Britain's Digital Boom Revolutionises Our Time!

[SiHart]

According to a report by the BBC, digital products have revolutionised our lives!

The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionising how Britons spend their time, says Ofcom's annual report.
It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.
It also shows that women, in some age groups, are the dominant web users and older web users spend more time online than any group.
Among children it showed that web and mobile phone use is growing at the expense of video games.
"As a whole people are using communications services more than they were five years ago," said James Thickett, Ofcom's research director.
The 330-page report takes a comprehensive look at the way Britons use new and old media and reveals a nation in love with its media, gadgets and hi-tech gear.

The average Briton now spends 50 hours per week on the phone, using the net, watching TV or listening to the radio. However, the mix of how much time is spent on each one has changed radically over the last few years.
Daily mobile phone use is up 58% on 2002 and, over the same period, net use has grown 158%. By contrast Britons spend far less time watching TV, listening to the radio or chatting on a fixed line phone.
The report, the fourth annual survey from Ofcom, revealed big differences in the technologies that different sectors of the population prefer.

Among Britons aged 25-34, women account for 55% of the time this group spends online

16% of Britons aged 65+ spend 42 hours per month online - more than any other age group
More than 75% of 11 year olds have their own TV, games console and mobile phone
15% of 13-15 year olds and 7% of 10 year olds have their own webcam
Young people now spend as much time on their mobile phone as they do playing computer and console games. Proving more popular among younger people are mobile music players and using the net.
Declining among younger people was listening to the radio and playing video and computer games.
"Young people have always had a lot of distractions for their time," said Alison Winter, head of research at commercial radio's industry body Radio Centre.
Research carried out by the Radio Centre showed, she said, that although overall hours of listening among some groups are falling people are being smarter about how they listen.
Many sought out podcasts or looked online for shows they had missed, said Ms Winter.
Also, she said, had the radio on while they were online or used other communication services.
Ofcom's report echoed this observation and said Britons were getting increasingly sophisticated in their use of communications technologies.
For instance, a teenager playing an online game might take a picture of a high score or achievement unlocked while they play then text or e-mail it to friends or add it to a website or Facebook page.
The report also revealed that patterns of use could change again as the latest technologies come into wider use.
It revealed that the UK now has about 450,000 subscribers to high-definition services. Of those questioned by Ofcom, 43% said they watched more TV since getting HD. A minority of that group, 36%, said they now watched six or more extra hours of TV every week.
Ownership of a Digital Video Recorder also seems to have a significant effect on viewing habits. Ofcom found that many prefer to watch programmes saved on their DVR rather than a DVD.
Mr Thickett said the watchdog had seen two big trends over the last 12 months.
Portable music players are very popular with children.
He told BBC News: "We've seen a need for greater control of the services you are getting and we've seen this by sales of digital video recorders.
"Second is a need for greater mobility. People are increasingly using their mobile devices for a range of functions such as camera, downloading music or listening to the radio," he said.
The report also revealed that although Britons are using more media and technology than ever they are spending less on it.
"For the second consecutive year in a row the price of communication services has fallen," said Mr Thickett.
Ofcom said strong competition and the "bundling" of services had let the communications industry realise economies of scale and drive prices lower. The monthly household spend on communications is now 92.65. In 2005 that monthly spend was 94.03.
"It's great for consumers," he said, "they are getting greater choice at lower prices than have ever been had

So how much of this is true for you? What's your favourite digital technology? Lets talk tech!

Si xx

[Lissa]

We're living in a bit of a golden age* at the moment. Everything is new, there is lots of competition and plenty of cracks through which illicit goods can slip. Broadband is fast and flat rate with very few restrictions on usage. DVDs are being price-warred down so anything less than 60% off looks like a ripoff. Online gaming environments are still just about the domains of like minded gamers, social networking sites are still just about the domains of vacuous children with no concept of web design and online banking is still just about safer than walking down the highstreet with a bundle of cash in your hand.

I love all the new technology - I love my iPod, my V+ box, my DVD recorder, my smartphone, my 1.2 terrabytes of hard drive space (all full); I love new software and web 2.0 applications. I love iTunes, I love podcasting, I love wifi, I love torrents and I love Amazon.

But things will get worse - we've already seen what callous businesses will do with DRM - Google videos ceasing operation and leaving millions of paid-for videos unplayable (rather than simply unlock them) or MSN's music service selling files which won't play on Microsoft's own Zune player. Consumer reaction to DRM is muted at the moment because few people really understand it. But any technology which can render your purchases useless on a corporate whim has to be a bad thing. And it's pointless - security always gets broken so it is only the people who do things legally who suffer.

Then you have your DVDs - one of the great developments of the last 20 years. More or less perfect - compact, great picture and sound, cheap to make, supported by every studio and manufacturer in the world, recordable and available to everyone. Now they want to replace them with something newer and more expensive. And with better security. While it is easy to unlock a DVD player, it won't be so easy with one of the new generation. It will be illegal for a start because circumventing any protection system is now against EU law. Chipping DVD players had been going on for so long that when the law came in it was thought pointless to try and enforce it. With a new generation of players and a new generation of security systems, they will try to enforce it.

