Tech Stream

Tech Stream 040

19 February 2010

Listen and download: MP3

Phones on display in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress. Photo by Jon Jordan from Flickr.

We head to Barcelona, Spain, this week for the GSM Mobile World Congress.  We’ll find out why Google and Microsoft captured all the headlines and check out the handsets likely to make an impact in Asia. We also ask why Al Jazeera wants you to mashup their video content  and test-run the web game the whole family can’t play – Chatroulette. It’s so hot right now. Plus the Multimedia Content Bill in Indonesia that has the country’s bloggers and media activists crying “censorship!” …and Hex returns with a review of Bioshock 2.  More details after the jump or dive right in with the MP3 link above.

Joining us on a terrible phone line from Barcelona is Jennifer Dudley Nicholson, News Limited’s national technology editor.  She asked an interesting question in her blog this week while at the Mobile World Congress: what does the ultimate mobile phone look like?

We also caught up with John Chan, Assistant Editor at CNET Asia.  He told us all about the phones likely to reach the Asian market, many of which are pictured or reviewed in their coverage of Mobile World Congress: http://asia.cnet.com/shows/mwc/2010/

Staying with the MWC, Engadget gave us a hands on with the Windows 7 series operating system.  The Guardian covered the news of the major telecommunications companies banding together to form their own App store.   Asher Moses from the SMH also covered this and told us that Skype is cutting deals with large telcos to get their apps onto our phones and perhaps usher in a new era of VOIP.  Devices reliant on access to high-speed mobile broadband were heavily featured at the MWC, although industry leaders think that an increase in cheaper smartphones is key to boosting mobile broadband usage.   More coverage and announcements is on the official event site at http://www.mobileworldlive.com

Our next story in the Tech covered was about a draft Multimedia Content Bill in Indonesia.  Tito Ambyo from our Indonesian language service and Rantang.com.au tells us that bloggers and media activists in the country are worried it could lead to censorship of the dissenting voices in the media.  The Indonesian minister for communication and information, Tifatul Sembiring, was not in the country when the bill was released. And it seems that he too was in shock at it’s contents. He apologised for not being active on twitter for the last couple of days, and that he had ‘heard that people are talking about the proposed law’.  He reassured people that if it is against press freedom, he will ‘automatically delete it’.  A government in damage control, or an honest mistake? We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.

Al Jazeera has started to add more footage to its Creative Commons Al Jazeera online repository. The project aims to make video material on a range of subjects available for reuse, remixing or mashing up under a very lenient creative commons license.   We speak about the repository with Moeed Ahmad, Head of New Media with Al Jazeera.  Moeed is in town for the X|Media|Lab’s Media 2010 conference.   Coverage of the event has been quite thorough, especially from prominent technology writers and bloggers like Brad Howarth and Stilegherrian.  Stephen Hutcheon also rounds up some of the highlights and key themes from today’s presentations.

We change pace after this with a look at the latest online time vampire Chatroulette. The website allows you to connect to random strangers via video chat.  The twist is they, or you, can “roll the dice” so to speak and reconnect with someone different at the click of a button.   To find out more we connect in the real world with Jess McGuire, Australian editor with pop-culture site defamer.com.au. Jess has some theories on the appeal of this this funny, and definitely Not Safe For Work website, created by a 17 year old in Russia.

Finally we’re joined by Hex from ABC TV’s Good Game program with a review of Bioshock 2.  The sequal to the hugely popular first person shooter was developed in a few studios across the world, 2K Australia being one of them.   You can check out some interviews with the developers here: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/webexclusives