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.

Sorry - This offer ended on Friday 23rd May. Go to www.virginmedia.com to see if there are any newer offers.

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

Phorm is a US company that has a commerical offering called Webwise. They’ve done deals with broadband providers BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk about collecting information about sites that consumers are viewing, and serve up adverts based on browsing habits, back to consumers.

Phorm claims that no personal information is extracted, and that this type of activity is the right side of the law, but privacy and data protection campaigners aren’t convinced, and neither is creator of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who wants ISPs to keep their hands off his data.

Many are now referring to this practice as “Data pimping” - your ISP selling your browsing history off to a third party for advertsing purposes.

An Online petition to Downing Street collected over 9,000 signatures in its first month from users concerned about their privacy - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/ . More on the Phormwatch blog

The seven-day catch-up service from the BBC will soon be available to Virgin Media customers, and we’ve heard that from March, you’ll be able to watch BBC catch-up TV on Apple iPhones and iTouch devices.

Another FrequencyCast has just rolled off the press - you can now download Show 19 of FrequencyCast, the UK’s online TV and Tech radio show. In Show 19, released on the 1st of October, here’s what Carl and Pete discuss:

• News Updates: - A busy month for Freeview viewers, Apple news, Tiscali TV expands, an HD and VoD update, cashback for your old mobile, and a lightsabre for your Wii
• On Demand TV: We look at the various services offering TV programmes and films without having to wait for the schedule - We look at Virgin Media, BT Vision, Tiscali TV and Sky.
• Energy Meters: We review the Efergy meter that keeps a check on how much electricity your home’s using - displaying your consumption in pounds and pence, plus your CO2 consumption. Scary stuff.
• New Media Player: We look at the iAudio D2 , a tiny gadget with touchscreen, DAB radio, FM, photos, recorder and MP3.
• Your questions: Archiving video cassettes, streaming media, sat nav on mobiles, controlling TV volume with BT Vision, and how to turn off unneeded gadgets.

You can download Show 19 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast19.html.
After you’ve listened to the show, please have a read through the show notes - for details of getting cash for your old mobile, 5% off the iAudio, and details of the energy saving products we focus on in this show. View show notes

 

 FrequencyCast Show 19: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

FrequencyCast show number 14 is now online. In this show, we feature:

• Help and advice on getting a better Freeview signal
• Hands-on with the new Nokia N95 GPS handset
• A look at the free TV offer from Virgin Media
• Prices drop on Mobile Internet, plus free SIM cards.
• News of some survey software to help you earn cash from your smartphone
• Freeview and Top Up TV news
• We answer the messages and calls from our site visitors, including questions on Sky HD, Twitter, Tiscali TV and Slingbox

You can listen to show 14 online, or download it to your MP3 player from www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast14.html

Share and enjoy!

 

 FrequencyCast Show 14 [32:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Confirmed - as of midnight on 1st March, the Sky channels, Sky One, Sky Two, Sky News, Sky Travel and Sky Sports News vanished from the Virgin Media Cable TV channel lineup.

This happened after Virgin Media failed to agree to Sky’s terms for ongoing broadcast of the Sky channels on Virgin’s Cable TV service.

There’s coverage of this Show 12 of FrequencyCast, which was released shortly after Virgin’s Sky channels went dark.

If you want to continue to watch Sky One, you’ll need to sign to Sky - See www.sky.com/skycom for details of their £26 a month package, which offers TV, Broadband and phone, with more channels than Virgin has to offer…