The blog with commentary on the Digital TV, media and consumer entertainment device industries, including being an independent consultant. Blackarrow Consulting is a company created in 2004 by Ian Nock, providing strategic and practical consulting in these industries.

I posted about looking to the newer Atom based machines to solve the last couple of problems I had with my EeePC. I could not wait however, falling foul of finding a review on EeeUser.com for the new 6600mAh batteries available from Cameron Sino, available for a very reasonable price from Clove Technology. I snapped one up as quick as I can, and after a small delay due to stock issues I received it today.

I must say that it has made the machine slightly heavier, but not unduly so, and it now has a little sticky out bit as described in the article but I think it has given me more in return. I have been testing it tonight by running it on battery after a full charge. It ran for 3 hours and 10 minutes with a moderate screen brightness level and running at 85% front side bus gearing, as opposed to 70% of the standard setup. The battery ran down to 30% but then went off a cliff to 10% very quickly. The usage was pretty much continuous Internet access over my T-Mobile 3G USB dongle during that time, with a bit of iPlayer as well for 30 minutes, and constant Twitter/Friendfeed updating, and with Windows XP. Pretty happy, and will look into running it ultra low power on the 70% setting to see how much improvement that gives. I am however a little concerned at that cliff from 30% to 10% in around five minutes. Will look into that over time.

Reading through my very own selection of blogs (via Google Reader), I gain a lot of information across a wide number of different subjects. Some relevant information, I place in my own customised 'The Deeper News Headlines' feed that you can find just at the top right. Well today, I found something that I had to comment on a deeper level about. This is a comment on the scale of competition.

The post on Don Reisinger's Digital Home blog, discusses games machines and the competition between them. Particularly the way that Microsoft and Sony are ignoring the Nintendo Wii. They are seen to be ignoring it because they do not believe it is competition for their own products. The CEO of Sony has seemingly even stated this as fact. Don makes some real good points that should really hit home. So why am I writing this rather than just posting it to my own Headlines feed?

Well, it is because Don has not taken it far enough. Essentially, his post is restricted to the gaming universe but in actual fact competition is a very much more holistic experience. I can say that because I have found a much bigger competitor than the Wii for them... it is actually every single form of entertainment that we spend our waking hours at, from spending time with the family to playing the latest game. Sony and Microsoft are competing for time and money with everything, and they could just be losing when they do not consider EVERYTHING to be a competitor.

Television is in the same position, and it is having to adapt and change to meet the challenge to compete with everything that we entertain ourselves with. It is competing through DVRs/PVRs, VoD, Enhanced TV, and Catchup/online video services. It is interesting that most of these have been about making that rigid and inflexible TV schedule flexible enough to deliver what we want and when we want it. Now if only the media companies could jump in with both feet rather than the single foot that is DRM based content? What we want, when we want it, on whatever device we need it to be on.

There are only so many hours in the day after all.

My trusty EeePC has been going now for six months, and how has it faired. Well, it has proven to be pretty good except in three areas... all of which are not killers for the product. It must be said that I refer to the 701 unit with its 7 inch 800x480 screen, rather than one of the many newer units that have now come through the pipeline, in addition to all the other 'netbooks' that are coming through. .

I must comment on the name - netbook, it is a name that does work for the device, although it understates its function. Then again, I have taken it much further than many with a full installation of Windows XP, Office 2007 and Project 2007. In effect, I have everything on the machine that I have on my main laptop (a 12.1 inch Twinhead 12Y branded as the Philips X56), apart from all that non-work video and audio. I could put that stuff on, but one area I have decided on is that the EeePC is a 'Sync' machine and so I have kept that off.

Back to the three areas which are the poor exceptions. The first is that the overall performance (even clocked to the full 900MHz) is not quite enough, sort of annoying level slow. I have though improved the performance by turning off my anti-spam software, as this is where the performance hit seemed to be - operating with Outlook 2007.

The second is in the type of storage - the Flash SSD. I like it that I do not have to think about movement running around with the machine in my hand, but on the other hand the 4GB main partition size is not enough. I would prefer an 8GB or 20GB 1.8" HD instead. This is primarily though because I needed Outlook calendaring, Office and Windows. I am sure I could fit it all in if I did not need the nasty calendar features . I do not mind having to think about sudden movements with it in my hand.

The third area is in relation a fault that has cropped up. That fault is that if I clock it to 900MHz, then it now sometimes will do a full system crash. This only started happening though after the laptop did not shutdown through the lid closure, and proceeded to get very hot - 90'C hot. I think I have messed the thermal sensitivity up, so I have to now accept the crash if it happens or never take it to the full speed. Running at 85% is ok.

Even with these problems, would I recommend one? The answer is YES, although right now I would look towards one of the newer 9" models with the Atom 1.6GHz processor and an extended battery. I am sorely tempted to look around for one of the Atom based units, so I can get around one of my primary issues... but the current unit works well when I am roaming. It is very important as an indepdent consultant to have reliable, effective a light IT solution and for that the EeePC is a match.

As reported through the DTG website, GfK have analysed the growth in the sale of STBs in the UK. I have access only to the summary on the DTG site, but there is one glitch with the analysis as reported - it supposes that there will be a further growth in the low cost STB market driven by the popularity of LCDs being used in secondary rooms.

I find this not something that holds true however, since in the UK the low cost STB market is Freeview driven and all but the very lowest cost LCD screens already have the Digital Tuner capability. It is more likely in my (pit of the stomach) view that the growth in the STB market will flatten as new TVs come to market with inbuilt digital tuners without the need for all the box and wire addons of the separate STB. The growth area for boxes can only be through the further market penetration of disk based boxes, and by the near term introduction of MPEG4 DVB-T2 based boxes to make use of the newer HD services now in preparation.

It has been over ten years since @Entertainment launched satellite TV services into Poland from Kent in the UK (in-cable launch 5th June 1998 and as DTH on 18th September 1998). Is it true that this country (after entrance to the EU) is finally liberalising the TV market?