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October 31, 2009
by Jan Harris
Spain-based Telefonica SA has expanded its global customer base to over 260 million, compared with 242.2 million at the end of June.
Telefonica is Spain's largest telecommunications company by market value and customers.
It is about to embark on a rebranding campaign and is seeking an advertising agency to run the campaign across key markets.
The company’s roster networks and its non-roster shops ...
October 30, 2009
by Janet Harris
Samsung has reclaimed the thinnest LCD TV title with its ‘Needle Slim’ model which is based on LED technology and measures just 3.9mm thick, although it is still a prototype at the moment.
The Full HD model is 2mm thinner than LG’s previous title holder, yet still offers a 5000:1 ...
by Janet Harris
Project Canvas is expected to be a serious rival to existing IPTV, cable and satellite by 2014, according to Screen Digest.
With the platform set to offer free broadband content alongside broadcast content, on digital TV, it isn’t surprising that it is expected to be a big hit with consumers.
Screen Digest forecasts that Canvas could be in 3.5 million homes by ...
by Darren Allan
The Golden Joystick awards, the video game accolades voted for by the gaming public, have crowned post-apocalyptic shooter/rpg Fallout 3 as the ultimate game of the year.
The level of voting was impressively high, with well over a million gamers making their opinions known.
Call of Duty did very well too, picking up Nintendo game of the year and best ...
by Darren Allan
So what's the latest crazy happening on Twitter? The “tweance”, or séance via Twitter, with users lining up to fire questions over to the other side.
Angel Fancy Dress (a fancy dress shop) organised the first ever tweance today, with a psychic contacting Michael Jackson amongst other dead celebrities.
Jackson answered various questions, such as: Did we ever see the ...
by Darren Allan
Sky is offering HD customers a chance to host a party for friends, featuring a free showing of a High Definition film, plus bonus nibbles.
The party weekend is December 11th to 13th, and you can choose to watch one of three films: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Angels & Demons or The Hangover.
The nibbles come in the ...
by Darren Allan
Sony has admitted that PlayStation Home, its social gaming network, isn't a priority for the company.
According to a report in Edge, Director of PS Home Pete Edwards said that it was financially viable, but not something the company was currently concentrating on.
“It’s been a long road,” Edwards commented at the London Games Conference. “We've proved there is a ...
by Darren Allan
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has sanctioned a move to introduce non-latin characters to domain names.
This means the worldwide web is going properly global, with countries able to have addresses in their native script, whether that's Chinese or Greek.
Non-latin characters can already be used in a web address save for the final section, which ...
by David Allen
The cable TV, broadband and phone provider, Virgin Media, is reporting that around sixty per cent of its customers are now on a triple play bundle.
The company is upgrading its customers to the up-to-10 Mbps broadband service, and reports that around seventy two per cent are now able get a broadband connection speed of 10 Mbps, and in ...
by David Allen
With some internet service providers gaining new customers there has to be an ISP that is losing out, and it looks like Orange UK is one such firm.
The number of customers using the Orange UK service has fallen to 899,000.
At the same time last year the Orange UK's customer base stood at 1.023 million, which is a ...
by David Allen
It seems that once again an advert run by Sky Broadband has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), and once again the advert has been banned.
The adverts in question cover satellite TV, broadband and phone bundles.
According to the ASA, some of the claims made by Sky could be misleading and therefore the ads cannot be ...
by David Allen
To many kids around the world tomorrow is Halloween and it is a licence to go around terrorising the neighbours.
However, for the grown-ups, Halloween this year could mean going out into the big world and killing a few zombies.
The 31st October has officially been declared “Kill a Zombie Day”
This is a marketing initiative being set ...
by David Allen
The search giant Google is getting into the online music business with the launch of its OneBox service.
The music search business helps users find and buy music online and in order to provide this service Google has partnered with some of the industry's finest such as Lala, iLike, Pandora, Imeem and Rhapsody, to provide a free steaming service.
