Warner Bros looks to turn students into pirate spies
Warner Bros is actively recruiting students to spy on illegal downloaders, with the film distributor advertising the role at Manchester University.
The official job title is Anti-Piracy Intern and comes with a 12-month contract. The job will help Warner Bros in its crusade to rid the web of pirated material and will involve the 'monitoring' of file-sharing sites and reporting back any findings.
Anti-pirate's life for me
The Intern will also be expected to "prepare sending of infringement notices and logging feedback" and "inputting pirate hard goods data and other intelligence into the forensics database" – both duties sure to send a shiver down any pirate's back, who thinks they can download in the comfort of their own home without fear of being caught.
If you do feel like you want this job – which is likely to make you a lot of enemies within the student community – and are computer literate in Java or JSP and PHP, then you only have until 30 March to apply.
If successful, you will be paid £17,500 for your snooping.
As per usual, TorrentFreak has put its own unique spin on the job, asking its reader to apply to "provide us with regular updates on Warner Bros' anti-piracy efforts".
You've got to admire the site's bravado.
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Best Buy's UK launch confirmed for May
Best Buy has confirmed that its foray into the UK will start in May, with the Thurrock branch in Essex the first to open its doors to the public.
The Best Buy brand, and of course its Geek Squad help team, have become familiar names in the US, and the UK launch of the store is likely to attract major interest.
The building has been branded up and readied for some time in Thurrock – home to the enormous Lakeside shopping centre and other major shopping estates.
Hedge End and Merry Hill
That launch in May will be followed by two more stores in Southampton's Hedge End and Merry Hill in the West Midlands by June and 'further stores' later in the year.
Paul Antoniadis, CEO of Best Buy Branded Operations, said: "We're here to make buying technology simple, exciting and tailored to each of our customers.
"We look forward to offering the ultimate in home entertainment technology and installations, and we plan to keep bringing our customers the best that technology can offer in every part of our stores.
"We look forward to bringing the Best Buy experience to consumers across the UK."
Best Buy's European wing is half owned by Talk Talk - the ISP which has split out from Carphone Warehouse.
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Windows Phone 7 Series will run on HTC HD2
The confusion over whether Windows Phone 7 Series will be coming to older phones continues to rage as the HTC HD2 was shown running the OS.
Admittedly it was a hacked version of the operating system running on the device, with HTCPedia forum member Tom Codon behind the port.
But, apart from a slight amount of lag in certain operations thanks to some incompatibility issues with the graphics processor (which will apparently be resolved) the phone performs well.
Present and correct
The GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all perform correctly, which can often be a problem when shoving a new OS on a phone, and the web browser looks fine in early pictures.
The problem Microsoft is claiming that the OS can't be ported backwards, as it doesn't have the correct hardware specifications that future devices will be running to.
And despite this new hack clearly showing that it can work fine on legacy phones, we doubt Microsoft will be changing its tune any day soon.
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BBC News and Sport iPhone apps face delay
The BBC's big push on to the iPhone is facing a delay, after the BBC Trust announced it is reviewing the broadcaster's mobile-based proposals.
The BBC made headlines last month, when it announced it was to launch free apps for its News and Sports service.
Both BBC News and BBC Sports Results are to be updated feeds of the broadcaster's web pages, with the sports app to offer real-time data of Premiership football matches and the like.
The apps were scheduled to launch in April (News) and May (Sports), but this is now not going to happen.
Uncertain times
"There remains some uncertainty about the potential significance of whether [the apps] constitute a change of service," said a spokesperson for the BBC Trust.
This news will be welcomed by the newspaper industry, with David Newell, Director of the NPA, saying: "This is not, as the BBC argues, an extension of its existing online service, but an intrusion into a very tightly defined, separate market."
There will be four main features that the BBC Trust will look at, before determining if the apps get the go ahead. These include: the financial implications of the apps, if the apps are seen as the BBC going into new areas of "untested activity" and how the apps will affect others in the market.
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Facebook announces new data-sharing privacy plans
Facebook has outlined a number of changes to its privacy settings, which includes the sharing of user information to third parties.
