If you’re thinking of getting Freesat, and haven’t got a satellite dish, here’s an interesting loophole.

With Freesat, if you don’t have a dish, it’ll cost you £130 to get Freesat working (£50 for a basic box, and £80 for installation).

Sky Digital are offering something called “Pay Once, Watch Forever“, which offers over 200 channels, for just £75 including installation and a Sky Digibox. You also get four months of Sky’s pay-TV channels as a trial.

So, here’s what you do:

Get “Sky’s Pay Once, Watch Forever” - dish and box for £75 (versus £130). Watch the 200+ free channels plus the Sky subscription channels for 3 months, then tell Sky that you don’t want to subscribe after the trial.

You can still use the Sky box for the free-to-air channels. If you fancy moving to Freesat (for their HD service), then you’ve already got a dish installed suitable for Freesat, and a spare satellite receiver. You can only apply if you’ve not had a Sky contract before.

Until end of May 2008: There’s 10% off “Pay Once, Watch Forever” at Dixons using code SKY10 at the checkout. Click here.

Here’s something that feels like an ideal candidate for our next podcast’s “And finally”… An electronic cigarette…

Available from I want one of those, this looks like a cigarette, tastes like a cigarette, smokes like a cigarette, but it isn’t a cigarette. Containing no tobacco, this has a tiny built-in battery that creates a vapour that looks like smoke, and the tip glows. It comes with a set of optional nicotine cartridges for those that need a nicotine hit from their fake cigarette.

Handy for beating the smoking ban, as an aid to giving up, or just to showcase some clever technology, this gives you the smoking experience without a flame, tobacco or carcinogens. From www.iwantoneofthose.com.

BT’s just released a new addition to their Total Broadband package… “BT Total Broadband Anywhere”.

For an extra £5 a month, you can get a BT ToGo - This is a Windows Mobile smartphone that switches between wi-fi and the mobile phone network to let you surf and handle emails on the move. Think ‘Blackberry’ and you’ll be on the right track. The ToGo has wi-fi, Bluetooth, is a PDA and comes with a 1.3Meg onboard camera.

More details at www.bt.com/btbroadband.

A new UK digital TV service has just launched - quietly. Freesat, offering 80 channels of digital telly and radio launched on 6th May 2008. We’ve got our hands on a rare receiver and put together a quick Audio Update. We’ll have a more complete look at Freesat in the next show, but here are our initial findings. Go to http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/freesat.html

 

 FrequencyCast Update - Freesat launch May 2008 [8:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Freesat, the BBC and ITV service, finally launched today, the 6th of May.

Freesat offers 80 channels TV and radio without subscription. To get the service, you’ll need a satellite dish and a special Freesat receiver.

Channel lineup offers few surprises. Many of the channels available on Freeview are present, including Channel 4, E4, More 4, ITV2, ITV3, BBC3, BBC News, CBBC and CiTV. Five, Fiver and Five US are missing from the lineup, but are apparently expected soon. Other channels include Film 4, True Movies, Movies4Men, Euronews, Men & Motors, Wedding TV, Chart Show TV and Al-Jazeera. You can find the full list here.

High Definition: Freesat is also offering HD content. At the moment, this is the BBC HD service, but this will soon be joined by the ITV’s new HD service. Irritatingly, ITV’s HD content won’t be available to Sky’s almost half-a-million HD customers, and Channel 4 HD won’t be available to Freesat customers.

The cost: To get Freesat, you need a dish pointing in the direction of the Sky Digital satellite (Astra / Eutelsat). If you don’t have a suitable dish, installation costs £80. As for boxes, there are two types at present - a Standard Definition box (from £49), and a High Definition box (from £120). A receiver with a built-in recorder (to rival Sky+) is reportedly due in July this year.

Launch “issues”: Today’s the official launch day, but no-one’s able to actually get a receiver. There are four authorised retailers selling boxes, but anyone looking for one today may be out of luck. After a ring-around, here’s what we found:

• Argos: Five boxes listed on their website, but all out of stock. Some branches appear to have stock, especially the Bush receivers, but they’re under instructions not to sell them. A call to Argos Customer Services (0870 600 3030) revealed that the Goodmans and Bush models weren’t being sold for “Quality Control reasons”, with one online forum reporting an issue with channel reception on the Bush model. Argos are only able to sell the Humax FoxSat - but no stock in London or the South East.
• Currys: No stock. Nothing on the Currys website. We checked in with a Central London store, and were told 4-6 weeks
• Comet: No stock. Calling Comet’s customer service line (08705 425425), we were told 7 days
• John Lewis: Nothing on their website. Rumours that the Humax receiver may be due “later today” in Oxford Street

Alternatives? Free-to-view satellite TV’s been around for a while. If you fancied Sky, but not their hefty monthly fees, they also offer Freesat from Sky with 200 channels for a one-off £150. Sky also had their Sky Pay Once, Watch Forever service - 200 free-to-view channels and free hardware for a one-off £75. Neither offer free HD though

We’ll be following Freesat with interest, and covering this in our next show - don’t miss out - sign up for show alerts.