Users ...
by David Allen
The internet service provider Aquiss is offering new customers, whether they are small businesses or home customers, the opportunity to have their first two months of broadband completely free of charge.
The broadband provider is offering this service to any customer that signs up for the Premier Option 1 or Option 2 broadband packages.
This must be done ...
by David Allen
It is well known that Ofcom is looking into the apparent stranglehold that satellite provider BSkyB has over the UK’s pay TV market.
In order to put its case forward BSkyB has presented a 277 page document to the regulator, complete with additional information provided by industry experts, on what it sees as remedies for the current situation and ...
by David Allen
The Germany-based pay TV service, Sky Deutschland, is planning to add additional high definition channels to its service over the next year.
Currently the satellite broadcaster is showing Discovery HD, History HD, National Geographic HD, Sky Cinema HD, Disney Cinemagic HD, Sky Sport HD and Eurosport HD.
It plans to launch a further four HD channels during 2010, following a ...
by David Allen
The Cortex A9 MPCore processor and the Mali 400 Graphics Processor made by ARM will be used in the production of STMicroelectronics' next generation of set top boxes and digital TV system-on-chip ICs.
ARM already provides STMicroelectronics with processor technology, but the difference with this latest deal is that the equipment is capable of processing high bandwidth broadband and ...
October 29, 2009
by Darren Allan
The Internet celebrates the 40th anniversary of its birth today, or at least the predecessor of the net which was known as Arpanet.
On October 29th 1969, the very first message was sent from one computer to another several hundred miles away via the Pentagon funded Arpanet.
And that very first message was “lo”. Not short for “hello”, rather the ...
by Jan Harris
Chip designer ARM has released its first multicore processor for mobiles, the ARM Cortex-A5 MPCore.
The company expects smartphones to be running on multicore processors by October 2010.
The ARM Cortex-A5 gamma offers a range of CPUs, from one to 4-cores, all of which will offer better performance and power-efficiency than the ARM11.
It is fully application compatible with the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 ...
by Janet Harris
VidZapper, TV Everywhere’s enterprise video platform, has been updated with a more powerful API.
The upgrade follows the recent launch of new channels on the platform, including Moviebeat.tv which features celebrity interviews, movie trailers and exclusive red carpet premier coverage.
TV Everywhere CEO, Iolo Jones said: “We’re seeing more and more live events featured on the platform, and many more varied channels, ...
by Darren Allan
TalkTalk has taken a further step in its ongoing campaign against Mandelson's file sharing crackdown with a statement of resistance on its blog page.
The ISP said it was “dismayed” at the government pushing ahead with its three-strikes-and-you're-out policy, which will see persistent illegal downloaders disconnected from the net.
The problem that TalkTalk (and many other campaigners) have is the ...
by David Allen
It was meant to be the sale of century down at Virgin Media, but it appears that the sale of its fifty per cent stake in UKTV is about to be put on hold for the time being.
Back in April, Virgin Media opened up its doors for bids on its share of the digital TV channels under the ...
by David Allen
A recent study by the comparison site Broadband Genie, found that consumers are realising that some of the laptop and mobile broadband deals around do not, in fact, offer good value for money.
The free laptop or netbook deals have been around for a few years now and many consumers have signed up, thinking that getting a free computer ...
by David Allen
A new study, conducted by VistitBritain and BT Mobile Broadband, reveals the holiday surfing habits of UK broadband users.
One thing that has come to light will not go down well with all of the romantics out there, for it seems that almost two thirds of Brits would rather be online than spending a passionate evening with their ...
by David Allen
The digital switchover continues its relentless move around the country and it is Wales that currently has the pleasure of waiting for the analogue signal to be switched off and for digital TV to brighten up its residents' lives.
Currently the signals in Denbighshire and Flintshire are in the process of being switch off, with BBC2 already gone.
There ...
by Darren Allan
Over in the US, Motorola has launched its Droid handset which will carry Android 2.0.
