Cheap Virgin anyone?
Virgin Media’s running a five day only special customer offer - Virgin TV, phone with free evening and weekend calls and superfast broadband - all for £20 for the first 6 months.

No BT line required. Only till midnight Tuesday 20th May, at allyours.virginmedia.com

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

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