I personally am offended every time I put a DVD in and am forced to sit through a copyright film (none of the buttons work - you literally can't skip it without ejecting the DVD). There is nothing to stop them putting twenty minutes of forced trailers on every DVD. Or adverts. TiVo in the US has started making adverts compulsory. It won't be long before Sky+, V+ and anyone else offering PVR services stop you fast forwarding through adverts. Or even start adding their own adverts to your recordings.

Because anything you buy in the digital future won't really be bought - just rented from a corporation which will infect it with greed.

So we can look forward to a decade with a pointless high definition DVD war, a gradual erosion of peoples rights to watch what they want, when they want it and how they want to, the botched roll out of HD TV (as greed squeezes too much into too little space and the format's potential is squandered) and a whole decade's worth of digital photographs are wiped out in PC crashes and virus attacks because no one thought it worth backing them up or printing them out.

I like to think all this technology has made my life better. But I'm not convinced. I own more stuff and know more stuff and have access to even more stuff but I don't watch more, listen to more or do more. Ultimately, it probably just wastes more of my time.

*Use of the term "golden age" is for illustration purposes only and does not necessarily indicate a dismissal of the philosophy of Jon Pertwee.

[Captain Tancredi]

The whole DRM issue interests me from a theoretical point of view, as does the whole Blu-ray/HD-DVD war. Note that I say theoretical, because there's absolutely no way whatsoever that I'm going to be persuaded in my present situation to buy several hundred pounds' worth of kit just so I can spend 25 a time to watch a film. I have a feeling that if I wanted to watch films that much, I'd go to the cinema occasionally.

Lissa pretty much says it when she says that DVD is pretty much an ideal format- it's simple enough for people who aren't particularly technical to use, good enough quality for all but the most particular film buff and the fact that you can put PDFs on them or watch them on a laptop more or less makes it a perfect product. However the format war ends, at the moment you're still looking at something which needs a large investment from the potential customer, with a choice of releases largely made up of recent Hollywood films. It's something the entertainment industry wants rather than something their customers demand or need- unless you have a HD television the size of a small tennis court on your wall, DVD-standard resolution is going to be good enough for most people most of the time. Particularly in a situation like mine, where the vast majority of my collection is derived from 405 or 625-line video, which is only ever going to look like 625-line video however much you upgrade it. And how much play does Joe Public get out of the average DVD anyway? I'm no film buff in the slightest, but how many times do most people play a DVD of a particular film? I'd imagine in most cases, if it's lucky it might get played once when it's bought and once a year thereafter- in which case you can understand why the studios may eventually look at a secure self-deleting download which removes the need for a physical product.

On the other hand, it's wonderful when everything fits together seamlessly (and I speak as a Mac user, so it usually does). And if all else fails, you can still read a book.

[SiHart]

Then you have your DVDs - one of the great developments of the last 20 years. More or less perfect - compact, great picture and sound, cheap to make, supported by every studio and manufacturer in the world, recordable and available to everyone. Now they want to replace them with something newer and more expensive. And with better security. While it is easy to unlock a DVD player, it won't be so easy with one of the new generation. It will be illegal for a start because circumventing any protection system is now against EU law. Chipping DVD players had been going on for so long that when the law came in it was thought pointless to try and enforce it. With a new generation of players and a new generation of security systems, they will try to enforce it.

It's true, the DVD is a wonderful thing. You only have to look at how effectively it's wiped out the previously unassailable video to see how good. Your point about the chipping worries me Lissa. I had no idea it was against EU law to circumvent protection systems, so obviously they'll try and push us into new tech to try and make sure we're under control. However, as Ian says, all may not be lost, as it will require the general public at large to buy the new formats, and as with some previous new tech like DAT or S-VHS, there may not be the market for upgrading. We'll have to see how this one plays out over the next few years.

I personally am offended every time I put a DVD in and am forced to sit through a copyright film (none of the buttons work - you literally can't skip it without ejecting the DVD). There is nothing to stop them putting twenty minutes of forced trailers on every DVD. Or adverts. TiVo in the US has started making adverts compulsory. It won't be long before Sky+, V+ and anyone else offering PVR services stop you fast forwarding through adverts. Or even start adding their own adverts to your recordings.

I'm with you there. The forced ads are annoying, and even more annoying are the discs that return you to the beginning if you try hard to skip all the ads (we've seen a couple of those recently). Again we'll have to watch closely how this develops, though as consumers against large corporations, do we really have much chance of changing things? Sometimes I feel we're more than a little powerless.

Anyway, on the other tech front, I'm lagging behind. I haven't even got an MPs player you know. I'm clinging to my lovely little mini-discs, but as usual I chose the wrong format to champion. Ah well. One day I'll upgrade!

Si xx