Gadgety News

An AMD-commissioned YouGov research into British notebook usage has shown that most Brits would rather be hooked up to the interweb than own their own ride!

The study reveals that 90% of 18-24 year olds own a notebook with 73% saying that they “couldn’t live without” it.

I fear for Halfords - I really do!!

Britons apparently consider access to the internet (67%) as more important than access to a car (54%) or a washing machine (58%).

AMD suggests that the ”constantly-connected” Brits are shunning face-to-face get-togethers in favour of social networking sites and catching up with TV online.

The report states that almost half (41%) of men enjoy watching BBC iPlayer on their notebooks.

Men are the ones most likely to download music (71% men v 62% women) and the ladies are more interested in chatting with their friends and family on Instant Messenger (75% v 72% of men).

Now - I must get back to Twitter, check my email, see who’s online on MSN, AOL, ICQ….

If you’re a PlayStation 3 owner in the UK you can also access iPlayer, it’s not only the Wii fans domain - although it’s not entirely official where the PS3 is concerned ;0,

A programmer who was rather miffed that only the Nintendo Wii could officially access the Beeb’s on demand internet video service has taken it into his own hands to develop a work around so the player will work on the PS3.

The clever coder says:

“It’s mainly a demonstration of how easily the BBC could support the PS3 with their Wii version. This does nothing more than mask your PS3’s user-agent string and makes half a dozen changes to make the JavaScript and CSS function correctly on the PS3. It only took a day to produce, so come on BBC - how about implementing this properly?”

The page, found at ps3iplayer.com, will only work on a PS3, and isn’t accessible via a PC or Mac browser, however you will be able to view footage, where available, full screen, something that isn’t available on the Nintendo Wii version at the moment.

“This version of the BBC iPlayer can only be used on a Sony Playstation 3 system within the UK.”

Oddly the domain is registered to a P.O box in Canada………………………………..

It can appear on the iPhone and iPod Touch but Auntie Beebs iPlayer will soon be popping up on your HD teles via the Nintendo Wii as well.

In its current Beta form for the Wii, the iPlayer service will cost £3.50 (or 500 Wii points) to install the Internet Channel needed to view it and is then free and easy to access.

A BBC spokesperson added that the service would be tweaked over coming weeks to improve service and image quality and in an effort to eliminate the need to purchase the Internet Channel.

Now we hust have to wait for interactive channels so you can use the Wiimote - praps as a gavel in ‘Cash in the Attic’ or ‘Homes Under the Hammer’……?

BBC News has provided some pretty interesting stats gathered from the first few weeks of the full BBC iPlayer launch.

The hits list comes as no huge surprise with the (disappointing) Doctor Who Christmas Special, Top Gear and the “festive” edition of EastEnders coming out on top.

What is interesting, however, is that almost half the content played via iPlayer was outside the ‘top 50′ most popular shows on BBC.

Some one million people have used the online service since 25th December downloading or streaming 3.5 million programmes.

What isn’t clear is if the 3.5 million programmes are ones that have been watched in totality or just ones people have had a quick butchers at and moved on, ie just counting hits.

While download services such as BBC iPlayer and 4oD are looking to create a wider audience for niche programmes, the danger still exists that if the small niche audience only watches the content online that the all powerful controllers will still axe shows due to falling TV viewing figures. 

If that was the case perhaps there may come a time where programmes are produced purly for an online market - and, if it’s any good, does that mean we’d still have to pay a TV license?

The BBC iPlayer is now available in a Flash version so now it doesn’t matter if your puter works in Windows or not!  It also looks pretty :0) 

With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past seven days you’ve missed or want to watch again by playing them direct on the BBC iPlayer website or downloading them to your computer. As long as you are in the UK and connected to the internet you can: · find programmes you want to catch up on or watch again from the past seven days and watch them on the website through a method known as streaming · download and store them on your computer for up to 30 days if you have a Windows PC · play back high quality programmes on your computer as often