Digital And Dominating

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 14, 2007

Nick Miller. Nick Miller flew to San Francisco as a guest of Apple.

Technology is opening up whole new worlds, but it may be a while before we see them here, writes Nick Miller.

WELCOME to the digital lounge room, United States, 2007. You pick up your remote control and switch on your TV and the new rectangular box on top of it (AppleTV, Xbox 360 or whatever). It's got some videos already downloaded and ready to play. A couple of new-release TV episodes, Pirates of the Caribbean III, a music video. Your whole music library is on there, too. But today you want to hop online. There are some back episodes of The Office you haven't caught up with yet. You press a few buttons and the theme tune begins . . . a micropayment invisibly flies from your Visa card to the channel provider. But the doorbell rings and you pause the show. The rest of the episode downloads in the background, and syncs to your smart mobile phone's memory just in case.

Last week, such scenarios switched from digital fantasy to reality, as two of the world's biggest computer technology companies, Microsoft and Apple, revealed their latest weapons in the battle for digital dominance of the globe's lounge rooms and hip-pockets.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft's uber-nerd Bill Gates announced new developments in IPTV - internet protocol television - digital video delivered in real time over the internet. The data arrives onto a Windows Media Centre PC and goes to the lounge room via the Xbox 360, which is evolving from a games machine into a "media extender".

The biggest hype, however, was for the launch of Apple's long-awaited iPhone late last week. Hype aside, the device (pictured below) does the same stuff smartphones such as Nokias and Blackberries do: makes calls, checks email, takes pictures, browses the web, plays music. That's the Apple way - it doesn't invent new gadgets, it makes them cool.

At the news conference, Apple's Steve Jobs introduced another product - the new AppleTV, a big, network-enabled iPod for the telly - which, along with the iPhone, will combine with iTunes software into a potent triple-play. It was a sign that Apple is still a frontline player in what Bill Gates calls "the digital decade".

The digital decade is about flexibility when it comes to how, where and when we consume media and information. It means ad-free online TV and movies, portable internet, music and podcasts and vodcasts; all at our fingertips, in our pockets or lounge rooms. It also means new format wars, echoing VHS v Beta of the past - and even the possible fracturing of the internet into proprietary streams.

Apple and Microsoft want to own the supply of digital content into the home. If you make the hardware, you can control what it plays, and users can buy only your sanctioned content. Apple wants you to buy music, movies and TV shows in iTunes, download them to an Apple PC and display them via the AppleTV onto the TV or computer screen or iPod or iPhone. Microsoft is chasing the same idea.

While Jobs is a product man and prefers to let his igadgets do the talking, Gates has always been keen to spell out his vision. "Truly, the digital decade is happening," he said. "Think about cameras, six megapixels and up. Think about these high-definition screens that when you buy it you just drool looking at that picture, it's such an improvement over the classic TV screen that you used to have, and now it connects up to your high-definition cable, to your PC, to your games."

At Macworld, Jobs had his own announcement: Paramount Pictures would join Disney and offer movie downloads over the iTunes service. Disney was a slam dunk: Jobs is Disney's biggest shareholder after selling it Pixar. But Paramount, which is a Microsoft ally in other markets, represents a big win.

The real choking point in the delivery of online digital services is the internet itself. In Australia, the speed of broadband is a well-known problem and digital content is much sparser this side of the Pacific.

The local version of Apple's iTunes is a fraction of the size of its older brother, missing most of the TV and movie content. Microsoft's local version of the Media Centre software lacks most of the online channels that make the US service so rich. Even the iPhone will be a year old before it arrives in the country.

Sadly, Australia's digital future could be as a backwater.

Nick Miller flew to San Francisco as a guest of Apple.

© 2007 The Sunday Age

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