The changes mean that advertisers may start to tailor ads to your interests on the site - much like they do at the moment, with users who are part of Facebook Connect.
Like most settings within Facebook at the moment, users will automatically be included to give your information away to 'pre-approved third-party applications', unless they manually go into the settings and opt-out of the service.
"We occasionally need to provide General Information about you to pre-approved third party websites and applications that use Platform at the time you visit them (if you are still logged in to Facebook)," notes Facebook.
"Similarly, when one of your friends visits a pre-approved website or application, it will receive General Information about you so you and your friend can be connected on that website as well (if you also have an account with that website)."
The time and the place
The information given out is actually quite detailed. It includes your date of birth and what device you use to access and even your location.
The location part is an interesting one, as it relates to something that isn't happening on the site yet.
Facebook is changing its location information to include places. This brings Facebook in line with services like Foursquare, which merges social-networking with locations.
"We've removed the old language and instead added the concept of a 'place' that could refer to a page, such as one for a local restaurant," explains Facebook on its blog.
"As we finalise the product, we look forward to providing more details, including new privacy controls."
While it's great that Facebook is being transparent about its privacy options, it's a worry that it seems to be changing its privacy settings more frequently.
Facebook has said that these changes aren't set in stone quite yet, however, and it is asking its users to comment on the new settings.
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In Depth: What to expect from the next-gen Spotify
Speaking at the recent South by South West conference, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek talked up the next-generation Spotify player, and said that the company was focussing on that ahead of a Spotify US launch.
While Spotify currently features recommendations and collaborative playlists, the company plans to introduce better social features to help users find new music and share it with their friends, Ek promises.
"We are looking at integrating some parts of the social aspect," he says. "If you think about the problem of how do you browse music – most people approach the problem by looking at genres. I could probably come up with 200 different genres, but I don't really know what 'neoclassical pop' is. What classifies neo-rock or neo-pop?
"Spotify is approaching 10 million tracks - how do you browse through 10 million tracks? Searching is one solution but it's not an optimum way of discovering new music. A social aspect is."
Spotify isn't planning to launch its own social network, though, says Ek, and instead plans to work with existing services such as Facebook and Twitter.
"We won't be another social network," stresses Ek. "We said very clearly from the start that we never believed in being our own social network. We want to work with existing social networks and piggyback on their functionality to share content.
"We are definitely going to do a lot more of that to drive discovery of music. You'll find ways to see what other people are listening to or to discover new playlists."
Napster inspiration
Ek points to the original Napster as a good example of music discovery. "That for me was awesome," he says. "Because what it enabled was that I could search for any artist or track and if the person had a quick connection I could browse their music to see what other stuff they were listening to. And then I could download all of that music. What we want to do with Spotify is get closer to that experience, but 10 years later."
Ek adds that it may be possible in the next-generation Spotify to set your Twitter or Facebook friends as the sole people who can edit your collaborative playlists. "We don't have a way of setting user privileges on playlists," says Ek. "And this is why we don't want to be a social network – we think that Twitter and Facebook will figure out those kind of privileges and we can borrow those."
So if you share a playlist on Facebook, for example, you'll also be able to set which of your Facebook friends can edit playlists, who can add or remove tracks and who can only listen, explains Ek.
Spotify devices
Developers now have "endless opportunities" to make software available to people, says Ek.
"Only three years ago, you didn't have the iPhone, you didn't have the Android platform. If you wanted to develop for mobile at all, you had to at least support four or five major OSes. You had to customise your software for at least 50 or 60 handset models. The lead time to get it on to a phone in any sort of meaningful way was between six to 12 models.
"Innovation on handsets has enabled people, like Spotify, to get their software on phones, through Android and so on."
Ek goes on to explain that Spotify is looking to be on many different devices. "With the exception of the iPhone today, most of the other handset manufacturers lack really good media players," he says. "We are seeing that people tend to use Spotify as a media player on Android handsets. It's been historically cumbersome to get music on to a BlackBerry or a Nokia and that is something that we want to sort out."
