These poor, exploited girls are walking the streets of Auckland, handing out blue squeezy balls advertising a new website.

I'm joking of course. Promotional marketing is an extemely valid career choice. However, if Ryan's Angels are looking for a career switch to IT - or indeed you yourself, dear reader, have come back from the break with itchy feet - there is only one place to head: our new, better, bigger JobUniverse, created by the people behind PC World, Computerworld, CIO and Reseller, and the nation's only employment site dedicated to ICT.

This woman was not actually employeed by Vodafone - in front of whose HQ she's pictured on the Viaduct - or indeed any ICT organisation. All the more reason to head for JobUniverse.

A career in banking, sir? Or should you be heading toward JobUniverse?

This gentleman appears to already work in ICT, and is carefully protecting his identity behind sunglasses. However, with 3% unemployment, anytime is good to review your options at JobUniverse.

Not everybody can be a Calvin Klein model. If not, you know where to head.

Residents of nearby buildings spontaneously unfurl where to head banners.

"You can let go of the squeezy ball now, sir."

Posted by Chris Keall at 4:34 PM | Comments (0)

In a move to head off Media Centre PCs and other threats to their living room domination, the world's largest television makers have agreed to create a common standard for directly connected IPTV (TV broadcast over the internet).

Media Centre PCs have so far mostly proved a clunky failure. But with one eye on the rapid rise of broadband, Sony (or its consumer electronics division, at least) has taken the lead in cajoling rivals into taking a joint approach to promoting flat screen TVs with built-in ethernet, and support for home networking and copy protection. The company sees web-enabled TVs becoming standard by 2011 (at least in countries where digital TV and broadband are persuasive). Sony says the IPTV intiative will be based on open standards, including Linux.

So far Sony, Matsushita (owner of Panasonic and JVC), Sharp, Toshiba and Hitachi have joined the Japan-based initiative.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)

Telecom's mobile Music Store has added some welcome functionality.

Anyone who buys a song for their mobile will now be able to download the same track to their PC at no extra charge. In our books this is a Good Thing. And Telecom's store encompasses all four major music labels (Warners, EMI, Sony BMG and Universal) and comprises over 450,000 songs, so there's plenty of music to choose from.

Another Good Thing is that the sound quality of songs downloaded to PC will be pretty reasonable, too. We've been critical in the past about the audio quality of Telecom's music store files (see >>FFWD, Feb/Mar 2006) - they're far too compressed and sound incredibly ropey. Happily the version that arrives on your PC will be in the protected WMA format and encoded at a bit rate of 128kbit/s which, while hardly audiophile, is standard for comparable music download services such as those offered by Digirama, Coketunes or Apple's iTunes Music Store.

There area couple of catches. The songs when downloaded to PC will only play back on Windows Media Player 10 (and you have to be running Windows XP). Fair enough, WMP offers the digital rights management component the record companies are looking for, and you can download WMP 10 for free here.

More concerning is that the online store is not a standalone operation; you must download songs to your mobile before they can be transferred to a PC. That means two things: you must have a Telecom mobile account; and you must have one of Telecom's service-supporting phones. At the moment Telecom offers just four such phones (though thankfully these include Samsung's very swish Motorola Razr-alike, the A900). You can see why Telecom has restricted things in this way, but it does seem a bit of a missed opportunity.

However, for us the biggest problem is that Telecom is still charging a ludicrous $3.50 per track. This is the same as Vodafone's music download service, and Telecom only charges once for the music file to go to your phone and then to your PC. But honestly, $3.50? When you can get the same song for half that price from Digirama or Coketunes?

We think the new, improved service is a great idea, and fair dues to Telecom, they're on the right track. But as we've been saying for months now, $3.50 is far, far too much to pay for one song when there are excellent and significantly cheaper alternatives.

More: Telecom Music Store FAQ

Telecom Music Store PC Downloads FAQ

Posted by at 4:51 PM | Comments (1)

Clearer pictures, better sound and increased content has been promised by the government, which today announced that free to air digital TV is to be available in NZ from next year.

A group called FreeView, comprising TVNZ, CanWest, Maori Television Service, Radio New Zealand and the New Zealand Racing Board/Trackside have banded together to create the digital platform. No details about content have been released and the individual members of the group will decide which of their own channels are to be broadcast digitally.

As the name FreeView suggests, the service itself will be, um, free, though users will have to purchase a set top box (expected to cost around $200 plus $150-$200 for an appropriate satellite dish or terrestrial aerial, which isn't bad compared with the $599 Sky charges for its MySky box).

While you'll need the set top box and the right dish or aerial, you won't necessarily have to upgrade your telly. An old analogue TV will play digital programmes, and you'll notice an improvement in sound and picture quality, but to get the full benefits you'll want a new, digital TV.