The Droid features a 3.7 inch display, sliding Qwerty keyboard, 5 megapixel camera, 16GB of memory plus wi-fi and 3G. As it runs Android 2.0, the phone will be able to utilise Google's free sat-nav service, Google Maps Navigation.
But most importantly, the smartphone's ...
by David Allen
The internet-based TV platform Canvas, which is being developed by terrestrial TV companies based in the UK, could reach around 3.5 million households by 2014.
According to a report by Screen Digest, the BBC has a great record in building new platforms such as the iPlayer and Freeview, and all the BBC has to wait for with Canvas is ...
by David Allen
A new service has been launched by BT which will help businesses allow more of their employees to work remotely from home.
The BT Hybrid Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that enables firms to access VPNs through the normal broadband network, yet it is very cost effective and offers a high level of security.
This service can easily ...
by David Allen
With Ofcom looking into Sky TV’s dominance of the pay TV market, and in particular film and sport, it seems that the satellite provider has some serious allies within the sport market, and they are coming to BSkyB’s defence.
Some of the bodies behind sport in the UK claim that Ofcom's plans to change the pay-TV market are flawed. ...
by David Allen
The Ariane 5 rocket is for launch today, the 29th October, from the French Spaceport at Kourou, on the edge of the Amazon forest in French Guiana.
With only two VIPs on board the rocket is set to launch at 5.00 pm local time.
The passengers will be the NSS-12 and Thor 6 satellites.
The latter has the lower bunk ...
by David Allen
Following recent drama successes, digital TV based BBC Four is in the process of producing one of HG Wells's science fiction romances, 'The First Men In The Moon'.
Starring Mark Gatiss, who also adapted the story for TV, it will be a ninety minute long drama that will also see Rory Kinnear taking a lead role.
Similar to the storyline ...
by Darren Allan
Google has announced that new music search options are to be available on its US site.
When a user types in a song name, the search engine will automatically produce a streamed preview of that track delivered by partners such as MySpace and LaLa.
If you type in a band, Google will point to previews of the outfit's most popular ...
by Darren Allan
A new survey from BT Mobile Broadband and VisitBritain has declared that two-thirds of holidaying Britons would rather spend time on the web than with their nearest and dearest.
It's a sad state of affairs when people prefer tweeting about what they had for lunch or putting up holiday snaps and updates on FaceBook, rather than actually relaxing and ...
by Darren Allan
Rumours that Nintendo is going to launch a bigger screen DSi have proven true with an announcement today.
The DSi LL will come with dual 4.2 inch screens, considerably larger than the current handheld's 3.25 inch displays.
The launch date is planned to be November 21st in Japan, and it's expected that the handheld will cost around the $200 mark.
It's ...
by Darren Allan
The HTC HD2 Windows Mobile powered phone has had its pricing confirmed, with 18 month tariffs starting from £25 a month.
Mobiles.co.uk has the handset on pre-order and you can pick it up from O2 on an 18 month contract from £25 per month, although the unit itself will set you back £185.
If you want the HD2 free, ...
by Franz Bicar
The net was abuzz with reports of Netflix coming to the PlayStation 3 via a Blu-ray Disc. But they're not the only ones who will get new Netflix streaming capabilities. Reports have circulated that the Nintendo Wii will get a similar feature real soon.
Although no official word came out of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' mouth, reports are saying that the ...
by Franz Bicar
Motorola's much anticipated handset is finally here. The Motorola Droid was officially announced by its maker along with its official carrier, Verizon and will be available to customers starting November 6.
Some of the devices' much anticipated feature include a voice-activated search that allows users to speak a search query and its search engine, of course, powered by Google, will display ...
October 28, 2009
by Darren Allan
The UK National Gamers Survey 2009 has produced some interesting findings regarding the average UK gamer.
The survey, which was conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com, revealed that 73% of respondents said they regularly played games, with many admitting gaming is their favourite pastime ahead of TV and the Internet.
It also found that a quarter of gamers had downloaded content ...
by Darren Allan
Google has announced something of a killer feature for Android 2.0 in the form of satellite navigation for free.