Ek continues: "If you look at the traditional way of buying music – it still works. People are buying music that they love but the vast majority of people just want access. They want to share music with their friends. Why shouldn't you be able to consume music on your BlackBerry if you pay for it?
"We want to enable your library on all these devices. Whether it is a set-top box, whether it's an Xbox or a mobile phone - that doesn't really matter for us. We want to make music like water."
Better ad targeting
Isn't it annoying when you're listening to down-tempo music and it's interrupted with a noisy, shouty ad? That will change, says Ek, as Spotify ads become filtered by mood, music genre and more.
"That's definitely something that we want to do," says Ek. "We want to figure out a lot of things, and I think we can figure out a lot of things based on how people listen. But I also think that you can figure out brand preferences.
"For instance, if you and I are the same demographic, we live in the same place and we listen to the same music, and if we [Spotify] try an Audi ad on you we might get one result and if we try BMW we might get another. What's the likelihood of me having the same reaction [as you]? What has turned out is that it's quite high. So that's something that we are pursuing and that's very interesting for the advertisers."
Spotify US launch
It was widely expected that the reason Ek was given a keynote presentation at SXSWi was because Spotify was going to announce its US launch.
As Ek revealed at South by South West when questioned about the US launch, "the most important thing for a US launch is we want to build the best possible product we can get – we have to strike deals with 5,000 publishers or more and that's a huge task".
Ek adds: "A big thing for us now is working on the next-generation Spotify. That's the main priority before the US launch."
All this talk about next-gen Spotify and a US launch in the same breath points to one thing – assuming the label deals are hammered out, there will be a Spotify US launch in the near future. We're betting within the next three to six months.
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In Depth: UK political parties' key tech policies examined
With just weeks to go before Election 2010, the hustings have become high-tech. It seems that you can't call yourself a modern politician if you're not spamming social networks and launching your own iPhone app.
That's all style, though. What about the substance? What are the big parties' plans for technology once they're elected?
Can we take them seriously, or should we just vote for the Pirate Party instead? Let's find out.
Better the devil you know?
It isn't hard to work out what Labour's all about: it's about to ram the Digital Economy Bill down our collective throats, with all the file sharing-related fun that implies.
However, Labour also has some positive technological plans: it wants everyone to have at least 2Mbps broadband by 2012 and 90% of us to have "superfast" 100Mbps broadband by 2017, and it's willing to risk a potentially unpopular telephone line tax to help pay for it.
Another tax move is designed to help the games industry: announced in this week's budget, the government intends to introduce film industry-style tax breaks to keep game development talent - and profits - in the UK.
Labour is also publishing lots of previously private government data at data.gov.uk, something it promises to continue doing, and it promises to use more open source software. The government also intends to build G-Cloud, a cloud computing platform for government IT, as part of a new IT strategy designed to save £3.2 billion per year.
There's good news for ID thieves too. Gordon Brown has described his plans for MyGov, a digital dashboard that will ultimately replace the Direct.gov website. A kind of Boring MySpace, MyGov will be a one-stop shop for all government services from disabled badges to managing pensions, with a single login "making interaction with government as easy as internet banking or online shopping."
Will MyGov be linked to the National Identity Scheme, creating a potential nightmare for anyone whose data gets compromised? The government isn't saying. That's reassuring, isn't it?
Tory tech
The Conservatives have made a lot of noise about their technology policies, and unlike Labour they've put all their tech-related ideas in one place.
The Tories want to take Labour's publication of government data even further and give us all a Right To Data, so for example the Tories pledge to publish monthly crime statistics on a street-by-street basis together with details of the energy consumption of government buildings, details of government contracts and tenders, salaries paid to quango bosses, council spending and, inevitably, MPs' expenses.
To prevent high-profile IT disasters costing billions, they also promise to cap government IT projects at £100m apiece.
Like Labour, the Tories promise superfast 100Mbps broadband for lots of people, but while Labour promises 90% coverage by 2017 - or rather, while Labour says it has "an ambition for access for 90 per cent" by 2017 - the Tories say that only they can ensure the UK "will be the first country in Europe to extend superfast 100Mbps broadband across most of the population."
