There has been a lot of press about Podcast support on the PSP, and after testing it out and being very satisfied, I decided to revisit P-TV after Sony announced the start of “Portable TV” for the PSP. The videos being offered take advantage of the new DRM support that Sony has included in the 2.60 firmware. I also caught this link about 480×270 support. (Thank you Rich)

The announcement (see above) talks about video rentals. Very interesting and totally logical given that they have DRM now. First thing I did was boot up my PSP and browse over to the P-TV site and download the Lords of Dogtown trailer because I wanted to finally experience a video download at 480×270. Sure enough it worked beautifully. I wasn’t disappointed. It did prompt me for my So-net account before I could download though, and luckily I managed to dig out my account info from back in July when I first created it. I also noticed that just after the download finished, the PSP download status bar disappeared and an “Obtaining license…” message popped up for a few seconds. The Sony DRM in action. The downloaded movie has the MGV extension, is H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, and has a 7 day rental period, despite being free.

Next I started browsing on my PSP through some of the other content categories; P-TV has a growing collection of Music, Dramas, Anime (I think the Gundam episode is still free!), Sports and Entertainment. I noticed that prices range is between about 100円 ~ 300円, for rental periods of about 7 days to 30 days. In the Drama catalogue for a 8 day rental of a single episode of a Japanese drama you can expect to pay around 300円. After looking around I decided to try and rent something.

I happened to be in the Music category at this point, and the new Madonna video was the first one listed. I checked the price: 158円 for a 7 day rental. I thought I could manage a the $1.30 for the sake of testing so I clicked on the Download link. P-TV asked me again to login (I left the browser to watch the movie preview, but it remembered my login info and I just had to click on the login button) to confirm the download. This time, however it told me that my account at So-net was not setup for purchases. I clicked OK, thinking how painful it would be to enter all my billing information on the PSP without a keyboard, but I was brought back to the video catalogue page.

Not too discouraged, I went to my Safari bookmarks, opened So-net and logged in, edited my account and added my credit card. It was a very quick and easy process (after I spent the time in July to setup my profile/account in general) and So-net reported that after adding my credit card I was able to purchase Content on So-net. I was redirected to the content shop on So-net, and feeling that I was ready to rent, I picked up my PSP again and tried the Madonna download link again. This time, again, it asked for my account and I logged in and was presented with the Download link. Success, again after the PSP obtained a license. The video is in 4:3 aspect ratio, but the resolution was 480×270 and the sound and image was very good.

I’m still thinking of my willingness to pay, and I wonder how Sony will price in the US with the Video Ipod out, but it’ll be very interesting to see what kind of content is available. A US version of P-TV might be a perfect platform to leverage Sony’s existing content, just as they are doing with UMD. Are they going to sell TV shows? Will I be able to watch these movies on any other devices, my desktop, my Location-Free devices? I didn’t do much research yet, but I look forward to the developments.

For the more geeky of you: I also connected my PSP to my Powerbook after watching the videos and took a look at the Memory Stick. It seems that the new Sony MGV DRM locked videos are being placed in new movie directory off root: MPE_ROOT. This is a little different from the MP_ROOT that we are all using now to get our videos on the PSP. Of course VLC and Quicktime couldn’t play the MGV files, and I’ll leave it to someone else to figure out how the DRM actually works.

Mobile-interactive live events takes another step. This time it’s footy:

UK-based mobile data and Internet messaging solutions provider Dialogue Communications has announced that it has deployed its Dialogue Mobile Applications Portal (MAP) at Leeds United FC, to enable fans to use their mobile phones to vote for a ‘Man of the Match’ player award.

The new service enables fans to send Short Message Service (SMS) texts towards the end of a match, voting for the team member who has, in their opinion, played the best game.

According to Dialogue, the relevant number to dial is displayed in the match programme and on the screens at the ground, and users text in a key word followed by the name of their nominated player.

I was a fan of this kind of thing the first time I was at a talk that took questions live via SMS. Anonymity and interactivity in real-time - it’s a great application. It shows that mobile devices aren’t just good for bridging great distances, but creating connectivity within a large crowd of people as well.

