players, but it wasn’t until the iPhone and its seamless integration with iTunes did operators notice that just offering storage for music on a phone wasn’t enough. They need a complete ecosystem: music-enabled handsets interacting with networks so users can purchase music directly to their phones. (Apple itself just opened the iTunes Wi-Fi music store in September.)

Sony Ericcson plans a music store of its own. AT&T and Napster have teamed to offer downloads to AT&T phones. eMusic is in partnership with AT&T mobile. MTV, RealNetworks, and Verizon have ganged up on Apple and iTunes. Nokia is working with partners and developing its own services. The list goes on.

The road ahead

Success is not a given in 2008.

We wonder if manufacturers and developers will introduce elegant hardware and software solutions using the open platform Android, or whether these will be half-assed, unsatisfying, and ultimately disappointing.

We worry that the old players, Verizon and AT&T, are only giving in to the whole openness thing just a bit to protect their turf and old business models.

We are curious to see how Apple will continue to develop the iPhone as more experienced handset manufacturers strike back with offerings of their own, especially ones using Android.

We are concerned that hardware and application solutions will be developed with technology in mind first (the because-we-can mentality), not because it’s what consumers need or want.

We’re worried that most people outside the tech world — the majority of cell phone users — will not understand what’s going on, how they can use these new networks and devices in their lives and why should they pay for them. Adoption rates will be slow and frustration will be high.

But what was accomplished in 2007 and the promise and uncertainty of the coming year may make 2008 the Year of Wireless after all.

Ditching DRM, new mobile offerings, pay-what-you-want and other alternative business models — one word to sum up activity in the digital music space in 2007: “experimentation”. In this post we look back at 2007 through the lens of last100’s coverage, highlighting some of the important stories and trends, and how they point to what we might expect for digital music in 2008.

Also see: Internet TV: 2007 year in review

Ditching DRM

It all started back in February when Apple CEO Steve Jobs published his now famous open letter titled ‘Thoughts on Music‘. In it he explained the major labels’ thinking behind their support for Digital Rights Management (DRM), and that it hadn’t worked to stop piracy. Instead, argued Jobs, DRM was harming consumer interests, since, along with other restrictions, music bought from competing stores won’t play on all devices.

In an impassioned plea to the major labels, Jobs wrote:

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

Many questioned Jobs’ motives for the letter, noting that the iPod/iTunes hegemony had been in part built on the major labels’ insistence on DRM. Music bought from iTunes could only play back on an iPod, and likewise, the only DRM’d music the iPod supports is music sold through iTunes. Was Jobs trying to get the European Union regulators off his back by blaming the record labels for Apple’s near monopoly of the digital music space? Or perhaps he was simply trying to appear ahead of the tide, as he saw an industry-wide move towards DRM-free music as inevitable. Or taken at face value, it was a sincere attempt by Jobs to kick start that move, since a DRM-free world might help to invigorate a stagnating market for digital music downloads — and the iPod was good enough to compete on its own merits without being locked to music purchased from the iTunes Store.

A partial answer came two months later when EMI announced it was to offer its entire catalog without DRM, and the first store to sign-on would be iTunes. It seems that Jobs was serious about ditching DRM after all.

A sign that things would never quite be the same came in May when Amazon confirmed a long standing rumor that it was to launch its own digital music store, with all tracks offered as a standard MP3 without DRM. At the time we noted that “Amazon’s clout should help pile on more pressure for the other major record labels to follow suit and embrace the MP3 format.” If Amazon could make a respectable dent in the digital music market (and help grow it), then the major labels, desperate to weaken Apple’s position, would see that ditching DRM was a viable way to achieve this.

Ten days later, the DRM-free version of iTunes (iTunes Plus) opened for business, followed by a plethora of DRM-free store launches over the next few months: 7digital, Limewire, Wal-Mart, Amazon MP3, Microsoft (Zune), and Deutsche Grammaophon.

Universal Music also began experimenting with DRM downloads, starting with gBox, followed by Amazon, RealNetworks, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Universal’s DRM-free window ends 31st January 2008, when the company plans to review what effect ditching DRM has had on piracy and sales.

And just this week, Warner announced that it was to sell DRM-free tracks through Amazon MP3, leaving Sony BMG the only major label yet to begin ditching DRM.

What can we expect in 2008?

Citing the popularity of iTunes Plus, in October Apple slashed the price of DRM-free tracks offered on iTunes, and early reports suggest that Amazon MP3 has also been a huge success (making it the number three digital music store in just one month). It therefore appears that ditching DRM has to some degree achieved the dual aims of invigorating the marketplace for digital music and creating a serious competitor to iTunes. As a result, many are predicting that 2008 will be the year that DRM is ditched completely, as all the major labels come on board, and I think this will be true for traditional music downloads.