That won't be paid for by a telephone tax - the Tories plan to scrap that - and it won't reach remote areas: the Tories' approach is to have superfast broadband appear first as a premium service in cities, which will make so much money for ISPs that they'll be able to offer the same thing cheaply in Auchtermuchty. We're paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.
As an incentive the Tories will relax planning controls, get BT to share its infrastructure - ducts and telephone poles - with rivals in much the same way Local Loop Unbundling enabled ISPs to stick their kit in BT exchanges, and from 2012 they may also divert some of the BBC licence fee currently earmarked for promoting the digital switchover.
The Conservatives are likely to keep Labour's tax breaks for the games industry too: shadow culture minister Ed Vaizey has previously claimed to be "sympathetic" to the need for tax relief, so he's unlikely to scrap it if he gets into power. The party has also promised to retain the R&D tax credits that many technology businesses benefit from.
There's one thing you won't find anywhere in the manifesto: the Tories' support for some of the Digital Economy Bill's more worrying bits, such as disconnection for file sharers. As Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group told the BBC: "it is totally contradictory to propose building a future dependent on the internet and support plans to disconnect families as a punishment."
Quite Liberally
Despite the odd crazed peer such as Lord Clement-Jones, whose proposed - and now, heavily amended - amendment to the Digital Economy Bill was apparently written by the BPI, the Lib Dems are a pretty tech-friendly bunch - although with the exception of their anti-Digital Economy Bill stance there isn't much meat on the policy bones.
So for example they say they will "ensure universal broadband access and make sure that rural areas don't get left behind" in their policy briefing but don't explain how they'll do that. Similarly, they promise to "tackle the problem of illegal file-sharing in an effective and proportionate way" without elaborating.
For specifics you'll need to head for the old and rather dusty Make IT Policy website, which explains the need for government investment to ensure broadband reaches everyone, the need for an overhaul of copyright law, the importance of net neutrality, plans to get shot of the controversial IR35 rules that affect many IT contractors, and moves to encourage the use of open source software in government departments and contractors' systems.
The Lib Dems are also in favour of the tax breaks for the games industry: earlier this month Don Foster, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said that if such tax relief was introduced in the budget "personally I'll be delighted and will be doing everything I can to make sure nobody in my party proposes stripping it out again."
Minority Report
There are more parties than just the big three, of course, although unless something really incredible happens parties such as the SNP or Plaid Cymru won't be dictating tech policy for the entire UK come May. However, it's interesting to compare the big three's plans with the policies of a younger, internet-based party: the Pirate Party UK.
There's lots of interesting things in the PPUK manifesto: legalising CD ripping; establishing a legal right to share files "provided no money changes hands"; requiring the BBC to release all its programmes with a Creative Commons licence; stronger data protection laws; and the right to pay your ISP only for the speed you actually get, not the "up to" speed the provider offers - so if you only get 1/4 of the advertised broadband speed, you'd only pay 1/4 of the agreed price.
To deliver broadband for all, the PPUK would extend the universal service obligation, which currently means anyone who wants a phone line must get one, to include broadband connectivity. DRM-protected products would have mandatory warning labels, and disabled people would have the right to bypass DRM that prevents them from accessing media.
The Pirate Party doesn't have a snowball in Hell's chance of becoming the next government, but that's not the point: by grabbing headlines and the occasional political seat, the various Pirate Parties around the world can keep copyright reform in the press and on the political agenda.
The bigger picture
So will any of this swing your vote? The answer, of course, depends on what other policies the parties have - so while you might not like a party's attitude to file sharing, you might love their economic ideas; you might love their tech policies but think their energy policy is the work of simpletons; you might be so outraged by the tax hike on cider that you won't vote Labour ever again, and so on.
We'd certainly find ourselves torn if a party planned to implement invasive and unnecessary internet monitoring but also promised to fire Carol Vorderman into space. That's politics for you.
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LHC particle smashing to be web streamed
The Large Hadron Collider is set to become the next internet star, after it was announced that its particle-smashing endeavours are to be broadcast on the web.
The LHC is to begin colliding its particle beams 30 March, with footage of the experiment to be shown on the CERN website, courtesy of Groovy Gecko.
