BBC’s hugely popular website is on course to become the Corporation’s second biggest property in just four years, according to their new director of future media and technology, Erik Huggers.
Spurred on by the success of their BBC iPlayer service, the BBC’s website has seen huge traffic rises and now looks set to be second only to their flagship channel BBC1 by 2012.
It’s only been four months that Ashley Highfield has been with Project Kangeroo, the UK independent TV answer to the BBC’s iPlayer, but it’s been reported that he’s leaving – before it’s even publicly launched.
Vast tracts of London, UK and San Jose, California were engulfed in a buzzword blizzard as the BBC and Adobe Systems announced a strategic relationship around the delivery of Web video content.
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So I’m being bombarded by Apple’s super-expensive advert campaign telling me how great Macs are and how only dull business nerds bother with PCs.
The adverts feature the smug comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. And they’re on the tele. They’re on billboards. They’re everywhere.
And when I pop over to my MySpace homepage, what’s that blaring out (with the audio set to ‘on’ by default?).
Yep, it’s another chuffing advert featuring the same two comedians, happily selling their arses for a slice of Apple’s fat budget while insisting that I’m deeply mistaken in my choice of computer.
The two comics – who are quickly transforming from entertaining to kill-them-in-the-face irritating in my book – pair up for a Mr Mac and Mr PC routine, designed to make users want to rush out and put money in Jobs’s already expansive coffers.
The set of six adverts insist that PCs users are doomed to suffer an onslaught of unstoppable viruses, security leaks and endless crashes.
PC users are represented as dull business bores who wouldn’t know what fun is if it French-kissed them in the buttocks, while Mac users are seen to be spontaneous, fun-loving bon viveurs, hurtling along the highway of creativity at reckless speeds.
So I give in. I decide to take a look at the videos on Apple’s site, and click on the link using my virus-free, non-crashing, safe and relatively fun PC and get ready to learn, “Why I’ll love a Mac.”
And then, oh dear. Firefox brings up an error message. From the one, solitary piece of Apple software on my machine; Quick Time.
Still, no problem. After all, I’m trying to look at an Apple site with Apple software and their site proudly boasts that their products “just work,” so I’m sure we’ll be over this little glitch in moments.
“Quick Time is missing software to perform this operation…” says the pop up window as only the audio plays in the background.
“Fair enough,” I think to myself, confident of a slick, smooth, user-friendly solution coming along.
And then comes the killer blow with the final line of the error message: “Unfortunately, it is not available on the QuickTime server.”
And that’s it. No help offered, no options, just a simple, ‘It doesn’t work, it won’t work and we’re not going to tell you how to make it work. So bugger off’
Thanks Apple.
But I’m a determined soul, so I decide to fire up Internet Explorer 7 instead.
As soon as I arrive at Apple’s page it wants to run an Active X control and for me to download QuickTime.
Hmmm. Not very user friendly. Why should I have to go through all the palaver of downloading software just to view an advert I can view just fine on other sites?
But – hey! – I want to be the cool guy instead of the nerdy PC user, so I download the software and get ready to be entertained and persuaded.
Except I’m left with the same blank, audio-only video which ends with a message from Apple asking me, “how much time have I spent troubleshooting your PC?”
I don’t think my answer to that is printable.
*Postscript: we asked several PC-owning friends to look at the Apple page and they had mixed fortunes. Some had no problems viewing the videos, while others suffered the same blank screen/error message combo as me.
Of course, Mac-huggers could argue that this proves how useless PCs are, but the fact that the videos played back perfectly before QuickTime shoved in its oar sure doesn’t speak a persuasive word to my ears.
Apple Computer has announced that the latest major update of its Mac OS X operating system, code-named Tiger, will be available on 29 April.
Modestly described as “The World’s Most Advanced Operating System,” Apple’s highly anticipated update to Mac OS X (now at version 10.4) will be available to mobs of grasping Mac huggers on Friday, 29 April.
With over 200 new features on offer, Apple aficionados should find the upgrade worth the price, with one of the most eagerly awaited new features being a sophisticated new search facility called ‘Spotlight’.
This powerful core application lets users search just about everything on their system – files, emails, contacts, images, movies, calendars and applications – with the results appearing “instantly”.
Stealing a march on their Microsoft rivals, Spotlight can also rummage around inside the metadata of files and organise search results by criteria, such as the kind of content, author, edit history, format, size etc.
The new OS will also feature Dashboard, an accessory desktop application letting users display a variety of real-time information from the Internet, including stocks, weather forecasts, track flights and currency rates and other third party apps.
Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs was clearly excited by the new OSX upgrade: “Tiger’s groundbreaking new features, like Spotlight and Dashboard, will change the way people use their computers, and drive our competitors nuts, trying to copy them.”
Other updates include an updated Safari browser offering built-in RSS support, improved connectivity with other desktop operating systems and support for the next-generation video-compression standard H.264 (allowing multiple users on the video-conferencing program iChat).
Mac OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” will be available on 29 April from 6:00 pm at Apple’s retail stores and through Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of £89 (US$129, €129)
Apple will also be offering a “family pack” version of the software, for £139 (US$199 €199), serving up to five computers in a single residence.