However, in another context, DRM’d music looks like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future at least. Subscription-based services still require the use of DRM and may become more acceptable to consumers as broadband becomes ubiquitous, enabling our music collection to “live in the cloud”, accessible anywhere and anytime.

Mobile music stores and services

There’s been quite a bit of activity in the mobile music space in 2007, with device manufacturers and mobile carriers teaming up with online music services and download stores or launching their own offerings.

In May, Pandora launched its ‘anywhere’ platform to enable the music discovery service to reach devices beyond the PC — both mobile and around the home. Sprint was the first carrier to sign-on, resulting in Pandora being offered on five music-enabled handsets.

And the following month, iriver announced the launch of the Clix Rhapsody, a version of its portable media player which is optimized to integrate with Real’s subscription-based digital music service.

In July, eMusic signed a deal with AT&T Mobile to sell ‘over-the-air’ music downloads to the telco’s millions of mobile phone users.

Omniphone partnered with Vodafone UK in September to offer MusicStation, an all-you-can-eat subscription music service. For a small weekly fee, Vodafone customers can access the entire MusicStation catalog which is supported by the four major record labels — the Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI, and Warner.

However, perhaps the most significant trend in the mobile music space saw a number of music stores launched or announced by mobile device manufactures in an attempt to compete directly with similar offerings from the mobile carriers with whom they’re forced to partner. Apple launched the iTunes WiFi store, cutting AT&T (and its other mobile partners around the globe) out of any iPhone associated music revenue. Nokia also launched its own music download store, and Sony Ericsson announced plans to do the same.

What can we expect in 2008?

Next year will see a lot more mobile music activity, particularly as handset makers and carriers attempt to boost non-device and non-voice related revenue to make up for falling profit margins. The major labels also see mobile music as an area where Apple doesn’t yet dominate and one in which they can charge higher prices based on impulse buying and perceived convenience.

As already noted when we wrote about the launch of Nokia’s music store, developments in 2007 have put mobile carriers and device manufacturers on a potential collision course in 2008.

By launching its own music download store, Nokia will not only have to compete with Apple’s iTunes, but the company has also put itself on a collision course with the very same mobile carriers with which it’s forced to partner. Earlier in the week The Independent newspaper reported that European carrier, Orange, was unhappy at the prospect of Nokia competing against its own over-the-air music service, and was threatening to boycott future Nokia handsets. Other carriers are likely to have a similar reaction, which may well force Nokia to share revenue generated from its store.

The same might well apply to both Apple and Sony Ericsson.

Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want experiment and other alternative models

One of the biggest stories of 2007 was Radiohead’s decision to offer their new album for download on a pay-what-you-want basis. While we may never know the true download sales figures (see comScore’s stats and Radiohead’s response), the experiment was a huge success in terms of PR and raising the notion of high profile artists bypassing the need to be signed to a major record label or any label at all (see Madonna and Nine Inch Nails). Perhaps tellingly, however, Radiohead ended the pay-what-you-want offer after two months, in time for the album’s general CD release.

Pay-what-you-want wasn’t the only new model tested in 2007, and in a post titled ‘Music industry: five alternative business models‘, we looked at other alternative ways to sell music online including “free”, ad-suported (see our Spiralfrog review), subscriptions, and a music “tax” on devices and broadband services.

What can we expect in 2008?

Next year will likely see more artists strike out on their own, as well as a number of Radiohead copycats. Whether or not the pay-what-you-want model has legs beyond the most popular artists is yet to be seen, although comedian Steve Hofstetter’s experiment looks to be yielding positive results.

One model that will be pushed hard in 2008 is the music “tax” idea that’s been banded about for years. Charge the customers of ISPs, cellphone carriers or even device manufacturers a flat-rate fee as part of their data service plan or purchase, in exchange for the right to access and possibly share music from the major record labels’ catalogs. That way, downloading is decriminalized and the recording industry is guaranteed revenue.

Universal Music is touting its own version of the idea called Total Music, and has just partnered with Nokia who are offering something similar. Customers who buy a “Comes with music” Nokia device will get a year of unlimited access to “millions of tracks”, and, rather surprisingly, get to keep those tracks once the twelve month period ends.

From YouTube’s continued dominance, the television networks’ newfound willingness to experiment online, the rise of the desktop Internet TV application, and a number of new PC-to-TV devices and set-top boxes — it’s been a big year for Internet TV in all shapes and forms. In this post we look back at 2007 through the lens of last100’s coverage, highlighting some of the important stories and trends, and how they point to what we might expect for Internet TV in 2008.

YouTube dominates

While the market for Internet TV is growing steadily — survey after survey shows that people are consuming more video online than ever before — as 2007 draws to an end, Google-owned YouTube is still the number one video destination site.

This isn’t just true in terms of traffic but also in terms of “mind share”; when people talk about online video they often refer only to YouTube. As a result, a number of hardware companies have added YouTube support to their devices in 2007, such as YouTube-compatible cameras and mobile phones capable of viewing and publishing video to YouTube.