The event will also be available to watch on your mobile phone, with Yospace handling streaming duties.
Both companies will be taking their feeds from a satellite downlink provided by SatStream.
Vital for physicists
Speaking about the event, Craig Moehl, CEO, Groovy Gecko, said: "These experiments are vital for physicists to gain wider understanding of our world, but in this manner, we can bring them to the man on the street as well."
In all there will be four experiments - ATLAS, CMS, Alice and LHCb – all of which hope to find the Higgs Boson, crack antimatter or prove that dark matter isn't just something scientists have made up to keep themselves in a job.
To view the stream log on to http://webcast.cern.ch/lhcfirstphysics on 30 March, from 9.30am.
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Virgin Media offers cheapest HTC Desire deal yet
Virgin Media has launched a new range of mobile phone tariffs as it mounts a new assault on the handset market.
The real cost savings are being offered to its current customers, making use of the 'quadplay' offering of TV, internet, landline and mobile bundles.
The headline deal for these customers is £5 off the standard 'high street' tariff for phones, or a shorter contract.
Cheaper deals
For instance, the HTC Desire will be offered by Virgin Media to the general public in the near future for £30 per month, 800 minutes and unlimited texts and internet on a 24 month deal.
But existing Virgin Media customers can get it on a £5 lower tariff, meaning a free Desire for £25 a month, or shorten their contract to 18 months at the full rate.
This deal applies to a number of new phones appearing from Virgin Media, such as the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
Virgin Media is also offering SIM only deal starting at £10 a month, with inclusive Virgin Mobile to Virgin Mobile calls as it ramps up its mobile strategy.
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Gorillaz pimp new tune with gameplay-free game
Damon Albarn's cartoon band Gorillaz are promoting their new single by offering a free videogame for fans to download.
Gorillaz are set to release a new digital bundle of their song 'Superfast Jellyfish' which includes a computer game today (March 29).
The digital bundle for the song, taken from recent album Plastic Beach, includes the so-called game, Escape To Plastic Beach.
Album good, game bad
We have given the game a quick go and, while the characterisation and artwork and dialogue are to be commended, the gameplay value is an unfortunate zero out of ten.
However, lets hope that other bands and musicians pick up on the trend and start to also employ some talented games designers, in addition to some writers and artists to make mini interactive games to promote their music.
Head over to Gorillaz.com for more on the new album (which rocks) and the new game (which is rubbish).
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Review: Aviary
Aviary is a collection of ornithologically named online tools designed to bring creativity to the cloud. There is a strong focus on graphic work in the form of photo, vector and palette editors, but an online audio editor is also available.
Each application has a striking look and feel, and it's easy to forget that these are online tools rather than locally installed apps.
The undeniable star of the show is the Phoenix image editor, which features support for layers, special effects, masks and much more. Phoenix does fall down slightly with load times – the online application takes a while to fully load, even when using a relatively fast internet connection – but the process of applying effects, filters and working with the editing tools is responsive once it is up and running.
Support for layers is particularly interesting thanks to integration between the individual components. An image created in Phoenix can include layers created in the Raven vector editor and the Peacock effects editor.
A bird in the hand
Peacock is something of a unique offering and it really has to be experienced to be fully understood. This impressive effects editor – also referred to as the Visual Laboratory – works in a way comparable to Yahoo Pipes: different effects, filters and visual generators can be connected to a blank canvas, with the ability to manipulate the settings for individual tools and apply effects between different nodes to create unique results.
Myna is the suite's multitrack audio editor. You're provided with a large number of samples that can be dropped into a track, but it is also possible to upload your own audio files. Uploads can be tagged and shared with the Aviary community so that samples can be used by others.
More personal creations can be compiled thanks to the ability to record audio from equipment attached to your PC.
The range of features found in each Aviary tool is such that it doesn't feel like a compromise opting to work online, with the only real downside being the extra time it takes to save large files.
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Review: Boxee
Watching TV on your PC can be pretty uncomfortable. Nobody has a sofa at their desk, and snuggling up with your netbook in bed can cause neck and back strain – not to mention the frustration of watching your favourite show on a tiny screen with tinny sound.
