Boxes move to mobile BBC
March 11, 2008
It seems like only yesterday I was writing about the new look BBC Homepage - an article that seems to have spread around the web due to it housing one of the first screenshots of the new look front.
Sphere: Related ContentNext Generation Browsers
March 10, 2008
I’ve been using the Internet for a fairly long time now, so long in fact - I remember awaiting the release of IE4 and then deciding that Netscape Navigator was still miles better.
Sphere: Related ContentChanging my avatar
February 17, 2008
Right now I have a Simpsonized picture of myself as my My Blog Log avatar - this basically appears on the homepage of any blog that uses MyBlogLog and that I visit.
Sphere: Related ContentOff the net for bad behaviour
February 13, 2008
This photo CC by LeeLeFever
When I was younger, so much younger than today my parents would block my internet access (by taking away the power chord usually) if I’d been particularly naughty. This was back in 1996/97 before the days of My Space and Bebo.
Sphere: Related ContentMobile Co-operation?
February 12, 2008
If you go down to the woods today - beware of a big surprise - because today’s the day the mobile companies have their cake and eat it (OK that didn’t work as well as I hoped it would).
Sphere: Related ContentTime to get Mashed
February 8, 2008
The BBC’s Matthew Cashmore and Yahoo’s Chad Dickerson on stage at Hack Day 2007 - probably telling everyone to get outside as it’s started to rain indoors!
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Torchwood embed
January 16, 2008
I wrote a post a few days ago looking at a few of the BBC sites that are switching to Flash Video and allow embed - all I could find at that time was music related embed.
Torchwood has flash video but didn’t allow you to embed the clips on another site. Well now they do. Once you accept the terms and conditions it lets you embed video from the vast majority of clips - the exception seems to be the ones where there are other copyright issues.
Although embedding isn’t as clever as the way it works with You Tube - it takes you to another page with a textarea box and a load of code - including div tags and all - not nearly as easy to use but a great leap forward for the BBC.
The clip above is a general Torchwood trailer and this one is a preview of the series ahead.
NOTE: I had to remove the second < /div > tag to get the embed to work without messing up my blog page.
All the clips on bbc.co.uk/torchwood have social links (del.icio.us, digg etal), e-mail links and a link to watch the Real/Windows Media version of the same clip.
I imagine the site will also include the iPlayer stream of each episode as it airs as well - the Doctor Who version did so I don’t see why this shouldn’t.
The embed code they give you is still a little ropey - the video could be a little smaller, or at the very least the border around the edge could be a little bit smaller.
As for the first episode - Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang - it was top SciFi - it was an example of taking humour, dark elements and an improving show concept, mixing it all together and coming up with something pretty special.
I really enjoyed it and thought it was a LOT better than series one (I have all of series one on DVD and enjoyed it a lot) and is set to continue to improve throughout the next twelve episodes.
There’s some really good stuff on TV right now.
Sphere: Related ContentMy Media Tips for 2008
January 1, 2008
Happy New Year to everyone, it’s 2008 - I’m not sure what happened to 2007 to be honest as it all went by so quickly - but here’s hoping for a slightly slower year this time.
For me 2008 is personally going to be a year of nappies, sick and screaming - and that’s just the weekends - our new baby is due on 11 January although looking at my wife it will probably arrive any time in the next few days.
For everyone else, especially in media terms, I think 2008 is going to be the Time-Shift year. I know people having been time-shifting for ages but this is the year it will get a LOT easier.
The BBC iPlayer has launched as a streaming service - complete with heavy promotion and people seem to be finding it fairly easy to use - ITV will probably heavily advertise ITV.com now as well and I’m hoping Channel 4 will drop the application and offer streamed shows through their website.
iPlayer will also be launching through Cable and IPTV companies this year - BT and Virgin will be offering iPlayer shows over the air which will bring it to the attention of even more people.
We’re probably going to find out more about Kangaroo - the commercial version of iPlayer, ITV.com and 4OD combined. And I’ll carry on using SKY+ to avoid adverts.
But this will probably also be a year of more creative forms of advertising - as more people time-shift the pressure will be put on OfCom to allow commercial broadcasters to advertise in other ways - such as in vision adverts, product placements and fewer adverts shown more frequently during a show.
I also think we’ll see podcasts grow in popularity, especially video podcasts with the increasing popularity of the iPod Nano (video).
The BBC Trust will probably allow the BBC to publish video podcasts which will probably take the form of cut-down versions of TV shows they own the full rights to (Top Gear, Newsnight etc).
This will then prompt the commercial to up their game and start offering more video podcasts of their shows - maybe with embedded adverts to cover costs and make money.
I also think we’ll see a lot of fuss made over home grown children’s television in 2008 - money will be made available to the commercial operators to produce children’s television here in the UK and to develop British ideas.
There will also be talk, off the back of Australia planning to filter ‘unsavoury’ websites at ISP level, of the UK doing the same thing and of regulation of the internet as major UK broadcasters use it more.
I’ll publish more ideas for the new year as I think of them. Until then - Happy 2008.
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