So far, so good, and we're happy enough that free to air digital TV will be available here, not least because viewers will be able to access an electronic programming guide (EPG) without paying for it.

What interests us is how the broadcasters will use the platform in the future. Digital offers all sorts of interactive possibilities, none of which have really been pursued by Sky beyond its pay per view programmes.

However, we also have a query. According to a TVNZ press release, "TVNZ cannot ignore what other broadcasters and new technologies offer". Quite right too. So why is this an announcement about digital television - which Sky has had for years - instead of an announcement that free to air broadcasters are to launch high definition TV to compete with Sky's forthcoming HD service? (For more about Sky's HD plans, go here)

Anyone following overseas TV trends will know that digital is old hat - HD is the new thing. At least that's what we say; let us know what you think.

More: TVNZ's digital TV FAQ

Posted by at 7:13 PM | Comments (0)

The whole PlayStation vs Xbox thing took on a surreal tinge today as two senior Xbox execs slammed Sony for dumping new, unproven technology onto consumers in the form of the Blu-ray-based PlayStation 3 console.

Neil Thompson, head of Xbox UK, in an interview with Eurogamer TV likened Blu-ray to Sony's unsuccessful Betamax video players, saying people were being pushed into purchasing an emerging technology that may not be the next generation video standard. Xbox Europe supremo, Chris Lewis, meanwhile felt that Sony was "forcing" punters into making purchasing decisions, thanks to PS3's high cost, which is expected to be more than NZ$1,000 for the basic model.

To be honest, we don't really have a lot to say about that - frankly we're too flabbergasted. But just to clarify, Xbox executives are attacking Sony for forcing new, unproven technology on consumers. Xbox is made by Microsoft. Oh, the irony...

Laugh at the Chris Lewis, Neil Thompson interview here (video)

Posted by at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

Can it really be true? Sony is launching its next-generation console, the PlayStation 3, in New Zealand on the same day as it's released in Europe - 17 November. So it's official, we are no more or less third world than Latvia. No, good on you Sony for recognising that Kiwis play console games too.

The PS3, which will use high definition Blu-ray discs, will be released in two forms: one has a 20GB hard drive and the other a 60GB hard drive. Pricing was only offered in Euros, but with the current exchange rate translated to about NZ$1,000 and NZ$1,200. Not cheap then, but it was never likely to be.

Roll on November, we say.

Posted by at 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

Fans of the classic real-time strategy game Total Annihilation will be pleased to know that original designer Chris Taylor (who left developer Cavedog to set up Gas Powered Games and do the Dungeon Siege games) has returned to the genre that made him famous.

Taylor and Gas Powered are developing Supreme Commander, due for release in early 2007. While it doesn't use the TA name, a quick look at the game's features and screenshots reveals it could almost be called TA 2 -- the game fans wanted but never got after Cavedog instead developed the dire TA Kingdoms following Taylor’s departure.

Supreme Commander features many ideas TA fans will recognise, including a vast array of futuristic units covering land, sea and air, and ranging from small, cheap units to mega-units that take time and resources to complete. But perhaps the game's most notable feature appears to be the scale of its maps, and Gas Powered Games’ attempt to bring a true strategic level of gameplay to an RTS through the scale of the terrain.

Check out the official site for more info.

Posted by Bruce Buckman at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

If further evidence were needed that digital music files of one form or another are taking over the world, we just received a review CD called Acoustic Love Songs. Inside the CD cover was an insert providing instructions on how to download the songs as mobile ringtones from Vodafone Live. Clever cross-selling, I guess. What's not so clever is that you'll pay Vodafone's standard $3.50 (polyphonic ringtone) or $4.50 (real tone) for the privilege of hearing James Blunt's lupine howl every time someone calls you. Great.

Posted by at 2:17 PM | Comments (1)

A couple of days ago everyone was calling it "Revolution", now Nintendo has officially named its next-gen gaming console the somewhat more prosaic Wii. Pronounced "we", the name is supposed to emphasise that the console is for everyone and, according to Nintendo, is a word that crosses all language barriers. Righto.

More: Nintendo website

Posted by at 5:31 PM | Comments (0)

It's not that long since Pro Evolution Soccer 5 was released (October, actually), but Konami has just announced that PES6 will debut in Los Angeles during May's E3 gaming expo. Details are still of the "many new additions will be announced at the show" variety, though presumably they'll be showing the first iteration of PES for Xbox 360. This will be interesting, because EA's rushed FIFA 06 for 360 was a crushing disappointment, especially following the PS2 version of the game; we reckon FIFA 06 - at least on PS2 - was the first time in some years that EA released a soccer game better than Konami's (cue dozens of emails from rabid PES fans. Yes, yes, yes, we usually like PES more as well, but sorry folks, FIFA 06 was better than PES5). Don't be surprised if the extra few months Konami has taken to get its 360 title right results in a stunner of a game.

Posted by at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)