Want a quick recap on how the growth in the access to broadband has gone in the UK?
Lucky for you Christopher Huhne, the Liberal Democrat MP for Eastleigh asked the DTI
how many and what proportion of homes had access to broadband in each year since 2000; what (a) estimates of and (b) targets for broadband access his Department has made for future years;
Which led Margaret Hodge to share the following
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Another independent website gets swallowed up by a corporate giant as the well-regarded photography website dpreview.com is acquired by Amazon.com.
Beginning as a hobby site in 1998, dpreview.com has grown to be one of the biggest photographic resources on the web, providing in depth digital camera reviews backed by a thriving and passionate bulletin board community.
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Much to our surprise, the UK public are starting to be told about the BT Vision service from BT, through a multi-million advertising campaign, with the two 60 second ads kicking off tomorrow during ITV’s ‘Grease Is The Word’.
The background
Since its initial ‘launch’, back in December 2006, when UK journalists were gathered together at BT’s head office (we covered it live) and were exposed to a very expensive event, there’s been very little further information – or even kit available.
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There’s a million different uses for the Internet – many wasteful, quite a few that are useful and some that are vital. There’s a new site launching today that, if it’s founders wishes come true, could actually change the world.
The Nag hopes to assist all of us who are conscious that we (the world’s population that is) aren’t treating the world quite as well as we should be and would like to make positive changes, but don’t quite get around to it.
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The BBC have been running three, weekly pieces reporting on the impact and progress of a four person UK family when starting to live their Digital- Lifestyles. So much so that they’ve got into Torrents already!
They been given a flat screen, Sky HD, Windows Media, Apple TV, Sono and the inevitable iPods (Apple must be rather chuffed). All of these bits have been linked together using a wireless network which is whizzing the data around for them.
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Following the announcement yesterday of the BlackBerry Curve joining the now apparently ever expanding range of BlackBerry devices, Vodafone have been in touch to let us know that they’ll have it in the UK from 21 May.
The BlackBerry Curve looks pretty good from the shots we’ve seen. It’s finished in what they describe as a liquid silver colour with chrome highlights, smooth edges and soft curves – a guide to where they got the name from?
BlackBerry are also pitching it as “the perfect balance between work and play.”
New features are showing how the BlackBerry is becoming much more a consumer device, rather than just for business stiffs who feel it reflects they’re important, how often they can check worthless emails being pushed at them by The Man.
One such is that the 2Mpx camera with 5x digital zoom, built-in flash and night mode, can share its pics with just one click using either email, MMS, or Bluetooth.
ISP Tiscali have launched a Movies Now service, giving their customers access to over 500 films and entertainment programs without a subscription fee.
There’s a choice to either rent the content or download to own, with prices starting at 99p for TV content or for older films.
They’re working with Arts Alliance Media, who are providing the content and the technology behind the serving and content protection.
We put out a NIB (News in Brief) earlier today about Skype offering half price SMS’s.
It struck us that dear old Blighty (UK) _wasn’t_ included in the list of countries that people could half price SMS to.
Jeepers, Creepers, what’s going on, went the cry!
We got in touch with those who know (Skype-types) and after a short pause came the confirmation that, yes, the UK wasn’t included.
The reason?
“We’re looking at all markets and have started with those that we think will take advantage of the promotion the fastest. Everything is evolutionary at Skype – we rely on early adopter/usage feedback to make sure we get it right for other countries yet to benefit from the promotion.”
Doesn’t make a great deal of sense given the UK’s global reputation of madly texting at every opportunity.
Clearly Skype had to say something and while this might be the official reason, we wondered if it was something to do with the famously-inflexible UK mobile companies, and their unwillingness to show love (or enough of a discount) to dear Skype?
Next week is the second annual Takeaway Festival at the Dana Centre at the Science Museum in London.
The event organisers at the Science Museum have a natty skill of organising some great events, so we’re hoping this one will be up to their normally high standards.
It’s a three day event (9-11 May) which sounds like it could just about start a revolution. They’ll “explore how emerging technologies are transforming creative possibilities, social structures and communication networks.”
By the structure of it doesn’t sound like it will give you a chance to get bored – even if you wanted to.
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New research has revealed that seven out of ten old folks aren’t down with this new fangled keyboard- compu- interwebby thing, and Age Concern is worried that their lack of PC skills is making them miss out on workplace opportunities.
Age Concern’s figures have been released to tie in with the launch of their UK-wide Digital Inclusion Network which is tasked with “plugging the gap in opportunities” for crumblies and getting them up to speed with Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
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