Video sharing Websites like YouTube are starting to impact on TV viewing figures, with more people switching off and logging on.
A new survey by the BBC found that 43% of Brits who watch video on their PCs or mobiles at least once a week now spend less time on the sofa watching TV as a result.
Although online mobile viewing continues to rise – three quarters of users say they watch more online than a year ago – it’s got a long way to go before it matches the reach of TV, with only 9 per cent of the population regularly watching Net videos.
A further 13% of those questioned said they watched online occasionally, with another 10 per cent saying they expected to start in the coming year.
Not surprisingly, online and mobile video is the biggest hit with the young ‘uns, with 28 per cent of those aged 16-24 saying they watched more than once each week, while around one in ten of 25-44 year olds were Net video regulars.
However, citizens of advancing years weren’t too keen on this new fangled online video thing, with just 4 per cent of over-45s watching online.
The majority of the population still prefers to watch the old fashioned gogglebox, with two-thirds of the population shunning online TV and saying that had no intention of starting in the next 12 months.
It’s a bit of a different story in the US, where hit TV shows regularly appear on networks’ websites and through services like iTunes, although the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 will all be offering most of their shows on demand over the Internet in the next few months.
Palm’s update to its well-received and long running Treo 650 smartphone goes on sale in the UK.
The Treo 680 also comes with beefed up Radio Frequency (RF) sensitivity for improved phone performance, a SD/MMC/SDIO-compatible expansion card interface and upgraded Bluetooth 1.2 connectivity.
As with the Treo 650, the new phone offers the usual cornucopia of functionality and features including email, web browsing (via Blazer 4.5), the excellent Pocket Tunes music player, calendar, video, photo album and Documents To Go letting users view, edit and share Word and Excel documents on the move.
The product is available from today at the Palm e-store (US only) in red, orange, white and silver for £299 (contract free), although we’ve already seen discounted prices popping up elsewhere.
Wow … things are really starting to gel across the Murdoch media businesses, as James Murdoch starts showing his hand. Perhaps this is the first real example of seeing James’ talent on with what we’ve been told was his passion – that for convergence.
A number of Sky One shows will be available over the service. Sounds great, until you imagine that 93% of the those using Sky By Broadband already own a Sky+ box – having the ability to see the shows when they want to anyway.
The pricing of PSone games to be played on the Sony PSP have been announced.
It was initially envisaged that Sony would give access to the Playstation Store through the PSP using its WiFi connection. We can see one advantage of not doing this – people wanting to use the service will need to buy a PS3!
Arriving just eight months after the announcement of the upmarket D200, Nikon’s new D80 builds on the success of 2004’s D70, offering a slew of enhancements, a larger LCD and an inevitable upping of the pixel count.
Clearly this mix’n’match approach makes sense for cost-aware Nikon, with interchangeable components helping to keep the prices down in a hugely competitive market, although the differences in build quality between the D80 and its big brother are clearly marked.
Interface upgrades
There’s also a host of new customisation options (a total of 32 custom functions) letting photographers set up the D80 to their needs.
The camera is easy to use, feels right in the hand with all the main controls falling easily to hand, and looks like it could take the occasional knock.
We spent a fair bit of time watching online advertising, as the income for Digital-Lifestyles comes in solely from it.
We see that Engadget are offering a charity auction for Save Dafur.
Ever self-aware, Engadget also point out they understand the irony of raising money for a Dafur charity, by playing a video game called Gears of War. Their defence is that their readers chose the charity and that they’d already decided what the event was going to be. As some step towards balancing this, Engadget have named the event Gears of Peace.
For a long time Health Authorities have been having kittens about the amount of people who miss their hospital appointments – and quite rightly, it’s a tremendous waste of resources, that are already stretched.
It’s not just appointments that can be handled, Orange tell us that, “Among many benefits, text messaging prompts a better response to health promotion campaigns such as invitations to receive flu jabs or attend asthma clinics.” The word promotion could be worrying if abused.