Is this the way data services are going to go in the US? Charging not by packet of data, but by type of content that is being transferred? If this allows the carrier to reduce cost for data used in music downloads, I could see how it would be advantageous. But being someone who would just use raw data that isn’t carrier-hosted content, I hope it’s not used to jack UP my type of data costs!

IDEA Cellular, a leading mobile operator in India, and Nokia (NYSE: NOK), the world leader in mobile communications, have launched Nokia’s Intelligent Content Delivery System (ICD) solution on all IDEA’s mobile networks across India. The Nokia ICD solution enhances IDEA’s mobile packet core network capabilities and enables it to connect both prepaid and post-paid subscribers to data services and charge them according to the value of traffic and content. This makes IDEA India’s first and only operator to charge differentially for data services, thereby increasing its revenue streams. . Nokia ICD solution allows IDEA to provide data services, such as downloadable ringtones, music, games, browsing, streaming, MMS and content based SMS, to both prepaid and post-paid customers and charge for them differentially.

Regardless, I can’t wait for the day where I’m posting something like “Carrier adopts reasonably-priced unlimited mobile data plans with pricing tiers based on speed.” We won’t truly win until mobile data is treated like cable or DSL.

In continuing to think about Japanese mobility, and sparked by a weekend article in the FT about mobility (available here for free), I return to the term: Tele-cocooning. Ichiyo Habuchi coined this term and it is defined as:

the production of social identities in small, insular social groups through mobile communications (source)

I think this is the constant that links the culturally different markets of the world, and it is tied to the young. Within the context of each local market, with differing carriers, business models and technology, it is the universal social movement — coming of age — that is pushing the mobile phone use in the young. Mobile phones add another communication tool to the socializing masses trying to form identities. So technology comes in to play in defining the boundaries (and richness?) of what can be expressed (SMS in a global constant, video is not yet). Business models guide our choices on how frequently we can share/connect and for how long. Cultural differences are expressed in the ways that young people go about exploring their relationships and forming their identities.

So when we ask a teenager a particular question about Presence (the yet elusive IMPS concept): Assuming control (you can hide and have privacy if you want), do you want your friends to be able to know where you are without asking you? The answer will often be: no. Why? The infinite gradients of who’s in and who’s out of a teenager’s social circle will be so complex and fine-tuned that can a buddy list really capture it? The friends who need to know where I am will know already via a quick SMS. It’s as much about connecting as it is about not connecting to certain people — and that will change a lot.

So yeah, there is a bright future in mobile services in most of the world — that truth rides on the universality of human socialization — but the apps that cross all the gaps have to take into account culture. Data usage specifically will be a function of a culture — will a video chat be universally accepted? SMS is such a great example of an international success because it leaves the content to the user, and we all know that language is the baseline for capturing all the subtleties of our cultures.

MIT’s Technology Review has a short interview with USC/Keio researcher Mizuko Ito about her latest book Personal, Portable, Pedestrian : Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. One of the interesting quotes for all of us in the US mobile industry considering other markets is:

I think one of the things that we were trying to argue in the book is that there isn’t a single trajectory [for technology development]. If you look at Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., their technology trajectories have been completely different.

This morning’s Wall Street Journal has this article highlighting Yahoo and Google’s push into “wireless”. For the first time in a while this actually means “mobile phone wireless”, rather than WiFi. As might be expected, SBC/Yahoo have entered a relationship with Nokia to manufacture a mobile phone for Cingular, for release some time next year. I’d expect this phone to be much more interesting than the Rokr, given Yahoo’s focus on services! Likewise, Google is also starting to focus more and more on the space, initially releasing Google Local with a mobile focus (obvious choice). The article mentions “java application” as well, but I couldn’t find any links to a downloadable app yet.

This is a great move — we can’t rely on carriers themselves to push innovation — but moves like these, with users at the core of the considerations and design, mean that the market will be getting more interesting real fast.

We’re in Taipei this week for investor meetings, sales, and customer work. Productive meetings, great people, and excellent food. The Flickr set is here.