Finding BBC Podcasts
January 29, 2008
The number of BBC Podcasts seem to be increasing all the time - the number is now well over 100 from across Aunties radio output.
You’ve got everything from Chris Moyles on Radio 1 and Mark Kermode on 5 Live to The Archers on Radio 4 and Digital Planet on the World Service.
Sphere: Related ContentHD-DVD vs Blu-Ray
January 29, 2008
I haven’t gone high-def yet - I brought a beautiful television about three years ago for several hundred pounds and have no intention of getting rid of it until it dies.
Plus I watch most of my programmes on demand, either through Sky+, through one of the increasing number of web based streaming services or through DVDs ripped to my iPod.
So, as you can tell, I’m used to watching things in a lower quality in my own time - so the prospect of a better picture doesn’t jump out as a desperate need.
But one day, when the players are around £50 and I need a new TV I will get myself a Hi-Def DVD player.
By then I think Blu-Ray would have well and truly won out - after all most of the disks I see in shops are Blu-Ray, most of the big studios are Blu-Ray and I prefer to blue boxes to the purpley ones of HD-DVD.
6 hours in a box
January 28, 2008
The latest BBC web-telly project will see three acts spend eight hours in a glass bubble in a sort of - ‘camp-out’ for the public vote. By public read people in front of a computer clicking Yes or No.
Basically anyone with the illussion of talent is able to visit the Upstaged pages of the BBC THREE part of the BBC website and sign up with their details - upload videos, upload pictures, post snippets of information and have people vote for them.
One group to do just that is YouStage - a group of UK Vloggers who each have a strong following on You Tube - basically they’ve created a promo video where they all do ’something’ and talk about the importance of vlogging and why its fun.
However, I’m not sure I could stomach 8 hours of THAT and so far its one of the better ones.
The idea of the show is that the early voting rounds take place online - people upload their videos and other people get to vote for the ones they like the most (BBC did something similar to this with the Joseph Choir search that ended in a bit of a crash - basically the site couldn’t cope with demand).
Each video is embeddable and spreadable as well as being available for download.
After the voting stage, from 5 February the best will be available through the BBC THREE red button for further sofa voting AND then the highest rated THREE acts will perform in one of THREE bubbles on BBC THREE for eight hours.
Or at least I think it works something like that - the whole things looks like its going to take place in Millenium Square in Bristol - a pretty cool place to sit and chill - not something thats going to be happening much with that lot going on.
It won’t just be musicians singing their own crap songs though - the whole thing will be a ‘performance space’ where anything from Beat Boxers, to singers, to men in their underpants can happen.
Here’s one I like where a guy writes songs based on user submissions.
Its a great idea and a great experiment in user interaction BUT the best thing about it for me is that its a talent contest that DOES NOT involve Simon Cowell.
Sphere: Related ContentNew three no blobs
January 24, 2008
The BBC Three blobs are going, they’re being squashed, axed, dropped - whatever - they’re not going to be there from next month. I have to admit I’m going to be a little upset - they were one of the only current TV idents with any real character or humour.
Read more
Kailen-James Morrison
January 19, 2008
Well the baby I seem to have been never endingly (please excuse my use of non-words but I’m bloody tired) talking about lately has finally arrived.
Kailen-James Morrison was born on 18 January 2008 at 07:05 AM and weighed 8lb 15oz.
Mummy and Baby are both doing fine and are both back home with sister Oceana-Skye, brother Jaden-Taylor and Daddy.
This is so much cheaper than an advert in the paper and will actually reach the people I know and might have a passing interest.
(that last line means I can keep the post within the feel of the blogs output).
See more photos on Flickr >
My demolished house
January 17, 2008
I phoned TV Licencing yesterday to renew my TV licence. Basically I wanted to switch from a monthly to a quartely direct debit as I’m then paying for the licence as it comes up instead of in advance.
Anyway it took about ten minutes to get through and finally speak to a person instead of listening to a long list of options followed by god awful music.
I gave the guy my details (I didn’t have my current licence fee number but then who does) and after giving them to him the third time he said he would have to call me back.
Ten minutes later they call back and this time somebody else takes my details three times. He then eventually tells me he can’t renew my licence fee because I live in a house that’s been demolished!!!
