Category Archives: In the News

Tech news and opinions

Conservatives promise to scrap 50p phone line tax

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OK not to get too political here, but in response to my post about the 50p phone line tax being a waste of time (which is totally is!), there is now news that the conservative party will scrap the 50p phone line tax as soon as possible if they are elected next year.

Some sense at last!

I, sadly, am not old enough to vote but I do hope that the conservatives move into power next year as I am sick of the useless labour party!

Thank you conservatives. It’ll be great to see Mr Brown booted out of No 10 next year. We might actually get some technology sense in this country!

Warning: Tiscali changes broadband usage allowance

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This has gone through very quietly, but I noticed today that Tiscali has changed its usage allowance for broadband.

It was originally 100GB per month, and I think it must have changed very recently as when I did my broadband investigation last month they were still quoting that.

But if you look on their website now, it says:

screenie

It probably has something to do with the new ownership of Tiscali by TalkTalk.

Just a little warning for any existing customers or people thinking of joining Tiscali. I’m glad I noticed that one. 🙂

Spotify introduces MP3 purchases

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Spotify, a big player in the music industry, has now introduced MP3 purchases.

They originally had it so the software could link you to sites such as 7digital, but it now looks like they are offering direct MP3 purchases.

The new Spotify update allows you to purchase tracks which you can keep forever. They are in MP3 format so they can be placed on any MP3 player or iPod. All purchased music is stored in your music directory and can also be accessed from Spotify.

It looks like the new concept is ran in partnership with 7digital, as the EULA mentions 7digital and their logo is shown.

Looks interesting – I won’t ever use it because I’m going to keep my Spotify Premium membership going as it works seamlessly with my iPod Touch. I doubt many long term Spotify premium users will use the new feature, but it might be handy for free users. Nevertheless, it is a nice addition to Spotify.

[UK] Live TV on iPhone/iPod Touch is here!

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Big news iPhone and iPod Touch users – you can now get live TV in the UK on your Apple devices.

Before I explain and you explode in excitement, you need to head straight over to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com to get the service.

The service is in beta so you only get some of the Freeview channels, but all the big ones are up on there.

I’ve just tried it now and it’s absolutely brilliant. The service is apparently optimised for 3G and Wi-Fi, but I’ve just ran it through on Wi-Fi and it streams in harmony. I’m on a 2MB connection here and it loads up really quickly, and hasn’t buffered once in the last 15 minutes. Perfect!

This is another brilliant addition to the TVCatchup service. Perfect if you’re in need of some TV and you aren’t at home.

Great work TVC, I’m really looking forward to the final version, but for now the beta is way more than I need!

A little legal note: Remember you need a UK TV license to watch TV while it is being broadcast. For your own legal safety, make sure your license is up to date before using the service. Thanks!

Spotify updates iPhone/iPod Touch software – the fixes are in!

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Great news Spotifyers! The good people have posted up an update for their software on the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’ve just got my iPod Touch updated with the latest version and I am very pleased with the new release. It’s a big improvement on the last version and has fixed loads of bugs and niggles.

Here’s what has been fixed…

  • The volume control within Spotify now only shows on the first gen iPod Touch. It now does not show on any other iPod Touch or iPhone.
  • The app now does not allow you to see artist and album view when offline (I actually don’t like this fix – liked it before)
  • The app will ask you to turn off “Offline Mode” when wi-fi is on – it’s optional but its a handy feature.
  • There are loads of bug fixes which means crashes are much less frequent.

Overall I’m very happy with the update. The only thing I want now is to have the ability to run Spotify in the background, but that’s down to Apple more than Spotify really.