Digital-Lifestyles

UK

  • iPlayer 3: New Social Functions Outlined For Q1-Q2 2009

    iPlayer 3: Q1-Q2 2009: New Social Functions OutlinedIf you hadn’t noticed(!), today is iPlayer day.

    The BBC Internet blog is covered in posting from various of the BBC bloggers, so many, that they run way over the front page.

    Anthony Rose, Controller, Online Media Group and Vision, Future Media & Technology (blimey he must have a wide business card!), who oversees iPlayer, has recorded a video (not surprisingly playing in an iPlayer viewer).

    He goes over his history with iPlayer and then projects forward into features and functions that he’d like to see incorporated into iPlayer in the future.

    iPlayer 3, as it’s being labelled, will be available Q1 or Q2 in 2009 and will incoporate social features.

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  • BBC, ITV & BT Announce Open Broadband STB Project

    BBC, ITV & BT Announce Open Broadband STB ProjectThe BBC, ITV and BT have announced a proposal to create an “open environment for broadband connected digital television receivers.”

    It’s an initiative open for all UK public service broadcasters, device developers and other ISPs, which they hope will lead to a new generation of subscription free devices, carrying free to air channels and a huge selection of on demand TV services like iPlayer and ITV Player, as well as the potential for films, shows and interactive content from a range of other providers in standard and high definition.

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  • AMEE, Carbon Footprint Calculator, Raises ‘Substantial’ Funding (UPDATED)

    Gavin Starks AMEE Interview: Monitor The World's Energy UsageAMEE, a company that provides Internet-based calculation and storage of the carbon footprints, has received ‘substantial’ Series A funding from O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures (OATV), Union Square Ventures (USV) and The Accelerator Group (TAG).

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  • UK Internet: Censored Since 2004

    UK Internet: Censored Since 2004The recent story about Wikipedia being censored by a large number of UK ISPs has raised a lot of blog post/ tweets / column inches about quite how terrible / good it is that our Internet is not free and open.

    Wake up UK! … this ain’t nothing new.

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  • IWF: How Web Sites Become Banned In The UK

    IWF: How Web sites become banned in the UKGiven all of the attention on the banning of Web sites in the UK (read Wikipedia / Scorpions album), we thought we’d give you the inside view on how it comes about.

    The setup
    If a member of the public raises an objection to a Web site to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the IWF takes a look at it to judge if it’s objectionable (btw – they’re one of the few bodies in the UK legally allowed to view the child pr0n)

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  • HomeCamp Event: Andy Stanford-Clark’s View

    We really, really wanted to get along to the first HomeCamp event – which covered the now-realistic world of automating your home.

    Due to a change of circumstances on our side, we couldn’t make it. Much to our relief IBM Master Inventor and Distinguished Engineer Dr Andy Stanford-Clark (who you may know from his house that Twitters) said he’d cover it for Digital-Lifestyles’ readers. Thanks Andy!

    HomeCamp Event: Andy Stanford-Clark's ViewA couple of Saturdays ago I went to the first “HomeCamp,” at Imperial College in London.

    HomeCamp was an “unconference” (a conference where the participants decide what form and content it should have, on the day) to look at areas of home energy monitoring and home automation.

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  • Some eBay Sellers Still Charging 17.5% VAT

    Some eBay Seller Still Charging 17.5% VATOne of the great things about being computer-based is that you can move fast and change information quickly … right?

    We know these things, don’t we.

    This was the basis for us being really confused as to why some eBay sellers are still charging VAT at 17.5%, instead of the new 15% rate.

    As those in the UK will be well aware, in an attempt to stimulate the economy and get people spending their money, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer allowed the VAT rate (sales tax) to be trimmed down on 1 December 2008.

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  • The Rise Of The PVR: Painfully Slow. New Technology Adoption Is Slow

    The Rise Of The PVR: Painfully Slow, But UK Highest In EuropeNever be fooled. Things always take a lot longer to change than you think they will – particularly where the mass adoption of a new technology is concerned.

    The PVR lesson
    When I started writing about TiVo back in 2001, I saw “PVR’s are a vital piece in the jigsaw.”

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  • Twitter Misunderstood In The Evening Standard

    Twitter Misunderstood in the Evening StandardNick Curtis has written a poorly-researched piece in the Evening Standard that attempts to take a chunk out of Twitter, while asking if ‘Twitter is the new Facebook.’

    Why poorly-researched? Well, he starts the piece saying that Tweets are 160 characters long – and as anyone who has ever looked at the sevice will know, they’re 140, the large ‘140’ beneath the input box being the clue. He then moves to tell us all how he didn’t really understand it.

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  • Sun Startup Essentials: An Interesting Deal For Start-Ups

    Sun Startup Essentials: An Interesting Deal For Start-UpsIt’s possible that some people reading this won’t have heard of Sun. They’re a big computer company that has gone through many iterations (during the dotcom boon their moto was “The computer is the network”).

    We’ve covered a background below to get you up to speed on Sun, but before that, we’ve got an overview on the Sun Startup Essentials, which is aimed at start-ups.

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