Want Sky Digital, but don’t fancy shelling out on a subscription? We’ve found a 10% off offer on Sky’s Sky Pay Once, Watch Forever service, which gets you installation of a dish, with a set top box. Normal price is a one-off £75 - but get 10% off when using voucher code Use voucher code SKY10 at the dixons.co.uk checkout.

Valid until the end of May 2008

Show 26 of FrequencyCast, the UK’s TV and Tech podcast, is online now. Here’s what we cover:

• News Updates: Freeview HD, iPhone price cuts, FreeSat rumours, and the return of Blake’s 7.
• Focus - BBC iPlayer: Carl and Pete explore Auntie Beeb’s catch-up TV service, now available on PC, Mac, Wii and iPhone.
• Virgin Media: A closer look at TV and Internet services offered over cable.
• Eee PC: What’s all the fuss about? We explain why this pint-size PC is causing a stir.
• Your Questions: Surge Protectors, cassette dubbing, Top Up TV cards, cheap MS Office and VoD.

You can download Show 26 direct to your MP3 player, listen online or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast26.html. You can also get us via iTunes.

 

 FrequencyCast UK Show 26 [31:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A new way to get alerted to new shows - we now support Blog and Show alerts to users of Microsoft’s MSN Live Messenger. To get show and blog alerts to your Microsoft Messengers, click on the following icon:

The FrequencyCast podcast boys are divided on this one… Sky One’s announced that they’ve just given the go-ahead to a 21st Century remake of the 1970’s BBC TV classic, Blake’s Seven.

We’ve recently seen revivals of Battlestar Galactica and Knight Rider, and the cult sci-fi series with Blake, Avon, Cally, Jenna, Gan, Orac and Zen is set to make a return.

Sky’s approved creation of 2 x 1 hour scripts, working with B7 Productions, who recently re-imagined Blake’s 7 as the Blake’s 7 Audio Adventures, broadcast on BBC7 and now out on CD.

No idea when we can expect to see this on-screen… but at least 50%of the team here don;t think it can happen fast enough. Got any comments?

Happy St George’s Day from all at FrequencyCast, the UK TV and Tech podcast.

Think England’s National Day should be a public holiday? There’s a petition at www.bombardier.co.uk/bombardier/promotions/petition

We’ve found a handy code to get 10% off the Revo range of digital radios, which include the Uno, Pico and the fully-featured Revo Radiostation Blik, which combines DAB, DAB+ and Internet radio.

To get 10% off Revo Radios, use the code affrevo at the checkout at www.advancedmp3players.co.uk. Available while stocks last, we’re told…

BT Vision’s about to get some extra movie content - they’ve done a deal with Universal Studio’s Picturebox to get up to 28 movies a month, with titles such as The Bourne Ultimatum, Knocked Up, Atonement, The Kingdom and Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Picturebox is already available on Top Up TV Anytime and on Tiscali TV.

The service costs £5 a month, and goes live on 5th May. More on BT Vision

The Apple iPhone today sheds £100, with the 8Gig version dropping from £269 to £169. Tariff includes 600 minutes and 500 texts a month, plus unlimited data. Details at http://shop.o2.co.uk/iPhone or on the
Carphone Warehouse site

If you’re interested in the iPhone, check out our 30 minute audio review at frequencycast.co.uk/iphone.html

The beeb’s news channel BBC News 24 is set to re-brand as “BBC News” from Monday 21st April… let’s hope they don’t change our favourite piece of music - that 60 countdown at the top of the hour

FrequencyCast special! We’ve uncovered a half-price Setanta deal relating to the Calzaghe/Hopkins boxing match at the weekend - the offer runs until Friday the 18th April. You can subscribe to Setanta for three months half price (£5 per month for the next three months), if you quote offer code 1904 when you order online at www.setanta.com.

Offer ends at midnight on Friday 18th April.

We’ve just released one of our Audio Guides - this time, discussing the amazing Eee PC from Asus. This is a small sub-notebook that’s powered by Intel, supports wi-fi, has 3 USB ports, and best of all, costs a mere £190.

In this show, Carl and Pete get hands-on with the Asus Eee PC 701, run through the apps, and look at what the machine’s capable of.

For more on the Asus Eee PC, see our ASUS Eee PC page.

Update: We’ve found a 10% off voucher code, that can be used until 28th April 2008 - more here.

 

 Unofficial Guide to the ASUS Eee PC [17:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Here’s what the FrequencyCast boys will be up to this weekend…

The Nintendo Wii game we’ve been waiting for is out now. Suppled with a steering wheel that you slot your Wii controller into, Mario Kart Wii was released today. It’s available now from Play.com, GAME and HMV

The BBC’s 7-day catchup TV service, BBC iPlayer is now available on the Nintendo Wii. Last month, the iPlayer came to the Apple iPhone, and now it’s on a games console.

To get access to the last seven days of BBC TV shows on the Wii, go to the Wii’s web browser, and type in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer. If you don’t have the Opera web browser, you’ll need to get it from the Shopping channel.

Quality of BBC iPlayer playback isn’t great, and as you’re watching in a browser, it’s not full-screen, but it’s certainly both watchable, and clever!