Customers with Sky Broadband might find their speeds crawling northward toward the end of the year. The broadcaster is paying Virgin Media's business arm £49 million ($74 million) for some of Richard Branson Liberty Global's deliciously fast fiber infrastructure. While there's no mention of BT, we wouldn't be surprised if this technological makeover was prompted by its corporate rival's recent assault on Sky's sporty golden goose.
Filed under: Networking, Internet, HD
Via: The Next Web
Sky already supplies fixed phone line and broadband on top of its TV services in the UK, but it's just announced it'll be gaining a few more customers. The company has shaken hands with Telefonica UK to purchase the latter's broadband and phone line business provided by the consumer-facing O2 and BE brands. As you would imagine, big bucks will change hands: Sky plans to fork over £180 million (around $273 million) right off the bat, and will write a cheque for up to a further £20 million (circa $30 million) "dependent upon the successful delivery and completion of the customer migration process by Telefonica UK." Regulators will need to give the deal the thumbs up before it's official, but if and when that happens, Sky will become the second biggest ISP in the UK after adding over 500,000 new customers to its books. Should everything progress as planned, the buyout will be completed by the end of April, which gives Rupert Murdoch just enough time to carry out the vault extension he'll need.
Update: If you're worried this transaction will impact anything you're currently signed up to, you can probably rest easy. O2 has tweeted one of our editors to report "there will be no material change to a customer's broadband service and no fundamental contract change."
Via: GigaOM
Getting data is still a pain while abroad: it usually involves either popping a local SIM into an unlocked device or simply paying through the nose for roaming rates. AT&T wants to meet visitors to the UK halfway through a new WiFi deal with BSkyB's The Cloud. The pact offers AT&T subscribers 1GB of free WiFi access per month at The Cloud's hotspots in the UK, as long as they're using the American carrier's WiFi International app. The catch? As with AT&T's normal approach, travelers need to have an international data plan already in place -- which means The Cloud is more a way to raise the limit than a true replacement for a roaming bundle. Nonetheless, anyone who just needs that much more data for an Instagram shot of the London Eye can get their fill through the source links.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, AT&T
Via: The Next Web
Source: App Store, Google Play, AT&T
Getting data is still a pain while abroad: it usually involves either popping a local SIM into an unlocked device or simply paying through the nose for roaming rates. AT&T wants to meet visitors to the UK halfway through a new WiFi deal with BSkyB's The Cloud. The pact offers AT&T subscribers 1GB of free WiFi access per month at The Cloud's hotspots in the UK, as long as they're using the American carrier's WiFi International app. The catch? As with AT&T's normal approach, travelers need to have an international data plan already in place -- which means The Cloud is more a way to raise the limit than a true replacement for a roaming bundle. Nonetheless, anyone who just needs that much more data for an Instagram shot of the London Eye can get their fill through the source links.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, AT&T
Via: The Next Web
Source: App Store, Google Play, AT&T
Livescribe v BSkyB was one of the stranger trademark battles we've seen recently, because the two companies operate in such different spheres -- one makes smartpens, the other runs TV and internet services. Nevertheless, the English High Court has now ruled in favor of BSkyB, forcing Livescribe to recall all stock bearing the offending three-letter word and to re-baptize its "Sky wifi smartpen" simply as the "wifi smartpen". Suddenly, the packaging left over from our review of the device just feels so naughty.
Filed under: Peripherals, Internet, HD
Well, this isn't great. No sooner did we review the Livescribe Sky WiFi smartpen and then it suddenly ceases to exist -- at least in the British Isles. Livescribe has withdrawn the product from its UK store following an allegation that it is "infringing the trademark rights of British Sky Broadcasting." Other retailers have briskly followed suit, not least because they too have been threatened with legal action. It seems the risk of someone shopping for a premium TV service and then accidentally buying a cloud-connected note-taking device were just too great for the broadcaster to bear.
Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video, Wireless
Source: TheNextWeb
Loyal subjects of the United Kingdom who also embrace the cutting edge of TV may get an extra treat this year. Queen Elizabeth II has reportedly recorded her annual Christmas Message in 3D, supposedly becoming the first member of the British Royal Family to embrace the video format after Prince William turned it down for his wedding. We'll naturally need 3D glasses to catch all the nuances if it happens, although the extra dimension wouldn't be exclusive to the producers at BSkyB who captured it: both the BBC and ITV should supposedly have access as well. While donning funny-looking eyewear for a speech isn't usually our first choice for entertainment, we'll make an exception for Her Majesty if Buckingham Palace confirms the 3D broadcast. Besides, it may be the perfect test of a new 3D TV waiting under the tree.
Update: Thanks to reader Steve, we now know that claims of this being the Queen's first sojourn into 3D weren't right. While it would certainly be the first Christmas Message in 3D, we've learned that a CBC TV crew only just got to shoot in 3D earlier this year. Technically, the very first 3D footage of Queen Elizabeth II was recorded on her coronation in 1953, but it wasn't discovered and processed until just recently.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Via: The Verge
Source: The Independent
The app devs over at Sky Sports are having a busy year, and after improving their iPad offering for the F1 season, they're back with a "second screen" update for football (soccer) fans. Just in time for the start of the UK Premier League season, the new Football Match Centre adds a content bar alongside your chosen stream showing team and player info, in-depth stats of the match in progress and a hand-picked Twitter feed for related musings. You might think the devs deserve a break, but sadly there's no time -- next on the agenda is a similar update for the Champions League tournament, then they're bringing the second screen to golf fans before the Ryder Cup starts next month.
Continue reading Football fans score additional content in Sky Sports for iPad update
Filed under: Software
Football fans score additional content in Sky Sports for iPad update originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The little media streamer company that could, Roku, has gained some powerful friends in its latest round of financing, with $45 million in funds coming from the likes of BSkyB, News Corp and another partner who would prefer to remain nameless at this time, as well as previous investors Menlo Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners. While we leave you to ponder which company might be that unidentified source, Roku is simply continuing on, earmarking the money for use in building brand awareness, expanding internationally and much, much more. Also, that MHL-connected Roku Streaming Stick introduced at CES? It hasn't gone away and is still on track for launch later this year, with an eye towards providing a "Roku Inside" bundled experience for otherwise dumb flat-panel HDTVs.
Roku's alignment with BSkyB (which reported a $10m stake in its earnings this morning, as well as the option to distribute its own branded Roku hardware) makes sense after the pay-TV giant launched Now TV recently with the hockey puck as one of its supported platforms, while CEO Anthony Wood tells us the fruitful partnership with News Corp had its root in the Fox News, Wall Street Journal Live and X-Factor channels it launched last year. Wood cites plans to make Roku "the TV distribution platform of the future", and this fifth round of financing -- larger than all previous rounds combined -- may help push it in this direction, check out a few more details in the press release after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
Roku picks up financing from BSkyB, News Corp and more, keeps eye on the premium streaming crown originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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When v2.0 of the Sky Go for Android app arrived earlier this month it promised another update would follow soon with support for Android 4.0 and more phones, and now it has arrived. We're not seeing it in Google Play yet, but the press release (included after the break) indicates the app is ready to run on the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note from Samsung, and is also finally Ice Cream Sandwich compatible on those devices and the HTC Sensation / Sensation XE. That brings the total supported device count for the video on-demand player to a round 11, which is less than the "all" we're looking for but still more than the zero supported prior to February.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment
Sky Go for Android adds support for Ice Cream Sandwich, Samsung's Galaxy S III, Nexus and Note originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 04:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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