Good news: TiVo is returning to the UK!

Not so good news (depending on where you live): It’s with Virgin Media

Probably the only company that could realistic bring TiVo back to the UK has done just that; Virgin Media and TiVo announced this week they will be working together to produce Virgin’s next generation HD boxes.  TiVo is providing the software to allow this, which will include Video-on-Demand and Broadband delivery of video too.  The TiVo functionality will be in both Virgin’s DVR and non-DVR boxes, which is all good news.

Given Virgin offer both their traditional Cable Modem service and ADSL, it’s not clear whether you’ll need to be within the 50% of the population covered by Cable TV, or whether it will be possible to get access to the TiVo features via an ADSL connection, but this is still very good news for those of us who have supported TiVo for many years.

Of course the other interesting situation is that Virgin already offer BBC iPlayer on their set top boxes, so assuming they don’t intend to remove that functionality, we may see the TiVo solution supporting BBC iPlayer (and even the other networks’ alternatives too, creating a very compelling solution, and one that can truly rival Sky).

This is the new Roberts ColourStream radio, which is yet to be formally announced or released by Roberts, but at least one website already has the item with specifications, so we can reproduce them here.

As well as being a DAB and FM radio, it features an iPod Dock (possibly only supporting the iPhone in offline mode), but also sporting a 3.5″ colour touch screen for many of the controls. In other respects, it seems to offer a similar feature set to that of the Roberts STREAM 83i (USB media playback, Internet radio).  It can make use of the BBC Listen Again function, has an AUX in socket, as well as Line OUT and Headphone sockets.

Until more details are released, it’s not clear if this unit will also play last.fm radio (as the Roberts STREAM 83i does), so we’ll update you when we get more information.

However, with a price of £400, I think many will prefer the styling of either the Revo IKON (see here) or the PURE Sensia (see here), and personally, we would head to the Revo IKON.

Also, we note that both this device and the Roberts STREAM 83i we covered last week (here) may not have DAB+ support (thanks to Paul Webster at his DABDig website for drawing our attention to this point), which may limit it’s usefulness in the future, should the UK ever decide to adopt this standard (other European countries are already rolling out DAB+, so lack of support may impact your ability to use either radio whilst travelling).

Specs courtesy of DNA Car Audio (via Paul’s DABDig website).

Having launched support for the Wii earlier this year (using the browser and Flash support), last week BBC went live with an improved iPlayer solution using their own embedded code and are now featured as their own channel within the Wii Menu.

To get the new menu, head to the Wii Shop, and you should find the new BBC iPlayer Channel available in the Wii Shop for 0 points (ie free).  However, you may find you need to apply a Wii System Update first (if this is needed, you’ll be notified as you enter the Wii Shop Channel).

Once it’s all downloaded, it runs smoothly, although as with the PC client, the streaming will be dependent on the bandwidth your broadband has; and the BBC have released some interesting figures about bandwidth requirements…

As the Wii cannot handle a very high frame rate, the Wii iPlayer client “only” needs around 700Kb/sec (using the H.264 codec), and the BBC have said that any higher resolution or data rate would cause the CPU to struggle and frames would be lost.  Although the Wii obviously can’t support HD, this does mean that HD content is not available, only SD.

The BBC also confirmed that the normal PC client uses roughly 1,500Kbit/sec for SD content, and around 3,200Kbit/sec for HD.  What do these figures mean; well, for people like us stuck out in the countryside on a 512Kbit/sec ADSL line, even the Wii iPlayer client will struggle from time to time, and needs to stop and buffer the data for a while, but it shouldn’t be as bad as the PC client.

There’s no download option (unlike the PC or mobile client) so it’s streaming only.

However, the nice feature of this improved Wii client is that it does give access to the BBC iPlayer content on your TV without needing a PC plugged into the TV, although there are some nice fanless options out there for those who do want to do this (including a device we hope to cover soon here on UK Gadgeteer).

Screenshot of iPlayer on the Wii courtesy of BBC.

