The Lobster 700TV, the TV and DAB radio phone reviewed in Show 07 is to be discontinued.

According to reports in The Register, Virgin has discontinued the DAB TV phone following service provider BT Movio’s decision to scrap the mobile TV service.

The Lobster became available in October 2006, and the mobile TV service is reportedly to set to end in January 2008.

Always on the cutting edge, we now have a Facebook Group - if you’re on Facebook, please sign up to our book at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3852730290

Prices for the BT Vision Sports service, due to start in August 2007, have been announced. Here’s what we know…

For the 2007/08 football season, there’ll be 46 live Barclays Premier League games carried on BT Vision. There’ll also be access to 242 same-day Premier League matches, which will be available hours after kick-off (from 10pm). In addition, there will be 60 live Clydesdale Bank Premier League games, 125 games from the Football League and Carling Cup, live US PGA Tour golf and access to BT Vision’s library of classic sport.

There are four pricing options, as follows:

BT Vision Standard Sports (£4 a month): 242 Premier League games shown a few hours after kick off (from 10pm). 125 matches from the Coca-Cola Football League and Carling Cup. Plus access to a library of classic sport

Setanta Sports (£9.99 a month): Setanta Sports. Including 46 live Premier League games and live US PGA Tour golf

Total Sports (£12 a month): Both Standard and Setanta packages

Pay Per View: You can watch individual Premier League games for £1.99 per game

With BT Vision Sport, there’s no annual subscription fee. Pay on-demand per game, or subscribe on a monthly basis.

BT Vision combines Freeview with TV, movies and sport on your TV via a BT Broadband connection and a BT Home Hub.

The BT Vision set-top box is currently free, as long as you’re a BT Total Broadband subscriber

More details at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/btvision.html

Want 200 TV channels without a subscription? Sky has launched Sky Pay Once.

Available exclusively from Dixons online, this costs £75 and includes the box and installation.

Channel 4 are to launch 10 national radio digital radio stations.

Ofcom today granted the licence, and plans are for this new network to go live by July 2008. It’s expected that Disney, Sky and Chrysalis will be operating stations on this new network.

Between now and 2012, the UK has to “go digital”. The extra choice is great, and more and more people are switching. But is it all good news? Are you happy with the switch-off of analogue telly? Should we wait till we’re ready, or plough ahead?

We have a new pages of notes at www.frequencycast.co.uk/analogueswitchoff.html

We’re also asking for your votes via this page… as well as your comments here on our blog - for possible inclusion in a future show…

If you’ve got any interest in putting together your own podcast, the FrequencyCast podcast team has taken a look at a new kit, the podcastudio, that makes podcasting easy. The kit contains a mixer, microphone, headphones, software and a USB interface to your PC or Mac
Take a look at our review at
www.frequencycast.co.uk/podcastudio.html - we also have a brief audio overview you can listen to.

Another over-the-air patch for the Top Up TV Anytime box has just been rolled out. This adds Subtitles, has some user interface improvements, and also has some stability fixes.

v2.81 is being pushed over-the-air from 4th July

It’s the first of July… and FrequencyCast show number 16 has been released today. In this show, here’s what Carl and Pete explore:

• Focus on Sky Digital: In this show’s Focus section, we take a look at satellite TV in the UK, including Sky+ and Sky HD.
• News: Including details of a new Virgin channel coming to Freeview, changes to Sky, and we’ve found a PC DAB and Internet radio on special offer.
• New product: A portable radio station in your pocket.
• Questions: We hear from you, with questions about BT Vision on a PC, Sky surround sound, Home Hub connectivity, Internet radio updates, Slingbox and broadband speed issues.

You can listen to show 16 online, or download it to your MP3 player from http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast16.html

FrequencyCast Offer: Fancy 5,000 free Nectar Points, for a few minutes of your time? See http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/support.html

Carl, Pete and the FrequencyCast team

 

 FrequencyCast Show 16 [25:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download