Gamer anger at Nokia's 'lock in'
 Nokia relaunched the N-Gage service last month |
Gamers have hit out at Nokia after learning that N-Gage titles bought for their handsets are locked to that specific device forever.
If a gamer changes or upgrades to a different Nokia handset they have to purchase the games again if they want to continue playing.
The issue was uncovered by website All About N-Gage.
"It's a bad idea for everyone... the N-Gage platform, gamers and third party publishers," the site said.
Nokia said it had made the decision to prevent piracy and to ensure its "partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform".
Hidden catch
Nokia relaunched its N-Gage mobile gaming platform last month.
About 30 games are available on a limited range of Nokia handsets, which are bought and downloaded direct to the phone.
It is the company's second attempt at making mobile gaming a success. In 2003 it released a dedicated handset for gaming, but the device never took off.
Ahead of the latest launch, Jaakko Kaidesoja from Nokia's Play New Experience division, told BBC News: "One of the best things we learned from the original N-Gage is that you can create a community and people appreciate the connectivity."
But the new platform has provoked anger amongst gamers.
Writing on the official N-Gage forums, one gamer said: "Changes need to be made soon, and sticking one's head in the sand will not change anybody's mind."
When gamers sign up for the service they have to agree to terms and conditions, part of which explains that games cannot be transferred between devices.
It states: "Content shall be... limited to one private installation on one N-Gage compatible Nokia device only."
But gamers have complained that the detail is buried in the terms and conditions and it is not clear enough at the point of purchase.
A statement from Nokia said: "Our policy is that the N-Gage activation codes only work on the device where they were first activated.
"As with any digital media there is a potential risk of piracy and this policy is one of the ways we are dealing with piracy and ensuring our partners receive their rightful revenues from our platform.
"If users need to repair their device, the activation codes will be reissued."
2)
Number keys promise safer data
 The system hinges on multiple keys for multiple items |
Mathematicians at the University of California in Los Angeles have applied a fundamental rethink to improve the "one lock - one key" method that current encryption technologies such as RSA and AES operate on.
Amit Sahai, associate professor at UCLA, told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme that they had decided to "rebuild the idea from the ground up," and developed the idea of multiple keys giving access to selected pieces of data.
"In our vision, we'll have some data that can be locked - but now that one lock is openable by many different keys in many different ways," he explained.
Key management
Currently, when information is encrypted, it is secured with a digital lock and key created together.
While this works well for individual computers, it presents problems on an industrial scale because company data has to be stored on large servers and accessed by large numbers of people.
The UCLA mathematicians point out that this leads to a big problem in terms of key management.
"That key management problem, of needing so many different keys to have access to all the files they should be able to have access to... is so complicated that they just don't use encryption," Dr Sahai said.
"Encryption is essentially not used by most large corporations, and to the extent that it is used, it is used incorrectly or in a silly way."
And in many systems, the key is put on the same server that holds the encrypted data.
 Access to medical records could become much more sophisticated |
He said that a good example of how his system could work is a person's medical records. Whereas currently access to the records is on an all-or-nothing basis, the advanced encryption would allow different amounts of access according to a person's relation to the patient.
Dieticians would be able to see blood sugar levels, while oncologists can see cancer reports.
"Similarly, many different people - depending on who they are and what their position is - should be able to access many different aspects of my medical records," Dr Sahai said.
"What we want to do - and what we've done, to some extent - is to have a mathematical encryption scheme where you encrypt your medical record once, and then different people with different keys can open it in different ways."
Engineering
Doing this with existing technology would mean all different aspects of data would have to be separately encrypted.
Meanwhile, Dr Sahai said that the "clever thing" about his system was that it was approached the problem using maths, rather than just as a data problem.
"We're trying to take some of the very difficult job that we give to the security engineer and actually put it into the mathematics itself," he said.
"Once you have this kind of expressibility in the mathematics itself, it makes the job of the security engineer that much easier - because the mathematics is protecting you.3)
Bright future predicted for Apple
- 22 May 08, 10:30 GMT
Analysts like to make waves. After all, if what they say lacks impact, then no-one pays attention.
So how about this prediction from Forrester: "Apple Inc. will become the hub of the digital home by 2013."