O2 have today announced a collaboration between themselves and PURE Digital, bringing PURE’s The Lounge Internet Radio streams to the O2 Joggler, and at the same time, reduced the price down to £99.99.  The O2 Joggler, if you remember, is a proprietary device offering access to a limited set of applications providing access to certain facilities (Weather, Road Traffic, News, Sports, local photo display, and messaging).  In fact, back in the March launch, O2 talked about Messaging and Internet Radio following in May, although only the Messaging support got added (and in June); so finally, they have added the Internet Radio support originally promised!

By working with PURE Digital, they are providing a “selection of the most popular UK BBC and commercial radio stations” (around 100 stations in total) out of the 12,000 or so available via PURE directly, although there’s no word as to whether the O2 Joggler also supports the listen again facilities of The Lounge.

O2 have also announced that the device will be upgraded from Flash 8 to Flash 10, and have announced an SDK will shortly be available to allow developers to create 3rd party application for this device, which will then be accessible to users via a dedicated App Store, which should be available before the end of the year (although based on pretty much all the timeframes so far being missed with this device, don’t hold your breath!)

Initially, the O2 Joggler App Store will only support free applications, which is probably a good move; and any developers interested in developing for this device should look at some of the UK specific widgets developed for the Chumby platform to understand what might work for the UK.  As a hint, Flickr photo display, Live UK train departure / arrival information, and BBC support would all help the device, not to mention apps such as instant messaging and Social Networking support, plus last.fm and/or Spotify support would help make this device sell better, and compete against the PURE Sensia and it’s own application support.

Of course, whether O2 would authorise all those applications is another story, but as the device does not use their 3G network (only the local broadband connection), there is little reason to limit the device, and support like this could in time make it a firm favourite with O2 customers…

This is the Linutop 3, a small form factor PC running Linux.  Linutop promote these PCs for various usages; kiosks, digital signage, standalone usage, but we think these PCs also work well in a couple of other scenarios too; as fanless PCs, they can serve well in bedrooms, or in the lounge to act as a quiet PC for various internet tasks.

The Linutop 3 has a Via C7 1GHz processor (compared to the Geode 500MHz in the Linutop 2), and features 1GB DDR2 RAM (up from 512KB) and 2GB of Flash (up from 1GB).

In fact, we’ve had a Linutop 2 in for review for some while, and really accpreciate the additional effort Linutop has taken with the OS; as well as providing a customised Ubuntu install (based on Ubunto v8.04), it also features additional controls, such as locking the whole OS so nothing is preserved between boots (very useful for kiosk environments).  On top of that, Linutop update their OS image every few months, incorporating the latest software updates into the core Flash image, allowing valuable space that the software updates take up to be reclaimed.  You can also backup to a USB key, or boot and restore the device from a key (providing a nice easy upgrade path when they release the new OS images, although you do lose all data).

Within that OS image, Linutop include Firefox (with Flash support), OpenOffice, VLC Media Player, and even Pidgin Instant Messaging.

The Linutop 3 is larger than the Linutop 2 (9.3 x 9.3 x 2.2 inches, compared to 5.5 x 5.5 x 1.4), is a little heavier, and now draws 20 Watts instead of a more average 8 Watts from the Linutop 2.  This low power consumption makes these devices very good for leaving permanently on all the time, without the normal overhead of a full PC.  However, these devices will never compete on speed of tasks, so be prepared for a slightly slower experience.

In other areas, the Linutop 3 offers DVI support and a higher resolution that than the Linutop 2 (now 1920 x 1080), more USB ports, Gigabit Ethernet (up from Fast Ethernet), and an internal PCIe expansion option.

Our biggest issue with the Linutop 2 is the difficulty in getting BBC iPlayer working on the device, which would make it a lot more useful…

The Linutop 3 sells for €340, and the Linutop 2 is still available at €280 (both require an additional €28 for delivery) direct from the manufacturer here.  By the way, if you think the Linutop 2 is the same as other manufacturer’s devices in the same form factor (eg the Viglen unit), think again; the Linutop 2 is a higher spec device, both in terms of memory, flash and processor.