Let's not forget that your Sky+HD set-top box records TV perfectly well, your Wii has iPlayer for when you've forgotten to record something and video on-demand is available via satellite. But putting a PC in your living room brings many benefits.
Aside from the ability to watch iPlayer comfortably without investing in a Wii, it means that you can watch YouTube videos or TV programmes stored on your hard disk on a large screen.
However, Microsoft is doing a great impression of a firm that's forgotten it makes Media Center, meaning that the software has a distinct lack of any decent online services. You'd also have to pay out for a Windows licence if you wanted to run it. So is there an alternative?
Boxee unwrapped
Boxee is Media Center on steroids. It runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux Ubuntu and Mac OS X and it can handle pretty much any DRM-free file format you throw at it. It's happy with local, networked and streaming media, and you can expand it via plug-ins that deliver anything from iPlayer to game reviews. If it puts video online, you can add it to Boxee.
Boxee has a 10-foot interface, which is a fancy way of saying it's designed to work when it's on your TV and you're on the sofa. It's as comfortable with a keyboard and mouse as it is with a remote control.
The interface has been given a major tidy up: navigation is simple and logical, everything looks great and the user experience is consistent. Boxee doesn't evade geolocation, but it does sit back and whistle while you bypass it: simply find a suitable proxy server online and plug the details into the software and it will cheerfully tell media services you're in places you aren't.
It's not foolproof, however: as non- US fans of the media site Hulu know all too well, some sites do more than check your IP address before letting you stream content.
Where Boxee excels is in the way it brings all your disparate media sources together. It doesn't care where media comes from, so you can create a media queue that moves from a downloaded TV programme to a YouTube stream.
It's designed for an always-connected environment, so if it's dealing with video it can download data from IMDB; if it's playing music it can access Freedb for track listings and AMG for album art; and if you've got a hard disk full of programmes you'll be impressed by the way it recognises, sorts and adds metadata to your collection.
As you'd expect from a beta, it isn't perfect. Menus are sometimes sluggish, we encountered the odd crashing plug-in and choosing local storage is more of a pain than it should be. If you want to play DRM protected media such as old iTunes downloads you'll be disappointed, and the current beta is 32-bit only.
There's no sign of the much discussed BitTorrent client in the Windows version, either. There's another big omission: it doesn't do traditional TV, so if you're looking for something to record live broadcasts or to pause, rewind and resume live TV then you're out of luck.
That, combined with the lack of UK media partners, means that for now Boxee is an interesting addition to your setup rather than a replacement for your set-top box. Nevertheless, it is – pardon the pun – one to watch.
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PlayStation 3 drops Linux support
PS3 owners will no longer be able to use the 'install other OS' option following the latest PS3 firmware update this week.
The update arrives on Thursday April 1st, but Sony assures us that this is not an elaborate hoax or All Fool's Day gag, via the PlayStation Europe blog.
Security excuses
Sony says the move is due to nebulous "security concerns", though that is unlikely to please PlayStation 3 owners that have been happily running Linux on their Sony console for a while now.
You can, of course, always opt out of the upgrade, but then again that means that you will lose out on being able to access PlayStation Network and play games online.
To be fair, if you would rather mess around playing with Linux on your PS3 than play Heavy Rain or Uncharted 2, then there is something a bit strange going on in the first place…
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Review: Toshiba 32RV635
It's no surprise that the Toshiba 32RV635 is one of the more affordable LCD TVs, though it's far from the cheapest set in Toshiba's current range. This means that it has a number of unexpected features compared to similarly priced rivals.
For starters, the LCD panel boasts a Full HD resolution and there are an impressive four HDMI inputs, which should be enough for any HD gadget lover. Further connections include a USB port for displaying digital snaps and a hook-up for your PC alongside all the usual suspects.
Most impressive of all, however, is the video processing that quietly works its magic behind the scenes. This consists of Toshiba's consistently reliable Active Vision II system and Resolution+, which is one of the best upscalers in the business, enhancing both the sharpness and detail of standard-definition sources.
