Will mobile kill digital radio before it begins?

If video killed the radio star will mobile be the final stake in the heart of radio as tries to go digital?

 

Westminster eForum (a group set up to help inform government policy makers) do run some very interesting sessions although they do feel still a little slow in catching up on how fast the digital world is changing at times and are very reactive which is a shame. I have just come back from an interesting meeting at the House of Commons where the session was to discuss the impact of the digital switch over to Digital Radio and TV. They had some interesting digital radio technology on show like the Pure Senisia (very nice looking technology) which is a DAB radio that is very nice looking and tries to pull together other feeds like Twitter and Facebook into a single unit.

 

Pure Sensia Digital Radio

Simon Mayo (Radio DJ – BBC Radio 5 Live) did an interesting speech where he talked about his 18-year-old son and radio – qualifying that given it was his son it was probably not a representative sample to highlight how he used radio.

 

Simon Mayo

He said that he had asked his him about radio and what stations his friends listened to. After a pause his son said that his friends didn’t have radio. Part of me was quite shocked at that and another part of me not unsurprised. As a kid growing up I remember listening to the radio and recording the top 40 on Sunday nights and the nostalgic memory of how “cool” and exciting that was. It was a whole routine I had and one that I never really thought about how teenagers now engage with radio. At the same time the fact that none of his Son’s friends have radio also did not surprise me. When you have access to the internet with hundreds of online stations from around the world and new music tools like Spotify why do they need a radio? A radio will never have the most up to date bleeding edge bands on them, they come from underground networks or are trying to launch them selves on sites like MySpace. Teenagers of today can now choose exactly what they want to listen to and when, rather than some DJ making the choice and then talking over half of the track. It’s lost its edge. When cool is all about being the first, radio is just too slow. When it comes to slow even online via your desktop computer is now in question. Mobile phones are now used more by the younger age groups to access the internet than desktop computers. Mobile is always on, always connected, is personal and always with me. It’s likely that the next music frontier will be battled over mobile phones why does the next generation ever need a digital radio? Don’t get me wrong I think digital radio is very interesting and has place with some groups but it does feel a little too late to the digital party.

 

There is a danger that by the time it hits mainstream the new youth audiences will be gone leaving digital radio a dying technology before its time.

 

 

Filed under: Gadget, Opinion, Technology, DAB, Digital Radio, House of Commons, Mobile, Pure Sensia, Russell Marsh, Simon Mayo, Technology, Westminster eforum

Skype on the iPhone

So Skype just today has now been released for the ipod Touch (cough… iPhone) - and you know what its pretty damn good!

I just installed it and did a test call, the quality is great. Very useful when you are in the US running up those huge transatlantic phone calls saying goodnight to the kids.

It works over the WiFi connection and pretty much gives you the same experiance as the desktop version – sans any video call ability.

I bet it was an interesting chat with O2 to try and get that one through.

As I use it more I will update this post with any issues or comments.

Filed under: Gadget, Technology, iPhone, Mobile, skype

Interactive Possibilities

One of my favourite blogs and web sites at the moment is by Johny Lee. (If you are not familiar with him go have a look at the link and be amazed).

Johny is taking very simple objects and turning them into new ways of interacting with our digital environment. He is a new breed of “technology hacker” that is making us think differently about what can be done with relatively cheap hardware. One of the objects he has been experimenting with is a simple Nintendo Wii controller.

Wii Remote (Contoller)

The work Johny has done has been picked up by Electronic Arts, who have now built an “Easter Egg” into a new game called Boom Blox that utilises some of the smart ideas he has had. What interests me about this is the future possibilities. How it has the potential to change how we interact with digital media of the future in many different ways. We have already seen companies like Apple revolutionise the mobile phone market with the introduction of the iPhone. The touch screen and motion sensing capabilities of the phone give it a whole new dimension in how you ”play” with it, making the usability a joy in comparison to some of the other phones on the market.

iPhone

Wii Remote, the Wii controller is actually pretty sophisticated and is a cheap, Blue Tooth capable, Infrared Camera. What Johny and others have been playing with, is how to build interactive experiences of the kind that we have seen in films, like Minority Report. The sort where Tom Cruise interacts with a screen via hand gestures and head tracking and all of this for under £50!

Microsoft is also pushing this type of touch technology with the development of Surface Computing.

Surface Computing

Surface computing allows the user to interact with objects via a table based touch sensitive screen. Some of the demos they have put together are quite compelling, showing the ability to drag and drop photos and music from one device to another just by placing it on the table and dragging and dropping.

When you have chance to try one of these devices you very quickly realise that there is a whole new interactive dimension that we have not yet begun to explore that is just around the corner.

Interactive experiences of the future will be on a whole new level. No longer will you have to learn how to use a mouse to interact, it will become a seamless experience of every day movements and gestures. This transition will allow you to touch and feel the products and environments in an entirely new way.

The latest gaming developments about to be released in the next year include brain wave reading headsets. Currently there are a couple of companies developing these – Emotive Systems called EPOC and Neurosky .

EPOC

Both of these neuro headsets will read your conscious and unconscious thoughts and turn them into actions on screen or allow you to control electronic devices. Absolutely amazing!

With development of these types of technology the whole interactive experience is going to take a huge leap forward and we are going to start to find very different ways of interacting beyond our current screens!

The future is unimaginable but no doubt will be very exciting!

Filed under: Gadget, Opinion, Technology, Interactive, touch screen, virtual