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November 22, 2004
Death of video recorder
The death of the video cassette recorder appears to be in sight after the UK's largest electrical chain said it is to stop selling them. Dixons will phase out VCRs due to the boom in DVD players, sales of which have grown seven-fold in five years.
It ends a 26-year love affair with a gadget which changed viewing habits by allowing people to leave home without missing their favourite programmes. Dixons expects to sell its remaining stock of VCRs by Christmas. The High Street retailer says demand for VCRs has fallen dramatically since the 1990s.
DVD charm
It aims to concentrate on their successor, the DVD which has charmed consumers with its speed and superior quality.
John Mewett, marketing director at Dixons, said: "We're saying goodbye to one of the most important products in the history of consumer technology.
"The video recorder has been with us for a generation and many of us have grown up with the joys and the occasional frustrations of tape-based recording.
"We are now entering the digital age and the new DVD technology available represents a step change in picture quality and convenience."
The final nail in the coffin for VCRs is the low price of DVD players, which can now be bought for as little as £25.
The cost of DVD recorders are also falling to a level within reach of many consumers.
The BBC's business reporter Hywel Jones said: "So far Dixons is the only major chain to abandon sales of VCRs.
"But video cassettes are likely to join record players and Rubik Cubes as objects of nostalgic affection.
The first video cassette recorder went on sale at Dixons in 1978 priced £798.75 - the equivalent of about £3,000 in today's money.
It was made by Japanese electronics giant JVC and had a slot in the top to insert the tape and piano-style keys.
Betamax battle
The early 1980s saw a battle between VHS and its main competitor Betamax, from Sony.
VHS eventually won, largely because it was the format favoured by rental shops which many households used due to their cost.
By 1990 more than 200m video cassette recorders a year were sold worldwide.
However, there is still hope for VHS fans or those with large tape collections.
Currys, the sister company of Dixons, will continue to sell the machines for the time being.
Department store John Lewis also said it had no plans to phase them out.
Dan Knowles, director of buying for electrical and home technology at John Lewis, said: "Sales of VCRs are in decline but we still sell a lot of them.
"As long as there is a market for them we will continue to sell them."
Posted by robeva at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2004
MS Spam plan rejected
Attempts to fight spam by identifying e-mails have hit problems over Microsoft's involvement in the process. The Internet Engineering Task Force, an international standards body, has rejected Microsoft's contribution to the so-called Sender ID proposal.
The proposal, which would identify where e-mail has come from, could lead to better filters to siphon out spam. But Microsoft's decision to impose restrictions on the use of the system has angered some.
Tackling spam
The working group charged by the IETF with looking at the standard has decided that Microsoft's decision to keep a possible patent application secret was unacceptable.
It was also concerned with possible incompatibilities with open source software.
Microsoft remains hopeful that the Sender ID system can be kept alive.
"There's broad support for Sender ID technology and we encourage others to support and implement this technology so that together we can do more to tackle spam," the company said in a statement.
Licence conditions
The idea of authenticating e-mail senders has been under discussion for several years as a way of tackling spammers who are increasingly dominating inboxes with junk.
Sender ID is the closest the industry has got to a standard but it is complicated because it incorporates two approaches to the technical problem of tracing and tracking where e-mail has come from.
Microsoft has contributed some of the design and subsequently wants anyone using the system to take out a licence.
But the conditions associated with this licence are considered unacceptable by many.
It has also re-opened the battle between Microsoft and the open source community, with many unhappy that the company is staking its claim on Sender ID.
The fact that internet engineers have voted down Microsoft's proposals does not necessarily mean the end of Sender ID or Microsoft's involvement.
It could continue to push for its system to become the de facto standard or it could make its system available to the open source community.
Posted by robeva at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)