This came as a bit of a shock given that I was standing inside it at the time. I did wonder what the draft was!
I finally managed to convince him it was very much still there and after giving my bank details, a mass of personal information and swearing I’m telling the truth, the whole truth so help me Zorg - he believed me and gave me a TV licence!
Which was nice.
Sphere: Related ContentMy new Shiny phone
January 17, 2008
As I live in Jersey I have two ways of getting an iPhone - buy one at full price on PAYG and get it cracked and in turn deal with not being able to update it or buy one on contract from O2 in the UK or Orange in France and deal with roaming costs.
I don’t want a cracked phone and I don’t want to pay roaming charges for every call I make or every time I use it to go online. So this means I have to wait.
It’s only a matter of time until one of the Jersey operators (Sure, Airtel, Jersey Telecom) is able to sign a co-op deal with either Orange or O2 and then I’ll be able to get one on contract here in Jersey.
But it will probably take the best part of a year for that to actually come about - by which time I’ll probably need a new iPod anyway.
So I decided, even though my contract was up and I could happily get a new mobile for free or at least very cheap on contract - to not bother renewing yet and hold out for the iPhone.
That all changed when my current phone - a Sony Ericsson W810i decided to go all phantom on me - basically every time I turn it on it randomly types the number 3. Yup my phone has a ghost inside it thats obsessed with the number three.
When I try to call someone all they hear on their end is an endless beeping where the phone is virtually pressing the third digit.
So I went into Sure and got myself a new mobile - I have a third child on the way and so don’t have the money to get a Blackberry or smart phone - this means I’m left with the ‘normal’ phones.
So after a little research and playing with every phone in the shop, and rejecting a bright pink Samsung - I settled on the LG Shine - it’s soo pretty and the display turns into a mirror when its left off for a while.
It’s not so much the mirror I like though - I don’t need to see what I look like! It’s the fact that it goes all silvery and shiny. Beautiful machine with a fairly simple menu system and scroll wheel thingy.
Took seconds to set up and now I have a new working phone. It has a pretty good camera too - now to test out its internet settings and use it to connect to Twitter, Facebook et al.
Until now all my phones have been Sony Ericsson’s but so far I’m pretty impressed with the shine. It may make me consider the Viewty instead of the iPhone when the contract is up for renewel next February.
Sphere: Related ContentWhen to reject on Facebook
January 17, 2008
I get a lot of requests, as I’m sure do many others, to go to events, invite friends or join groups on facebook and the groups are the ones where I sometimes have to think twice.
With my day job I write a wide range of articles on everything from surfboard bans to government reform and on to what you would call a cafe converted from a toilet.
Which also in turn covers the range seen on Facebook - most of the time I just accept the invite and forget about it - often I’ve accepted invites from groups on two sides of the same argument.
But as more people, especially those in power, start to join Facebook and set up groups - I’m having to ask whether, as a BBC Journalist, I should accept their friend request or join a ‘topical’ group.
One school of thought is to accept anyone and any request that gets sent - that way I’m not showing one or the other as a favourite - this also means I can still use Facebook as a good information and journalism resource - but stops me being able to use it properly as a ‘friends’ space.
The other thought is that I reject anything I don’t agree with personally and use Facebook as nothing more than my own personal space - after all It’s not a work tool.
Sphere: Related ContentiPlayer Downloads on a Mac?
January 17, 2008
BBC New Media head, Ashley Highfield, has hinted in a blog post that we may soon see iPlayer downloads made available on the AppleTV using their new rental model.
The post was a follow up to one he made asking users for tips on how to get content from his PC to the television - so he could watch downloads on the big screen. The follow up post was a response to comments on the original - but also included a small throwaway line in the middle.
He was talking about the AppleTV and its improvements and how this could be the idea solution for getting downloaded video content on to a TV without having to mess about with wires and software.
He then went on to say that “This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.”
Exciting stuff and as the rental model also works on Desktop and laptop machines - it could be a way for the BBC to offer iPlayer downloads for the Mac as well as Windows - I wonder whether this would be through a BBC iPlayer section of iTunes or whether the Beeb would be able to get permission to use Fairplay Rental on iPlayer files.
Sphere: Related Content