Forrester says Apple will evolve an "integrated digital experience" based on eight pillars.
Four of them you will probably recognise:
The Mac, Apple TV, the Apple store (the physical shop), iTunes.
Four of them are, ahem, guesswork from Forrester:
Apple home server product, AppleSound universal music controller, network-enabled gadgets (ie music, digital photo frame and alarm clock devices) and in-home installation services.
Now, I can certainly believe that Apple is working on a home server product, that's not really a big prediction. It's merely an extension of Apple TV and the Time Capsule wireless storage device it already ships.
But an AppleSound universal music controller? Do they mean a remote control? I'm not even sure why this is needed.
And can anyone else envisage Apple selling digital photo frames or alarm clocks? Nope, me neither.
And Apple offering in-home installation services? Erm, isn't the whole point of Apple's products that you don't need professional installation help? And what would people be installing exactly?
These predictions strike me as off key for a number of reasons:
1. I don't see Apple displacing satellite and cable firms so radically. In fact, I see more disruption of Apple's business by set-top box providers than the other way around.
2. Apple TV remains a work in progress and hasn't proved its potential.
3. Content providers are now very wary of doing deals with iTunes that leave them at the mercy of Steve Jobs. The music industry is doing everything in its power to break iTunes' hold. The film and TV industry won't make the same mistake
4. Open standards will triumph. I don't believe that "lock in" systems will ever work as the glue between our devices.
5. I don't think one company will ever be the hub. Interoperability will mean that we can cherry pick our devices and our content will run between them all.
4)
Sceptics question Microsoft move
 Office is the dominant productivity suite of programs |
Open source advocates have questioned Microsoft's commitment to using open document standards in the future.
The computer giant has said it will implement use of the Open Document Format (ODF), "sometime next year".
The Free Software Foundation Europe said: "It's a step in the right direction but we are sceptical about how open Microsoft will be."
The European Commission, which has fined Microsoft for monopolistic practice, welcomed the move.
"The Commission would welcome any step that Microsoft took towards genuine interoperability, more consumer choice and less vendor lock-in," it said.
The Commission added that it would look into whether Microsoft's announcement "leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice".
 |  Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases  Marino Marcich, ODF Alliance |
Open source software advocates have long criticised the file formats used by Microsoft's Office suite of programs because they are not genuinely interoperable with software from third parties.
Microsoft has said it will add support for ODF when it updates Office 2007 next year.
Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said he remained dubious about "how deep" Microsoft's adoption of the standard would go.
'Right direction'
"This is definitely a step in the right direction. We have been encouraging Microsoft to support ODF natively for quite a while.
"Like all things, this will depend to some extent on how they do it."
The Open Document Format Alliance said it was sceptical about the extent of Microsoft's commitment.
| Support for ODF indicates there are problems with OpenXML that Microsoft cannot resolve easily and quickly Georg Greve, FSF Europe |
Marino Marcich, managing director of the ODF Alliance, said: "The proof will be whether and when Microsoft's promised support for ODF is on par with its support for its own formats.
"Governments will be looking for actual results, not promises in press releases."
At the moment, Office users can use ODF documents by using a downloaded "translator" program.
Critics point out
But critics have pointed out that the translator does not integrate very well with parts of the Office suite.
The move by Microsoft follows attempts by the company to have its own standard, the OpenXML format, recognised as interoperable.
The International Standards Organisation approved its use but the full specification of the OpenXML format has yet to be published.
Mr Greve said: "Support for ODF indicates there are problems with OpenXML that Microsoft cannot resolve easily and quickly.
"OpenXML is something all users want to stay away from. It's not clear if it will ever become an interoperable standard and so users should be very careful using it."
Mr Greve said "genuine adoption" of ODF would give consumers more choice.
'Full choice'
"People will no longer need to use Microsoft Office in order to interoperate.
"They will no longer need to choose a support platform for Office, i.e. Windows."
He added: "There will be full choice on the desktop; people could switch to Linux and choose Open Office or other applications that support ODF, like Lotus Symphony or Google Docs.
"There is fairly large amount of apps to choose from, which can be based on the merits of the application and their personal preference.
No comments:
Post a Comment