Google Maps Navigation turns any Android 2.0 phone into a sat-nav device with turn-by-turn instructions.
It offers some very cool features too, such as voice activation – you can simply say where you want to go to your phone. The ...
by Darren Allan
Lord Mandelson has set out the government's stall regarding plans to deal with illegal file sharers using a 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy.
The Business Secretary said that legislation would be introduced in April 2010, with measures to disconnect persistent offenders coming into force in July 2011. Unless the level of file sharing in the year up until April 2011 drops by ...
by Janet Harris
Geolife and PosiMotion have submitted the first ever GPS app for the iPod touch to Apple App Store.
The app provides turn-by-turn navigation, including smart routing, interactive maps and spoken directions, through a combination of Geolife’s Navmii software and PosiMotion’s G-Fi mobile network/GPS router.
Navmii for the iPhone has also ...
by Janet Harris
Netherlands based KPN is boosting its IPTV Interactieve TV service with the introduction of HD channels in the second quarter of next year.
KPN’s IPTV service currently has 70,000 subscribers, compared with 854,000 for its digital TV platform, Digitenne. In total KPN has 924,000 digital TV customers and expects to break the 1 million barrier next year.
To support the expansion of ...
by Franz Bicar
Is flip still hip? That is the question Sony Ericsson will find out in the coming months as it prepares to launch its flashy Equinox cell phone. With today’s obsession with anything smartphone and touch screen, some people are questioning Sony Ericsson’s decision to create a flip phone. To top it all off, the Equinox comes only with mediocre features: ...
by Franz Bicar
Android 2.0 is here. That’s right, Google is bringing out its knockout punch. After Android 1.6 (codenamed Donut), Google recently released another update, the Android 2.0 – codenamed Eclair. Now, developers can download the Android 2.0 software development kit and start building applications and capitalize on the Eclair’s new features. So what’s new with the new Android 2.0 OS? ...
by David Allen
The French internet service provider, Vivendi, is calling on the UK government to adopt the infamous three strikes rule, under which filesharers can find themselves thrown off the internet.
According to the CEO of Vivenid, Jean-Bernard Levy, the UK should follow the French lead to combat internet piracy, otherwise there is a risk that the UK economy could be ...
by David Allen
The satellite broadband provider, Avanti Communications, has announced that it has formed a partnership with satellite equipment builder, Hughes Network Systems.
The deal is said to be worth around £7.5 million and will allow Hughes to make use of the Avanti virtual operator service.
This service is based on the HYLAS satellite.
As part of the ten year deal, Hughes ...
by David Allen
The mobile broadband provider O2 is to launch a new technical support service dedicated to small businesses.
The O2 tech service will offer business customers the opportunity to have one of the O2 technical services team visit their site and help with the set up of broadband, phones and even laptops.
Of course, a member of the O2 tech ...
by David Allen
The BBC will now be overseeing worldwide PR for the commercial side of the organisation, BBC Worldwide.
It will be difficult for the BBC to remain neutral, as there is the public service side of the organisation that is funded by the TV Licence fee and then there is the BBC Worldwide, which is effectively a commercial business selling ...
by David Allen
It stands to reason that the average UK broadband user wants the fastest speed available, so what if they discovered that the people next door were getting a faster broadband connection? Would they be jealous?
According to a recent study the answer is most definitely yes.
This phenomenon has been called “Broadband Envy” and clearly this is becoming a ...
by David Allen
By now the hacker Gary McKinnon could have been well on his way to serving around sixty years in a maximum security facility in the US, but after all of the appeals and counter appeals it took a word from the Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to put a halt to the proceedings.
It looked like a done deal that ...
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Telecoms News
The Internet celebrates the 40th anniversary of its birth today, or at least the predecessor of the net which was known as Arpanet.
On October 29th 1969, the very first message was sent from one computer to another several hundred miles away via the Pentagon funded Arpanet.
And that very first message was “lo”. Not short for “hello”, rather the ...
