Friday, February 29, 2008

New BBC Homepage / James Cracknell

>> The new BBC homepage
When you go to bbc.co.uk the general appearance of the homepage hasn’t changed for the last few years. It's done its job well, but has always been a bit of a compromise because the page had to offer something to everyone in the UK. One of the aims for a new-look homepage was to make the page flexible and allow people to customise both the content and appearance. A test version of the new homepage has been running alongside the old version for a few months, but this week it's all-change with your personalised homepage replacing the old, static version.

It's well worth having a play with the new page. Click below for links to a video tour of the new features and a more detailed guide to what has changed.

Highlights include an animated version of the old BBC 2 on-screen clock that appeared during continuity announcements, a choice of many colour schemes and up to 12 different promotional panels for your favourite content (including blogs, iPlayer, weather for your postcode, and much more).
>> Tour the new-look homepage
>> New BBC homepage: Full feature guide

Also today:
>> James Cracknell's Sport Relief Challenge
Here's something I had hoped to mention on air but we ran out of time. Last week we talked about the main Sport Relief site. This week I've been looking at the site for James Cracknell's Cross-Continent Challenge in aid of Sport Relief. James is currently on the third day of the challenge, during which he aims to travel to Africa from the UK in less than a week - rowing the channel, cycling down through France and Spain then swimming to North Africa (accompanied by David Walliams.

James has already completed 412 miles out of his target of 1,434 miles. It's a really impressive site, which uses sophisticated technology to track James' exact location, and also features regular blog and video updates, a list of the music he's listening to en route and the chance to sponsor James's challenge.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Sport Relief, Magazine Covers and Long Things

Something worthy:
>> Sign up for the Sports Relief Mile
The big focus for this year’s fundraising effort is the Sports Relief mile on Sunday March 16th – in which anyone (regardless of fitness level) can participate in one of hundreds of different events at athletic tracks all over the country. Find your nearest track or register online at the official Sport Relief site.
Something fun:
>> Mag My Pic
Upload a photo of your choice and mock up a cover of one of 12 glossy magazines including Vogue, National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, Maxim and Rolling Stone. When you have created your magazine cover you can choose to post it straight to a blog, MySpace or Facebook – or to allow other people to rate it in an online gallery.

Something largely pointless but still oddly compulsive:
>> The longest list of the longest stuff at the longest domain name at long last
This site is a long alphabetical list of fairly random categories. (dog tongue, fjord, poker game, pizza etc etc). Simply click on a category name to learn about the longest thing in that category.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

BBC iPlayer adds 'Click To Play' feature

>> BBC iPlayer
>> BBC Press Office Guide to iPlayer
When I was little I used to anxiously await the arrival of the Christmas double issue of Radio Times so I could meticulously plan my festive viewing. In spite of this, I usually found that by the start of the Spring term, I’d missed most of the programmes which everyone was talking about in the playground.
Which brings me to the BBC iPlayer, which launched quietly in the summer as a trial service offering UK licence fee payers free Windows downloads of BBC TV shows. Just in time for Christmas, the service is expanding to include ‘Click To Play’ programmes as well as downloads.
Now you can watch immediately online on any Windows, Mac or Linux computer. Basically as long as you are in the UK, if your computer can play YouTube videos, it should also be able to play any iPlayer Click To Play videos with no additional software.
Around 250 shows from all BBC TV channels are made available each week, and you have 7 days after the original broadcast to watch each show. Which means that even if you forget to set the video for Doctor Who, Catherine Tate or Strictly Come Dancing this Christmas, you can still catch up with all these shows online, making Spring term telly playground blues a thing of the past.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Music Club Live / Festive greetings

>> Radio 2 Music Club Live
Earlier this month Radio 2 hosted a concert featuring six acts we have supported from the beginning of their careers. Go online now to see photos, hear live tracks and watch backstage video of james Blunt, KT Tunstall, The Hoosiers, Tom Baxter and more. Then tomorrow from 2200 you can listen again to the whole gig and watch 30 minutes of highlights online or on digital TV (via the red button service)