3UK have today released the Nokia N86 for sale, both online and in their stores.  As well as the super-wide angle Carl-Zeiss lens on the 8 megapixel camera, the phone offers a whole range of features, from SatNav (via Nokia Maps including a compass), to the vibrant OLED display (with a hard scratch-resistant glass front), a kickstand, 8GB of memory, TV-out, and an FM transmitter.  If you are an existing Nokia N95 or Nokia N95 8GB and are coming out of your existing contract, and want to continue with the same form factor, then this device is most likely the one for you!

On top of all of this, 3UK have ensured that their Skype, Email on 3 and Windows Live Messenger clients are available at launch too (they’ve also got Facebook support, but that’s just a link to m.facebook.com).  In fact, most of the apps aren’t pre-installed, but linked from the Favourites, to allow them to be installed.  However, the BBC iPlayer client will be included as well.

In terms of colour, 3UK have the Indigo Black version available now, and are planning to have the white version around January 2010 (which may imply another network has a 3 month exclusive on the white version).

If you are interested in the Nokia N86, head over to the 3Store to find out more about this phone.

It looks like later today BBC will formally release their iPlayer client for the Nokia N95 and Nokia E71 phones.  Although there have been tricks and hacks to get the iPlayer working on these phones, BBC are going to formally support them as from today.  If you head to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer from your N95 or E71 you will be able to download the iPlayer client for your phone.  However, it will only support downloading content via Wi-Fi, not via 3G.

Update: We’ve now had more information from the BBC (from here); although BBC programme downloads are available on the Nokia E71, they are not available on the Nokia N95 or Nokia N95 8GB due to a lack of DRM certificates pre-installed by Nokia. Also, the BBC have stated that 3UK and Vodafone are able to offer 3G access to the programmes, but at this stage, access is not available to the other UK networks .

Firstly, Nokia have announced the Nokia N97 will ship in the UK with the BBC iPlayer, similar to the Nokia N96.

More importantly, we’re hearing that the Nokia N97 may well be available on pre-order / pre-registration as early as tomorrow.  This will be on Vodafone, although it’s not yet clear whether they have any form of exclusive on the device.  Of course, a pre-order could still mean the phone is 6 weeks away, so don’t get your wallet out quite yet.

We will provide more details as we get them.

Last week ShoZu announced that it is now even easier to get your photos from your mobile into your Twitter feed. Although they have supported TwitPic for some while, ShoZu have been suffering from some technical problems with TwitPic, and hence are now offering the ability to work directly with Twitter.

All you need to do is to log into your account on the ShoZu website, and add Twitter as a destination.

Also, if you use ShoZu to send pictures to Facebook, there were some technical problems with that at the start of March then you’ll be glad to know that it was all fixed in a couple of days too.

If you haven’t tried ShoZu before, take pictures with your phone, and have a decent mobile data plan or easy access to Wi-Fi, you should look into it, if only as a method of backing up all your pictures online for safekeeping.

The list of supported sites is amazing, and to give you a flavour of some of the supported sites, their list includes: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, YouTube, blip.tv, Kodak Easyshare Gallery, Nokia Ovi, Photobox, Picasa Web Albums, plus many blogging sites such as Blogger, Vox, Moblog, LiveJournal, Typepad and WordPress.  On top of that, you can upload pictures to BBC News, Reuters, CNN, ITV, and if that’s not enough, you can even email the pictures to friends or upload to an ftp site of your choice!  ShoZu is available for many phones, with some even coming with it pre-installed.

Along with the other applications we mentioned last week, BBC iPlayer is now available for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which uses the new S60 5th edition Symbian OS.  Right now, it can only stream video from the BBC to the phone (unlike the Nokia N96 S60 3rd Edition iPlayer client, which stream or download for later viewing), and there are a few little other issues with it, which All About Symbian list in their article, but it’s a very good start.

The application should be available in the Download! section on the device itself for UK users only.

Story and picture courtesy of All About Symbian [Via nokiAAddict.com]

The BBC have announced this week that their iPlayer service now supports Mac and Linux, such that viewers can now download programmes.  The BBC have achieved this by working with Adobe to produce a solution in AIR, which is cross platform.  However, this is only available to BBC iPlayer Labs users in the short term, with it being rolled out to everyone during 2009.  Right now, there are also only a handful of shows that are supported by the new platform, although more will be coming in time, so although the BBC are happy for people to apply to the new beta service, they recommend you don’t uninstall the old version for a while.

