Who are the real broadband conmen: the ISPs or the ASA?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

When you’ve dug yourself a hole, stop digging. Or if you’re the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), keep going until you hit the molten core of the Earth itself.

Regular PC Pro readers will know how the ASA has allowed ISPs to over-egg the speed of their broadband connections by permitting them to advertise fantasy “up to” speeds, which Ofcom’s research has proven time and again are pure fiction. Even Ofcom itself called for this insidious practice to stop over a year ago, since when the ASA has dithered with a year-long consultation on the use of “up to” speeds, but still hasn’t arrived at a conclusion.

Consequently, one ISP took matters into its own hands. Last year, Virgin Media launched its Stop The Broadband Con website, calling on ISPs to advertise typical rather than maximum speeds – very similar recommendations to those made by Ofcom itself.

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Android App of the Week: Sky+

Friday, September 10th, 2010

Sell phones and the apps will come. That’s the theory anyway, and it looks like it’s working pretty well for Android: Google’s open-source mobile OS is being activated on over 200,000 handsets every day – and that’s new phones, not upgraded firmware, Steve – and the market now boasts more than 100,000 apps.

Our latest App of the Week, and one of the newest additions to the store, comes courtesy of Sky and, with almost 3.5 million Sky+ subscribers in the UK, this free tool could prove very useful indeed. (more…)

3D TV: in the home, on a budget and… on the news?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

This is the final part in a series of blogs based on a seminar by Buzz Hays, chief instructor for the Sony 3D Technology Center in Culver City, California.

It’s the most important consideration when it comes to filming in 3D: what types of production does the technology really suit? The huge vistas of Avatar used the 3D effect better than any film we’ve seen so far, but can shots still look good when scaled down to less epic proportions? Buzz Hays believes it may be something far smaller scale than cinema that eventually shows what 3D can achieve.

Filming on a hand-held budget

If we move way down the scale from Avatar towards smaller productions, one technique crops up more and more. (more…)

Sky Mobile TV app brings live sport to the iPhone

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Spotify generated huge excitement when it launched with its offer of unlimited music for £10 a month, but this simply blows it out of the water. Sky has today launched a new Mobile TV app which offers live streaming of a selection of its most popular premium channels for a monthly fee, and you don’t even have to be a Sky TV subscriber at home.

The core Sky Mobile TV News and Sports app is available for free, and offers full listings for the core sports and news channels. But for the paltry sum of £6 a month, you can stream live coverage from those channels over a Wi-Fi connection. (more…)

Will Channel 4’s 3D experiment work?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

It’s the moment we’ve been waiting for all these years, the 3D spectacular to really kick-start the technology in homes across the UK. It’s eye-popping, it’s nail-biting, it’s heart-stopping, it’ll have you on the edge of your seat.

It’s… sorry about this… it’s… um… footage from 1953 of the Queen’s coronation year. In 3D.

Not exactly what I had in mind, but the news that Channel 4 is going to run a week of primetime 3D content this Autumn is just one more step along 3D’s road to the mainstream. The line-up also includes a Derren Brown special and a selection of 3D movies, and it’ll all be possible with your existing TV set – all you’ll need is a pair of special specs from Sainsbury’s.

Now, this worries me a bit. (more…)

Every sporting event in the world – for free

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

I’m currently sat in the office churning through a Labs, but concentration has never been my strongest point. I’ve just watched the Champions League group stage draw via BBC live text (surely this generation’s Teletext) and now I’m following Andy Murray’s progress in the third round of the US Open. He’s winning.

But it’s how I’m doing it that I love most:

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Is HD TV finally worth paying for?

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

I remember when we first started talking about HD. Back then it was this mythical beast that would tear apart video as we know it with its millions of pixels, and leave us all cursing standard definition for being as fuzzy and vague as Colin Jackson’s “expert” Olympic analysis.

Then it arrived and we loved it. The first time I ran a 1080p video on my 40in TV, my non-techie housemate grabbed the controller and kept replaying the same HD movie trailer for what seemed like an hour, so enamoured was he with the detail. Those of us with a PlayStation3 or Blu-ray player can enjoy the delights of HD by renting movies, but TV has been much slower out of the blocks.

Put simply, even a drum-beating HD lover like myself can admit the line-up of HD channels just hasn’t been worth paying for. Cable customers with Virgin’s V+ box can watch several free channels like BBC HD (and enjoy the excellent Olympic coverage, Jackson aside), but Sky HD is the big gun we all pinned our hopes on. And it’s expensive. Very expensive. (more…)

Anyone for Monopoly?

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

Watching the Cup Final on Saturday – first, for five excruciating minutes on BBC, then the rest on Sky – I had a bit of an argument with some friends. The beer may have contributed slightly, but I also felt strongly about the matter: that forcing the breakup of a monopoly is not always good for consumers.

The Premiership was the case in point, but the Cup Final gave me my ammunition: the BBC/Sky choice was just that – a choice, as both were doing their best to win over viewers to the same spectacle simultaneously.

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