But the good stuff doesn't stop there, there is also a colour management tool, which enables users to tweak the individual red, green, yellow, blue, magenta and cyan colour elements. You can even turn off the individual red, green and blue colours, to make colour calibration easier.
Set-up is further aided by the static gamma slider, which enables you to choose your preferred black/white balance.
How do they do it?
Considering the appealing glossy finish and minimal design, it's difficult to understand precisely how Toshiba is able to offer this screen at such a generous price, particularly when you look at its performance.
It achieves a decent black level, for instance, certainly one much more 'grey-free' than any other sub-£500 32in TV. This is especially true if you watch in a darkened room and can sacrifice image brightness in the pursuit of deeper blacks.
HD pictures, meanwhile, are outstandingly sharp and are on a par with the best models at this price. Add to this already potent brew some well-saturated and bright colours, and surprisingly little motion blur for a budget TV, and you've got a picture miles better than any screen under £500.
We've gone on at some length in previous reviews about how standard definition signals (particularly from Freeview broadcasts) so often highlight even the best TVs' shortcomings, but there are no such concerns visible here. Resolution+ ensures that broadcasts and DVDs are crisp, clean and free from noise.
One word of advice, though: don't set it any higher than '3' as the picture starts to become very messy.
Inevitably, the 32RV635 isn't without its flaws. Some colours look a little unbalanced, the viewing angle is fairly limited and there are some minor backlight inconsistencies in the corners. While motion smearing is generally absent, judder tends to be fairly evident, especially when watching Blu-rays.
Sound, meanwhile, is neither ground-breaking nor disastrous. Like so many budget screens, it's a touch thin and bass-free, while volume is lacking. Having said that, it's still one of the best, if not the best value screen for under £500.
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Carphone Warehouse and Talk Talk separate
Carphone Warehouse and Talk Talk will officially 'demerge' today, with the ISP and retail chain splitting and being run as independent companies.
Ambitious plans for both companies – Talk Talk acquired Tiscali last year, while Carphone Warehouse has a 50 per cent stake in the European arm of Best Buy – already make this an interesting time for the two companies, but the split is also about risk.
ISP Talk Talk was apparently worth 60 per cent of the combined value of the company, but the might of the likes of Virgin Media and, most prominently, BT and the growing profile of superfast broadband means that tough times could lie ahead.
TALK and CPW
"The company will demerge into two entities; TalkTalk will list under the ticker "Talk" and new Carphone Warehouse will list as "CPW"," confirmed Reuters' stock watch report.
There is still talk that Talk Talk is ripe from a takeover by either one of the major mobile phone operators or even BSkyB, a company which is keen to extend its ISP reach.
Talk Talk is also one of the partners in the BBC-led IPTV partnership Project Canvas, which has been granted provisional approval by the BBC Trust and is currently being looked at by the Office of Fair Trading.
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Amazon moves into game download market
Amazon could be taking on the might of Valve's Steam in the game download market, if a new job listing is anything to go by.
Downloading content is becoming increasingly big business for the online retailer, which already has download offerings for its Kindle eBook, MP3 music and movies.
So it makes total sense that it would try to add videogames to its list of content download stores. Amazon has so far refused to comment on the rumours.
Steam gets some competition?
Valve might have some serious competition in the near future according Colin Sebastian, an analyst at investment bank Lazard Capital.
Sebastian draws our attention towards a number of job postings at Amazon, noting: "Our periodic checks of job postings uncovered a search by Amazon in the video game category to help implement a new digital distribution platform."
"As in other segments of digital media, we expect Amazon to pursue new opportunities as an aggregator of online games, similar to Steam (PC), BigPoint (browser) and others."
Valve is set to launch Steam for Apple Mac in April.
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Review: Philips 32PFL5604
At just £450, the Philips 32PFL5604H is almost half the cost of some of the company's flagship 32in LCD panels and there has clearly been some corner cutting to get that price.
Build quality has obviously been compromised. Where Philips' more expensive screens have the robust build of a battleship, combined with the finesse and curves of a supermodel, this budget set feels like it's made of cardboard.