And then there’s the strong relationship between Google and Apple, which this year has led to YouTube support being added to both the AppleTV and iPhone, with a change in the video format to boot. Apple successfully persuaded YouTube to start re-encoding its video catalog to the much higher quality (and Apple-preferred) H.264 codec.

Not one to rest on its laurels, YouTube introduced a number of new features of their own, including a redesiged player, the introduction of interactive overlay ads, better copyright filtering, and — like many Google properties — improvements to its mobile offering.

Coinciding with improvements to the quality of Flash video, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen has said that the company is currently testing a version of its player that detects the speed of the viewer’s Internet connection and serves up higher-quality video if the user wants it. According to Chen, we can expect to see higher-quality playback on YouTube as early as February 08.

Also in part related to an upgrade to Flash Lite (Adobe’s version of Flash for mobile devices) that adds full support for Flash video, along with the launch of Google’s mobile phone-oriented OS called Android, 2008 will likely see YouTube being offered on an ever greater number of mobile devices.

On the content front, with Google stepping up its monetization options for YouTube, including expanding its ad-revenue share scheme with independent producers, 2008 may well see more professionally-produced video being offered on the site.

Television networks and movie studios reluctantly experiment

In 2007 we’ve seen a large amount of online experimentation from the television networks (both in the U.S. and UK) and, to a lesser extent, from the major movie studios too. The problem, however, is that many seem to have been doing so with their hands tied behind their back.

In September, we took an extensive look at what the U.S. television networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and The CW, were offering on their own websites. Dan Langendorf wrote at the time:

The good news: Major U.S. television networks continue to embrace Internet technology and are putting their shows on the Web for online viewing, just like they did last year.

The bad news: Their online offerings remain sporadic; their Internet strategies feel like “we have to” rather than “we want to”; and — worst of all — they still haven’t embraced the idea that we are living in a new digital world, with different rules, participants, and expectations all around.

This year also saw a number of new efforts by the U.S. television networks to offer their content elsewhere on the Web (not just through their own sites), embracing both ad-supported models and paid-for rental and to-own.

On the ad-supported front, the big news was the launch of the much awaited video destination site Hulu, a joint venture between News Corp. and NBC that offers streaming video of both companies’ television and film content along with offerings from other studios such as Sony Pictures Television and MGM. While many industry pundits were skeptical of Hulu’s chances, upon viewing a Beta version of the site, early reactions have been positive.

NBC, who in some ways seem the most willing to experiment, also launched a Beta version of NBC Direct, an Internet-based catchup TV service. We came away unimpressed by NBC’s thinking, however, noting that shows are only available up to seven days after broadcast, and once downloaded, expire after 48 hours.

With regards to paid-for downloads of television shows, 2007 was also the year in which NBC and Apple’s iTunes divorced. Following a very public spat, NBC chose not to renew its partnership with Apple and is instead selling downloads through Amazon’s UnBox, Sandisk’s Fanfare, and Netflix, among others.

In July we took a look at the Internet TV offerings of the five major UK television broadcasters, noting that the then yet-to-launch iPlayer from the BBC looked the most promising.

However, when the iPlayer finally launched it wasn’t without controversy. The BBC was accused of being corrupt due to the iPlayer’s reliance on Microsoft technology and its lack of Mac/Linux support, and UK ISPs were reportedly critical of the application’s use of peer-to-peer technology and potentially high bandwidth costs. Answering the former, in October the BBC announced it had partnered with Adobe to develop a streaming version of iPlayer based on Flash that will be compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux PCs, and possibly mobile devices in the future.

In the movie download space we compared eleven download stores, concluding that “it’s still very early days in the paid-for video download space, where so far, greater competition hasn’t produced nearly enough innovation in terms of pricing and convenience — particularly in relation to copy-protection.”

What can we expect in 2008?

There’s evidence to suggest that watching full length TV shows online is becoming increasingly popular, in part due to higher broadband penetration rates but also because the studios are making more of their content available on the Web. Encouraged by this, we hope to see the television networks and movie studios take greater risks, although don’t expect the constraints of traditional scheduling and release dates or geographical territories to go away anytime soon.

One likely possibility is that iTunes will start to offer online movie rentals, putting Apple in direct competition with Netflix.

In the UK, broadcasters, BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have announced an initiative to develop a combined service for accessing their on-demand and catch-up services. The new service is currently known under the working title “Kangaroo”, and if approved by the BBC’s governing body, could emerge in 2008.

Internet TV comes to the desktop

The year 2007 is definitely the year of the desktop Internet TV application, with a number of companies launching products that aim to combine a TV-like viewing experience with the best of the Web.

