So, this is my first week of scouring the mac world for UK news.
Unlike the US, across the pond we don’t get a huge amount of UK mac news. Therefore, some weeks I may get a run, and it will be a bumper edition. Other weeks may be a bit light, and I may have to scratch around. Whatever happens, it is my intention to do this post (whether it be big or small) as a weekly round up. It will be released the Sunday after the preceding week’s news.
Let’s get to it.
The first thing I was going to talk about was the BBC Radio widget. I have been sitting on that prize gem of a UK news item all week. That was until Chris posted yesterday – damn you Chris! Take a day off even better a week off. Give us all a chance!
BBC iPlayer for Mac
One thing Chris didn’t mention was the announcement from the BBC about the iPlayer. iPlayer will be the BBC’s online TV service. After approval from the the BBC Trust it should launch later this year.
The BBC’s plans for the iPlayer were put on hold earlier this year after its regulators, the BBC Trust, asked the corporation to look at whether the iPlayer should be platform agnostic.
Mr. Highfield, the BBC’s Future Media boss said Apple’s “proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches,” but, “it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs”.
A major turning point to this decision was the fact that the BBC received a petition from 3,000 disgruntled mac users. I heard about the petition a while back and immediately signed up. So it just shows you, sometimes the small guy wins.
After a successful trial of the service they plan to enable you to watch any current TV show for the next seven days via the iPlayer. They also have plans to release their enormous archive of BBC TV shows.
It seems it is only available to UK licence fee payes.
FREE as in beer…
The last time I purchased a mac magazine was quite some time ago. I now get all my mac news via RSS, podcasts and by generally chatting with other users. However, I do receive an email newsletter from Mac User every month. This edition’s newsletter grabbed my attention with the promise that with every copy of Mac User you would get a FREE copy of Rapidweaver. I had heard about Rapidweaver whilst researching solutions for my own web design requirements. But that’s another story.
Rapidweaver is an easy to use and very powerful website building application allowing anyone to create and publish professional looking websites in minutes. No knowledge of complex html is required, RapidWeaver takes care of all that for you. Using easy drag and drop technology you can build a website tailored to your personal needs. Blogs, Photo albums, Movie pages, Styled text and more can be created at the click of a button and customised to make a site to be proud of.
The developers Realmac software are based in Brighton in the UK, just down the road from me actually. Rapidweaver 3.5 retails at $39.95 roughly £20. Obviously you need to buy the magazine at £3.95 so it’s not quite FREE but that’s still quite a good value giveaway. There must be a catch? Well Realmac are intending to release a new version next month, but as this is an unrestricted version you will be able to upgrade for a reduced price.
If anyone really, really wants a copy let me know in comments and I will sort something out. Please leave contact details.
City of London to go wi-fi.
Firstly, just to get things in perspective the City of London, is not the same as London the city. Heh? let me explain. The City of London is a lot smaller and is in the centre of London and is primarily known for being the Financial district.
It is also known as the “Square Mile” and this is where this week a new wi-fi service was launched to cover the entire area. Unfortunately it’s not FREE.
The network’s backers think one of the big attractions will be the ability to use wi-fi enabled phones to make cheap calls using Skype or other internet telephony services.
It’s hard to see why well-paid City workers would bother with the extra effort needed to make a wi-fi call – but the City of London Corporation believes it will prove attractive to migrant workers on construction sites.
Public wi-fi networks, free and paid-for, are spreading quickly, but there are mixed reports on just how much they are being used. Some believe the more advanced Wimax technology is the real answer to open-air internet access.
Get a little Office in your life…
‘Get a little Office in your life‘, say the Mitchell and Webb comedy duo in latest anglicised ‘Get A Mac’ ad. I have no real comment to make about these ads other than I think they are very, very funny. I am a big Mitchell and Webb fan. I especailly like ‘Peep Show’ their Channel 4 series.
I do think however, that it’s very interesting that Apple have decided to target the UK market with what is essentially a “save as” of the US ad format. They must be happy their market share is up!
World War 3 on hold – watch this space.
I posted earlier this week about Defcon a new mac game release. I mentioned in the post that I would hope to have a review later in the week. Unfortunately due to schedules and time differences the review has been delayed. But my arch nemesis General Moose will be being taught a lesson very, very soon. The reason I have mentioned it here is that Introversion software is a UK mac developer.
Digital Camera the saga continues…
Yet another update on a previous post but I thought it my be interesting to photographers amongst us. I have finally decided on the model of my new replacement camera. I am not going to go in into specifics about why here. As I intend to do a review about it when I actually receive it. When I actually receive it… that’s the problem I am trying to find a reputable dealer, as yet they are proving difficult to find.
Well that’s all folks. Hopefully you enjoyed Macwingnut’s UK Mac Miscellany, please do leave any comments good or bad.