But, despite its chunkiness, it's not a complete dog of a screen to look at and it has a glossy finish and a stylish embellishment of sorts in the shape of a transparent plastic edge to the screen surround.
Connectivity is a bit more convincing, with highlights including three HDMIs and a USB port for displaying digital snaps, video, and playing back MP3s. Unsurprisingly, the feature list also shows where cutbacks have been made.
You won't find any of Philips' fancy Ambilight technology (where sympathetic light to what's on screen is projected onto the wall behind the TV), internet connectivity or wireless PC connectivity here. Instead, picture processing is limited to the near-ancient Pixel Plus HD engine, which like most ageing relics knows a thing or two, but goes about its business a touch slower than you'd like.
It lets the user finetune four key elements of the processing: dynamic contrast, dynamic backlight, colour enhancement and MPEG artefact reduction.
Breaking with tradition
Traditionally, Philips screens have been easy to pick out thanks to their stunning image processing. HD pictures shimmer with clarity and detail so ultra-precise it's almost too good to be true. Sadly, that's not the case here.
Despite the screen's full HD resolution, scenes from our test movie lack that scary snap we've become used to. More tellingly, they also lack bite versus our rival screens today, even the same-priced Toshiba. Part of the reason is that motion tends to blur and smear a touch – quite a shock given the fluidity and clarity with which it is normally handled by Philips.
More bad news finds the 32PFL5604H's colours looking a bit more muted and compressed than we'd expect. Meanwhile, black levels – something else that have traditionally been a strength – are decidedly average, with an unsightly mist hanging over dark scenes. Careful reduction of the contrast, brightness and backlight settings seems to do little to solve the problem.
While it might sound like we were deeply unimpressed with this model, we should clarify that this is in the context of Philips' normally excellent (and more expensive) higher-end sets. Pictures aren't a complete disaster and are generally decent with HD material making this a good budget option. We'd even go as far as suggesting that the handling of judder (something that afflicts most screens during motion and horizontal camera pans) is among the best here.
Standard-def pictures tell a similar story to HD ones, looking a touch too soft for our liking – something that a more up-to-date version of Philips' screen processing would deal with.
Partnered with some lacklustre audio, it's hard to think of this TV as anything other than average looking, with basic features and uninspiring pictures.
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Britain's broadband is 10 years old
Broadband celebrates its tenth birthday in Britain this week.
Britain's first broadband customer, single parent Mark Bush, was NTL's first customer for broadband testing back in March 2000 (NTL is now Virgin Media).
Prior to having broadband, Bush was spending £300 a month on a dial-up connection. Remember those?
Surfing the pipe
Mr Bush told BBC news: "It was pretty impressive in the early days, having the whole pipe to myself."
Mr Bush had set up a website about combat flight which soon developed into a flight simulation game with 1.2m visitors a month at its peak.
"When I first signed up I thought broadband would be something that would help with my gaming," said Mr Bush, but now he uses the computer to interact with his kids..
"Traditionally there would have been a generation gap - a 47 year old Dad would have little in common with a 17 year old son and 14 year old daughter," he said. "But we have the internet in common... without it I would probably see less of my kids."
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Brightcove announces new HTML5 video support for iPad
Apple's iPad launches in the US this coming Friday (April 3) and this week sees the arrival of the new, free Brightcove Experience framework for HTML5.
For those that are not aware, Brightcove offers Apple and others a "way to publish, distribute, and monetize web video for the iPad and other Apple devices."
Brightcove's HTML5 video solution is also important for some of the leading UK media - Sky, Virgin Media, Five, C4, The Mirror, The Guardian and The Times all use the platform. Sky has also recently expressed excitement about the possibilities of Apple's iPad.
iPad-friendly newspapers
Brightcove's US customers including Time Inc. and (Brightcove) investor The New York Times – both of which using the new HTML5 solution for their iPad-friendly publications.
We also expect to see in iBookstore at launch on Friday with over 30,000 free books brought to the iTable by the Gutenberg Project.
Video previews of a number of "HD" formatted iPad apps have already started arriving online, as you can see right here.
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