Joost, founded by the team behind Skype, is the most high profile, along with Italian billionaire Silvio Scaglia’s Babelgum. Add to list VeohTV, Zattoo, Livestation, Next.TV (backed by HP), Adobe’s Media Player, and Microsoft’s Internet TV, and it becomes clear how crowded this space has got in 2007.

What can we expect in 2008?

The jury is out on whether people are really willing to leave their web browser and use a number of separate desktop applications in order to get their Internet TV fix. A big question mark also remains around whether the various desktop offerings will be able to secure enough compelling content in order to compete with the Web as a whole.

PC-to-TV and set-top box ambitions

Admittedly we at last100 are more obsessed with PC-to-TV and Internet connected set-top boxes than most industry watchers and consumers alike — 2007 has been a fairly busy year for these type of devices.

The biggest launch was that of the AppleTV, which at the time Steve Jobs hailed as the final piece to Apple’s digital lifestyle strategy, since the device bridges the gap between the PC and the television. However, the AppleTV has been far from a smash hit, with worldwide sales reportedly as low as 400,000 units, a dwindling amount of video content following the NBC Universal loss, and Jobs himself repositioning the device as the company’s “hobby”.

In comparison to the AppleTV, which feels far too tied to the iTunes store, in 2007 TiVo added numerous third-party web services to its line of broadband-enabled DVRs.

This year saw the launch of the Vudu set-top movie box and accompanying download store.

Microsoft and its partners’ unveiled the latest Windows Media Extender devices, with new functionality including higher-speed wireless and DivX support.

Sandisk also entered the PC-to-TV space, with the launch of TakeTV and download service Fanfare.

But perhaps the two companies who best positioned themselves in 2007 to eventually solve the PC to TV problem, along with getting Internet content into the living room, are Microsoft with the XBox360 and Sony with its PlayStation 3.

What can we expect in 2008?

While the market for PC-to-TV devices will remain modest, getting Internet content directly into the living room will remain the pursuit of many companies, particularly Apple, Microsoft and Sony. For example, we’re pretty confident Apple will take a second stab at the AppleTV, and Microsoft and Sony will ramp up their efforts to offer more video and other content through their respective game consoles. Also expect TiVo to continue to add more web services to it DVRs.

Other companies to watch in 2008, in relation to set-top box activity, are Netflix, DivX and possibly Joost.

DivX support is everywhere

Another trend in 2007 was an increasing number of devices supporting DivX video, most notably Microsoft’s Extenders for Media Center and XBox 360, as well as forthcoming DivX support on the Sony PlayStation 3. Additionally, DivX has developed a reference design for its own DivX enabled set-top box, and Sandisk added DivX support to its Sansa line of portable media players.

A simple change to the design of ‘bionic ear’ implants dramatically improves the quality of sound they provide, say researchers in the US who have tested a prototype on cats.

Around 100,000 people around the world have been fitted with conventional cochlear implants. These are built into the skull and tune into the signal produced by a wireless external microphone. The implant sits below the skin behind the ear and sends electrical signals to a set of electrodes coiled into the cochlear – the spiral organ in the ear that senses sound.

This process is far from perfect, however. These implants have a limited range of tones because it is difficult to insert the electrode array beyond the outer turns of the cochlea. The outer turns pick up the high frequencies, so people using today’s implants are sensitive only to the highest tones.

In addition, the signals must travel through liquid in the cochlear and then through the organ’s bony wall to the nerves outside. “It is like talking to someone through a closed door – the signal gets muffled,” says John Middlebrooks of the University of Michigan, US, who developed the new implant with Russell Snyder of the University of California, San Francisco, also US.

Increased range

The new device bypasses the cochlear and instead connects directly to the nerves that carry information to the brain.

Experiments in cats that compared the brain’s response to the established designs with its response to the prototype show the new device dramatically improves the range of tones that can be heard.

“Current implant users do very well with speech in a quiet environment but struggle with background noise,” Middlebrooks explains, “they also have very poor pitch perception and cannot appreciate music – in an environment like a crowded room, you use pitch to tune into a person’s voice.”

Experiments on 10 cats involved first recording the response of the brain to a range of tones. The cats were then deafened and the same tones were played with a conventional, and then experimental, implant installed.

Fully implantable?

Conventional implants only allow detection of tones as low as around 7 kHz, but the new implant allowed frequencies as low as 0.6kHz to be detected.

“We saw that the brain could detect a much greater range of frequencies,” says Middlebrooks.

The new design also produced a cleaner/more specific response in the brain to a particular frequency, and used much less power to get results. “If we develop this for humans it would have much lower power demands, so it could be much smaller and perhaps fully implanted,” says Middlebrooks.

Tests in which animals are fitted with the implants for periods of months are now planned.

“Cochlear implants themselves have provided a revolution,” says Brian Lamb, director of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf. “These implants – if successfully transferred to people – could offer further, major benefits.”