FrequencyCast UK - Show 74
The show notes to go with Show 74 of our technology radio show.
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Listen to, or download, FrequencyCast Show 74 (31 mins)
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Show 74 NEWS
Here's a look at the news stories covered in Show 74:
itvDigital and News Corp: Nearly ten years after the demise of ITV Digital, formerly onDigital, BBC's Panorama exposed that News Corporation-owned NDS was allegedly involved in hacking the video encryption and distributing pirated code that brought down Sky's rival itvDigital. Rupert Murdock has hit out at the alleged "Libel and Lies", but the Beeb is standing by its evidence. More: NDS accused of itvDigital hacking
- Sky Anytime+ Roll-out: In March 2012, the Sky Anytime+ video- on-demand service to more customers - previously you had to have Sky Broadband, but now the service can be used with any Broadband provider. To get the service, use an Ethernet lead to connect the box to your router - just watch your download limits!
- London Switchover: The Digital Switchover hits London in April, with the 18th of April being the end of analogue from the historic Crystal Palace site. The famous tower will be illuminated in a spectacular light show to mark London's Digital Switch on the 18th of April.
- Raspberry Pi: Those waiting for their Raspberry Pis, the cheap computer boards we mentioned in the last show, note that there are now 2,000 in the country, but with the need for these to undergo compliance testing, your 'berry may take a while longer. Ours is due in mid-May, apparently.
- All change for Blackberry: RIM, the makers of the Blackberry, has posted poor results for the last quarter, and has announced that it will re-focus efforts on the enterprise market, as the consumer smartphone market is too competitive. Delays to the Blackberry 10 and poor sales of the Playbook tablet haven't helped.
- iPad 3 Sales: The iPad 3 sold 3 million in the first weekend, three times as many as the iPad 2's launch. Users of Apple's new tablet are reporting it's hot... hot enough to make it an uncomfy hold. Apple say there's no problem, and the heat is "within specifications"... apparently.
BT Vision and UKTV: Good news for BT Vision customers - UKTV has signed a 3 year deal to bring content from some of its channels, but more importantly, to offer a stream of Watch, Gold and Alibi later this year
- Freeview Renumber: It looks like we could be in for a major renumbering of the Freeview channels later this year, to get all of the channels in nice number blocks, which includes moving some of the adult channels away from the kids TV number range. For the 130 page PDF file mentioned in the show, go here: DMOL Consultation.
- Friends Reunited: Remember them? It's relaunched as a digital scrapbook with integration to Facebook, allowing you to looking back in time and "remember when". The site has created over 24 million family boxes for your digital memories. More at www.friendsreunited.co.uk
And finally: There are 20 million angry birds up in space. The all-new Angry birds smartphone game clocked up 20 million downloads in the first week of release in March.
The game's made all the more tricky with the addition of variable gravity... Angry Birds in Space - iTunes
FOCUS: Ideal Home Show 2012
FrequencyCast was at the Ideal Home Show 2012 in London's Earls Court. In this show, we talk to some of the exhibitors who's innovate products caught our eye:
British Gas Smart Meter
We spoke to one of the team from the British Gas Smart Homes team to find out about their plans to roll out intelligent smart meters between now and 2019. The Smart Energy Monitor shows both Gas and Electricity usage information, and can also link up to a home security system, and be controlled from a smartphone. Also, no more meter readers!
See our British Gas Smart Meter feature for the full interview and more details.
Boombox Speaker
Turn just about any surface or contained into a powerful speaker. In the show, we use a pizza box, biscuit tin and polystyrene crate as a super-loud speaker. See our Boombox Speaker Review for more details.
We can't find a site for Boombox, but the product is available from Menkind for £15
Suzi Perry Interview
Pete caught up with Suzi Perry at this year's Ideal Home Show in London. In this show, we use a short extract, but a longer version is available as "bonus material"
Pete asks Suzi about her ideal 'home of the future', finds out what she thinks of the new iPad, and gets the answers to some listener questions. We also find out what Suzi's plans are, now that she's no longer part of Channel 5's Gadget Show.
Listen to, or download our Suzi Perry interview here:
Sanyo Zero Gravity Massage Chair
Sarah sat in a rather serious-looking massage chair.. and loved it. More details: Sanyo Massage Chair
Bicygnals Angel Helmet
A cycle helmet with an all-round light pipe - the Angel, from Bicygnals. More details, and our interview with Robert from Bicygnals can be found here: Bicygnals Angel Review.
Bicygnals Angel Helmet: Available from Amazon, Maplin and Firebox
PowerPack Sales Chargers
Pete met up with Jeff from PowerPack Sales, who demonstrated two excellent and innovative solutions for powering smartphones on the move, the PowerPack Case and the Solar PowerStore. For more, visit powerpacksales.com, or see our Power Pack Sales Product Review
PowerPack Sales - iPhone 4 Power Pack
PowerPack Sales - Solar Powerstore
Zombies, Run!