Also mentioned today:
>> Elf Yourself
>> Everyclick presents Santa Swing

Friday, December 07, 2007

Friday quick links

>> Doctor Who Advent Calendar
Highlights so far include:
  • Merry Christmas from David and Kylie video
  • Christmas short story - The Frozen
  • Companions Quiz
  • Printable Christmas Cards
  • Unreleased Murray Gold Track - The Old Rugged Cross
with lots more to come before the 2007 Christmas epsiode
>> About My Place
Zoomy-inny maps go 3D! Just like Google Earth, but you don’t have to download it first, this lets you choose from an overhead view of your house, or satellite views from North, South, East or West
  • Accept that you can’t dance
  • Vow that never again will you perform a pelvic thrust
  • No singing, mauling, or woop-wooping
  • Keep things VERY simple
>> Game of the week: Hair Style
Wholly in Japanese, so this animated hair-styling game is slightly baffling, but cute and compelling in equal measure!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Pirate Radio London

>> Radio London
40 years ago this week, the Marine Offences Bill became law – bringing to an end the reign over the UK’s airwaves of the offshore pirate stations.
This is one of the most comprehensive fan sites dedicated to the pirate ships – with a particular emphasis on Radio London whose star roster of DJs included Tony Blackburn, Dave Cash, Pete Drummond, Kenny Everett, John Peel, Keith Skues, Ed "Stewpot" Stewart and Tommy Vance.
A true labour of love, the site features over 1000 pages of enthusiastic and expert content. Highlights include a complete set of Radio London Fab Forty charts from 1965 – 67 featuring information and photographs which form a mini-history of the times and music.
Also recommended:
>> Listen again to Johnnie Walker’s special programme devoted to the last days of offshore pirate radio
>> Radio 2 60’s Season
>> The Pirate Radio Hall Of Fame

Friday, July 27, 2007

BBC iPlayer: Free legal TV downloads for UK licence fee payers.

>> BBC News: BBC web downloads set to launch
>> BBC News: What does on-demand TV offer?

>> Video from BBC News. Click here for more coverage

From tomorrow, UK licence fee payers will be able to register their interest in taking part in the first public tests of the brand-new BBC iPlayer service. iPlayer will allow viewers to catch up with around 400 hours of BBC TV shows every week by downloading them to their Windows XP computers. In the autumn the scheme will be expanded to Apple Macs, with support for Windows Vista and other devices to be added later.
Programmes from all BBC TV channels (including digital channels and regional programmes from BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) will be available to download for up to 7 days after transmission. Once downloaded viewers have up to 30 days to start watching a programme before it is automatically deleted from their computer.
The whole system has been designed to be extremely straight-forward to use. I looked at it in action earlier today and it is even simpler than Listen Again for BBC Radio.

STOP PRESS: You can now register your interest in the iPlayer trial using the following link:
>> BBC iPlayer

Keep an eye on this page in coming weeks for more on iPlayer.

Friday, July 06, 2007

Friday Quick Links

YouTube Clip of the Week
>> The Worst Police Dog in the world

>> Tour De France: Official
Available in 5 different languages, with video, news, history, games, reviews and more.
>> Tour De Fromages
This site follows the same route as the cyclists but focuses on the different cheese of the regions the race passes through. Includes a good cheese-catching, cow-avoiding Tour De Fromages game
>> Live Earth Webcasts
>> Live Earth Official
>> Live Earth on the BBC
>> Live Earth on Radio 2
>> Climate Change on the BBC
All 7 of this weekend’s global concerts are being webcast, offering 24 hours of online video starting with the Australian leg at 2.30 tomorrow morning.
BBC coverage starts with Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 live from Wembley at 10am, BBC Two coverage starts at 1030 and Russell Brand will be backstage on Radio 2 from 2000.

>> T in the Park
Promising video of 40 acts from 4 stages, and the chance to create and share your own custom video channel . Headliners include Lily Allen, Snow Patrol, Arcade Fire, Razorlight, Avril Lavigne and Scissor Sisters

Monday, May 21, 2007

Birmingham Walk Of Stars

>> Birmingham Walk Of Stars
On July 6th Ozzy Osbourne will become the first star to be inducted on to the Birmingham Walk of Stars. The organisers of this splendid initiative are seeking your nominations for other Brummies deserving of this offer. I vote for Bill Oddie, Mike Skinner, The Twang and of course Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Fame Karaoke Competition

Fame >> Fame Karaoke Competition
If you missed out on the auditions for the 2 big musical theatre TV talent shows running at the moment (Grease and Joseph), there’s a nice competition for aspiring musical stars on the site for the new West End production of Fame.
Would-be West End stars are invited to film themselves singing along to the show’s title song and upload the video to the site. The best performer will win the chance to appear in a special performance of the show early this summer. Altogether now:

I wanna live forever,
I want to learn how to fly….

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