The BBC iPlayer is moving on to the Wii. It looks like it will also soon be available on the Sony PS3 due to an upgrade to its web browser. However, it may take some time longer to appear on the Xbox.
Posts Tagged ‘Tech’
BBC iPlayer on Wii
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Apple TV DVR
Friday, March 14th, 2008
Apple have registered patents that indicate it may produce a DVR based on Apple TV. The current Apple TV comes with either a 40GB or 160GB hard drive but has not TV tuner to allow it to function as a DVR. The addition of a TV tuner seems like an obvious step as currently the one thing the Apple TV doesn’t do is actually broadcast TV!
Death of HD-DVD: Blu-Ray is King!
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Toshiba have announced they are stopping production of HD-DVD and therefore effectively killing off HD-DVD. Blu-Ray had been gaining ground ever since Warner Bros decided to throw it’s support behind the format in a switch of allegience.
Campared to the format war in the 1980s between VHS and Betamax it can be argued that Sony learnt it’s lesson, as this time the more expensive, but technolgically superior and Sony backed format won out.
As the de facto industry standard, Blu-Ray can expect a big uplift in sales now uncertainty over it’s future has been removed, and assuming the price of players continues to fall. HD-DVD was almost half the price of Blu-Ray, with the cheapest Sony device being a PS3 at around £300.
The HD-DVD will be a museum piece as soon as March 2008. Maybe a good time to get a player on eBay and start buying up only discs as people switch if you want a (short sighted) cheap route in to HDTV.
16GB iPhone & 32GB iPod Touch
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008Engadget are reporting the launch of the 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod Touch today. Both will sell for $499 in the USA. Price expected to be £329 for the iPhone in the UK based on report at The Register.
freesat – Spring 2008
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
The launch of freesat by the BBC and ITV is only months away. A new website has basic information but no real substance yet. There is no news on the hardware models or pricing or an actual launch date.
Eye-fi wireless photo transfer
Monday, January 14th, 2008
Not since Sony played with bluetooth in the Cybershot DSC-FX77 back in 2003 has anyone done anything much about digital camera wireless connectivity. The Eye-Fi is an SD card with built in Wi-Fi chipset that allows any SD compatable camera to become a Wi-Fi camera.
Once the Eye-Fi card detects the home Wi-Fi network it has been confidured for, it automatically copes the images to a host PC on the network or uploads them directly to a number of web services. These include Facebook, Gallery and Flickr plus sites offering to print out digital images like Snapfish, Sharpcast and Shutterfly.
Wii – Internet Channel
Friday, January 4th, 2008The Wii internet channel gives a great low resolution way to view internet sites on a TV screen. Although this may seem like a waste on an HDTV set, in reality the image is too small at normal viewing distances when in hi-res.
Entering text with a Wii Remote and the on screen keyboard will become tiresome however, and a keyboard would be required for any serious typing. Still it is fine for the odd blog posting.
Barcode Browsing
Thursday, December 20th, 2007LED light of the future
Monday, December 10th, 2007LEDs as the headline says, have a bright future. According to a piece on the BBC News site, LED technology at 40% efficency could be an environmental winner. The use of LEDs to make UV could also allow water purification in the third world cheap and renewable (by powering from a solar cell).
Bump Up Google Maps
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
Google Maps has been “bumped up” with the addition of terrain shading. The upgrade only works at low zoom levels but makes the maps look much better in hilly areas.
Google Mobile Maps version 2 has added a local cell ID feature (dubed My Location) to help locate you without GPS. It works quickly on an N95 and can be augmented by the GPS to provide better data for those without GPS.