In this show, we looked at this immersive running application, with a hint of Zombie terror!
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The Zombies, Run! Fitness App is available from Apple iTunes Store and the Android Market in Spring 2012 |
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Get a Free audiobook on us!
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Out and About on the LV18
Pete spent a great day playing with ham radio on the LV18 Light Vessel. For our full-length interview with Tony O'Neil, see our LV18 Light Vessel page.
Products featured in this section: a SLAB (Sealed Lead Acid Battery), iPhone 4 power case from PowerPack Sales, a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle,and a Flexicam from Maplin
Cast 74: Interactive
Thanks to everyone who got in touch. In this show, we respond to the following mails and calls:
Evi App:
Barry asks "I cannot find the link to the EVE app for iphone as mentioned in show 73. Can you point me in the right direction?"
The app, a Siri-like voice assistant, is called "Evi" - Available for Android users (Evi on Marketplace), or for Apple devices (Evi on iTunes).
Catch-up on Humax:
James Bates asks: "I have a Humax Freesat box. It only has the BBC iPlayer and ITV Player, and some online movie player on it at the moment. Are there any plans for channel 4 and channel 5 and others to put their players on the Freesat box? It seems a bit spartan compared to the BT vision box.
We did some checking around and found a Freesat announcement that 4oD and Demand 5 would be "coming soon", but that was nearly a year ago. As an alternative, you could consider getting an Apple TV box for £100 which will add iTunes, Netflix and Youtube.
Do we need a 4G network?
Roger Rowe sent us a link to a story in the Guardian about new 4G network. Given wi-fi is cheap and accessible, do we need an expensive 4G network?
Roger says that as free wi-fi is available in his area, playing £10 a month for mobile data is unnecessary, and research shows that only 19% of smartphone data goes over the mobile network. So, do we need to invest billions, and mess with Freeview, just to get mobile data? Have a read, and let us know!
LoveFilm in the US?
David Hanagan asks: "Even though I am in America, I love your podcasts and listen to them all the time. You have talked about Netflix and lovefilm in show 72. Is Lovefilm exclusively in the UK? I had Netflix until they raised the price of a DVD plus streaming plan from $10 to $16"
Sadly, although LoveFilm is owned by Amazon, it's available in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia only.
IP Webcams Discussed:
We heard from Mick Cole, talking about IP cameras Indeed. He says "I have been using ip cameras at home for about two years. The fun part I had was being able to view them over the Internet. To do this the ports the cameras use need to be forwarded." We did a feature on how to do that in our Unofficial Home Hub Guide a while back. Mick says that the next problem he had was with dynamic ip addresses. "Your ip address will change if your router reconnects to the Internet. To get over this I use a forwarding service dynDNS. com".
Yes - the joys of home firewalls and IP addresses. Anyone interested in us writing a decent "how to"? Let us know.
Staying with Internet camera, we also heard from Mark Webb, with the following:
"You asked about internet cameras with a view to a future feature and this is something I do have some experience of. I am away from home a good deal and so over the years have used a variety of wireless IP cameras to keep an eye on things when away. My system now comprises two D-Link DCS-932L's, a DLink 930L, a Linksys WVC54GCA, and a Foscam FI8918W. I have been particularly impressed by the DLink range due to their low price, ease of configuration, strong security features and good image quality. When looking for a security camera you will need one with a built in motion sensor alarm and infra red illumination for night time use together with the ability to upload images or video when an alarm is set off.
The DLink cameras when triggered will upload a 5 second sequence of still pictures including two from the second before the alarm was set off. When alerted they simultaneously email me the picture set and upload it by ftp to my Photobucket account online. The Foscam camera will also do this but I have found they are difficult to set up with many email and ftp servers and are generally buggy. However they do have the ability to pan from left to right and up down due to the built in motor and this can be controlled remotely. All the cameras, Foscam, Linksys and DLink will transmit sound so you can also listen to what is going on back home.
For additional security I also use the LightwaveRF remote control system that you featured on your show to allow me to remotely turn the cameras off and on should they go offline. All the cameras I use can be found on Amazon or elsewhere for between £50 and £75."
Thanks Mark!
Mega-fast Broadband:
In our last show, we asked to hear from listeners getting fast broadband - Top results go to Sungmin for reporting that in South Korea, each road has free wifi with average speeds of 70Mbps, and to Sean Yem for telling us he's getting 120Mb on the Wirral near Liverpool. Also Mel Kenyon got in touch to say that www.b4rn.org.uk is a community based broadband project in North Lancashire that is just about to start laying fibre to the home and will connect at 1Gb. Wow!
You can leave us a voicemail by calling 020 8133 4567, or sending us a message. We'd love to hear from a few more of you, so please get in touch and say "hi" - our shows are driven by your feedback - So talk to us!
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