Remember the Chumby we featured last year?  Well, the developers have kept working on the device, and it now supports Pandora Radio.  Even better, Chumby Industries believe in supporting their devices, and provide free firmware updates to allow new features to work on every device.  The addition of Pandora Radio helps to round off the device, adding to their previously supported iPod support (although they have not, and may not be able to support the iPhone or iPod Touch, due to the different way these products connect to computers), video support and general internet news and information resources.

Providing Pandora Radio adds internet radio support, although many users are still hoping that Chumby will be able to add last.fm support at some point in the future.

More information at Chumby.  As time goes on, more and more of these are finding their way to the UK, so there are now widgets for things like London Tube status, live departure information from most UK rail stations, BBC news / sports feeds, and don’t forget the UK Gadgeteer International Orders offer of a free power adaptor is still available.

Shortly after the formal launch, the BBC have upgraded the Symbian iPlayer client.  The new version supports accessing the content over 3G (although presumably still limited to UK 3G networks), and also supports the downloading of some shows for playing offline.  Head over to the BBC to download.

BBC iPlayer for Symbian phones is now live.  Although it was announced that the Nokia N96 would ship with the iPlayer client, the BBC has released the client here for any recent Symbian mobile phone which also encompasses the WRT (Web Runtime) client.  If your N95, N95 8Gb, or N85 is running the latest firmware, it should work for example.  The iPlayer client only works over a WiFi connection as opposed to a 3G connection at present.

It looks like Nokia and BBC have done a deal such that the N96 will come with a BBC iPlayer Symbian version built in. There’s a lot of discussion going on at the moment about whether or not it may be possible to get this client to work on other Symbian phones, although we’ll have to wait to see.  It looks like it will support downloaded programmes as well as streaming programmes.

Vodafone are providing their customers free access to the BBC’s Olympics coverage.  The access is mainly via the Vodafone Live! portal, although Nokia N95 8GB users can also download a BBC News “widget” to provide direct access to the content from the phone.

Story courtesy of Tech Digest.

ShoZu have been busy people. First of all, they’ve announced ShoZu for iPhone, which should be available in the next few weeks, in line with the updated Apple iPhone 2.0 firmware, and the Apple App Store. ShoZu allows you to take photos, and then ShoZu will organisee uploading those pictures to your selected sites in the background. A very popular Symbian S60 app, and now available for the iPhone, supporting the same range of sites. As well as the traditional upload facilities, there are now facilities for downloading pictures from your friends, reading and commenting on your and your friends’ photos / posts, interaction with Facebook, and geotagging your photos for you. It even supports a variety of “Citizen Journalism Sites”, such as the BBC website, Scoopt, CNN and ITV.com.

ShoZu supports many sites, and the other big news is that they have recently added support for Ovi, the new Nokia sharing site. Interestingly, two months ago they only support 29 site; now they support 46, and looking through the list the majority of picture based sites we could think of were included. Although they support Twitter, they need to expand their range of text based sites (such as Plazes and Jaiku that add location information to the messages) to complete their support and claim to be able to support the majority of Web 2.0 sites.

Some content thanks to Jonathan at atmaspheric | endeavours, and Darla Mack at her website.

BBC have announced that their iPlayer 2.0 interface is now in beta testing. This builds on the success of the current iPlayer website, but will offer a much more personalised web browsing experience, better radio and TV listings, and higher quality options.

According to this article on the BBC website, sales of smartphones will outstrip laptops in the next 12 to 18 months. With Symbian recently reporting that more than 200 million Symbian smartphones have been manufactured and shipped (the actual figure is at least 206 million), and Nokia predicting it will sell over 35 million GPS enabled handsets in the coming year, it’s all go for smartphones.  It will also be interesting to see how the other manufacturers react; there’s already strong indications the new 3G iPhone will ship with a built in GPS, or at least GPS support.

BBC Link via SMS Text News.

The BBC has signed a deal with Virgin Media to make the iPlayer available to their customers via their TVs. Little technical informatino is available, nor the exact launch date. The most information available from the BBC is that “Virgin Media customers will be able to see full-screen pictures without the need for downloading.”