Author: jamesclay

Posted on

Downloading movies

iTunes Movies in the UK - hmmmm

Back in June 2008 when Apple put movies into the UK iTunes Store I had a go and didn’t have a huge success.

So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.

So now over a year later, what’s the situation?

Well I am downloading a fair few movies from the iTunes Store now, buying and renting.

I do like how quick and easy it is, and sometimes how much cheaper it is too (and annoyed by how expensive it can be too).

I usually watch the movies via an iPod through the TV, as I still haven’t got round to buying an Apple TV, but then I still don’t have that HD TV to watch them on (and I am pretty sure I can’t easily connect an Apple TV to my current TV).

I will probably get an Apple TV if I get an HD TV as I would prefer to watch HD movies on an HD screen.

I was impressed with HD on the TV Shows and downloaded Lost in HD and the newest Doctor Who special in HD too.

So is everything working?

Well not really.

My ADSL is still way too slow, which means it takes hours to download a movie. Also I have a monthly bandwidth limit which means I usually plan my iTunes downloads overnight as Plusnet my ISP gives me a “free” download time between midnight and eight in the morning.

Also now and again iTunes fails to download the movie “properly”, so it downloads it again! As a result I have two versions in my iTunes library.

However despite a few minor issues I am pleased with movies and TV on the iTunes store and use it on a regular basis.

Posted on

ITV sells Friends Reunited for just £25m

ITV bought Friends Reunited for £175m, now amongst other financial troubles they have sold it for just £25m.

The BBC News reports

ITV has sold Friends Reunited for £25m, despite having agreed to pay a total of £175m for it in 2005.

So who has bought it?

The buyer is Brightsolid Limited, which is owned by DC Thomson, Dundee-based publisher of comics such as the Beano.

An old time publisher…

Hmmm…

I wonder what they (if anything) will do with it.

The problem that I would say is that Friends Reunited’s time has passed. People who are love it are still there, those who tried it have moved onto other things, like Facebook or Twitter.

Would you go back to Friends Reunited?

Posted on

A billion downloads of Firefox

There have been a billion downloads of Firefox.

The BBC reports

The open-source browser Firefox passed its billionth download on Friday, ahead of the release of its fourth iteration.

The milestone includes downloads of all versions of the web software since its first release in 2004.

Figures suggest that Firefox now has nearly one third of the browser market worldwide, at 31%.

Though I use other browsers, generally Firefox is the browser I probably use the most. Some of those billion are my downloads.

Posted on

Airport Express fell over…

Today despite a strong green light the Airport 802.11g network that my Airport Express provides was nowhere to be seen.

I couldn’t see the Airport Express in the Airport Utility either, despite it been connected to my network via cable and I was using my 802.11n network.

In the end I power cycled the Airport Express, twice and this resolved the issue.

This happens now and again with Airport base stations, mainly the older the 802.11g base stations in my experience.

Posted on

MiFi

So you want to be connected to the internet on the move? Or you need connectivity at a conference without wifi?

Yes you could get a 3G USB dongle or stick, but that only allows a single computer to connect.

What happens if you also want to connect your mobile device, a second laptop, what happens if there is more than one person and only one dongle?

In the past the solution I used was Joikuspot which was an application which ran on my Nokia N95 phone. It acted as a wireless access point, it connected to the internet via 3G and then shared that connection over the phone’s wifi connection with other devices. It was a very clever technology which made life easier for me. There were a few downsides, the main was battery life, it drained battery from the N95 really fast, so was only useful for an hour or two or when the phone was plugged into the mains. Of course this meant that I couldn’t use the N95 as a phone, as the battery would be drained. Another problem I had was with devices such as the Nokia N810 and Sony PSP which would not connect to the Joikuspot wireless network. The reason was a limitation in the Symbian software which meant that the phone acted in ad-hoc mode for wireless rather than infrastructure. The N810 and PSP had issues with connecting to an ad-hoc network. It did however work fine with the iPod touch which was how I mainly used it.

I was very interested to hear from Andy Ihnatko on MacBreak Weekly about the MiFi. A battery powered 3G wireless router. Using a 3G SIM it would connect to the internet and then allow  up to five wireless clients to connect and share that 3G connection. With a four hour battery life, could be charged via USB and about the size of a credit card, it seemed ideal. Of course I didn’t expect to see it in the UK, probably only available in the US on Verizon or Sprint…

I did an internet search (as you do) and found it on sale at Expansys (without a contract). Ordered and delivered.

Using a SIM from a Vodafone 3G USB dongle it was  very simple to set up and configure and I would recommend that you use the details from Ross Barkman’s excellent website on connection settings for GPRS/3G to save having to work out where the information is on your providers’ website.

You can configure it wirelessly, and the first things I did was rename the wireless network and add WPA2 security.

Once configured it is simply a matter of turning it on, waiting for it to connect and then connect your laptop (or other device) to the wireless network.

It works very well and felt faster than using the USB dongle!

One problem I have had is the MacBook Pro losing the wireless connection and being unable to re-connect with the result the only solution was to reboot the MiFi. I am now trying just WPA as I think it is a MacBook Pro wireless issue rather than a MiFi issue. Or it could be an issue with the fact I was on a train!

I do like the MiFi and it does what it says on the tin.

Posted on

Get Twitter by SMS on O2

First Twitter turned off SMS notification in the UK…

Then they turned it back on for Vodafone subscribers in the UK.

Now they have turned it on for O2 subscribers too.

Full, two-way interaction with Twitter over SMS is now available for everyone who uses O2, the largest mobile operator in the UK. 

Easy to set up

To Twitter over SMS with your iPhone or any other mobile, head over to your account settings and activate your device. The Twitter shortcode in the UK is 86444 if you want to save it in your address book. 

Not sure impact on me as the iPhone and Twitterific makes it very easy to keep in touch with Twitter. However if you have a “standard” phone, or a phone without a data contract for the web, then this does make sense and will be useful.

Posted on

turbo.264 HD

I gave my Elgato turbo.264 HD a real test today, encoding an entire season of Doctor Who from the native MPEG2 Eyetv recordings I made from BBC One on Freeview into h.264 iPhone Quicktime movies.

turbo.264 HD

Thirteen episodes took just over two hours, about four times faster than realtime. Each episode was taking under ten minutes to convert. The turbo.264 HD software then automatically added the episodes to iTunes which is useful (and not useful).

I am impressed with the turbo.264 HD and recommend it.

Posted on

Tube Deluxe

Whilst the iPod touch is an useful device, the iPhone can be very useful as it has the connectivity that makes some applications work better. One of these is London Tube Deluxe (iTunes Store link).

Tube Deluxe

If you travel by tube in London and it can be useful to know when and if there are problems on the Tube. Combine that with the tube map and using Google Maps to work out where alternative tube stations actually are in London, it is possible to ensure you can get where you need to get to even if there are terrible delays on the tube.