The BBC has been testing a new service called SoundIndex, which lists the top 1,000 artists based on discussions crawled from Bebo, Last.fm, Google Groups, iTunes, MySpace and YouTube. The top five bands according to SoundIndex right now are Coldplay, Rihanna, The Ting Tings, Duffy and Mariah Carey , but the index is refreshed every six hours. This is somewhat similar to Songkick’s… → Read More
I applaud the Beeb’s white hat hacking of Facebook. (Reminder: for all your black hat needs, look no further.) Whereas the AP was content a few days ago to sound the alarm over Facebook apps using your info for stupid purposes, the BBC hired someone to do some real theoretical damage. What’s most scary about the application developed by the Beeb is that you yourself don’t have to… → Read More
This is just off the chain. I knew elephants were good painters, but filmmakers? A new BBC series used specially trained elephants to follow a group of tiger cubs and their mother around in a jungle for the duration of their cubhood. I’m not sure if you heard me correctly, they used specially trained elephants. Elephants trained to frame shots and hold their mounted hi-def cameras steady. → Read More
Behold the Peel P50 in all its glory. It’s got a 4.5 horsepower engine, 35 MPH top speed, and 100 MPG fuel efficiency. It was manufactured in the Isle of Man back in 1963 and originally sold for 198 GBP (about $400). It’s so small that the BBC’s Jeremy Clarkson can actually wheel it around from place to place — like up to his office. Good thing, too, because there’s… → Read More
If you are looking for some stock videos to add to your blog or Website, Mochila just added about 800 clips from the BBC Motion Gallery, the licensing arm of the BBC. It doesn’t include news clips unfortunately, but there are plenty of science and culture videos. If you need a nicely produced video of striped fish or how to make a Singapore Sling, you can find it on Mochila and embed it on… → Read More
[photopress:bbcbt.jpg,full,center] BitTorrent is getting more legitimate with each passing day. There’s word today that the European Union will put up $22 million, or €15 million, for the development of an open source BitTorrent client—P2P-Net—that supports live streaming. (Wow that sounds like a lot of money to spend for what amount to some kid’s summertime Google Code… → Read More
The BBC’s project to make its enormous back catalog of quality British TV shows available online was ambitious to say the least. But due to colossal mismanagement and a lack of vision and flexibility, its iPlayer app is clumsy, unpopular, and pretty much redundant. I imagine a Dilbert-esque scene as the 400 people on the project all met and shared conflicting ideas for the bloated… → Read More
With Microsoft recently purchasing a 1.6-percent stake in Facebook for a whopping $240 million, many are questioning if Facebook is truly worth $15 billion. While many pundits are calling $15 billion crazy, the BBC takes a look at why Facebook could actually be worth the big bucks. For instance, did you know that over 200,000 new users join Facebook each day? Talk about astronomical growth! Other… → Read More
European ISPs are up in arms over the BBC’s new online TV player, iPlayer. Concerns from service providers such as Tiscali and companies like Carphone Warehouse center around, of all things, a fear of the BBC’s player being too successful and pounding their networks during peak hours. Apparently the internet isn’t ready for IPTV. As the Financial Times reports Mary Turner, CEO of… → Read More
The major broadcasters in the U.K. are in the process of prepping their mobile portals, as a result of mobile operators offering flat-rate data tariffs. Thus the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV are all starting to ramp up their mobile strategies. Channel 4 hired former MTV executive Ben Lister to head its mobile business development, and ITV is also planning to develop new portals around specific… → Read More
Last week rumors began circulating that the BBC might be in the process of developing a video game based on the long running Doctor Who TV series. While the original series ran from 1963 until 1988, a new version of the sci-fi drama just concluded its third season on the BBC, and is currently running on the Sci-Fi Channel in America. This isn’t the first time the infamous Time Lord’s… → Read More
Care for a spot of tea? BBC, that stalwart of UK television AKA telly, is now offering a peer-to-peer video player called the iPlayer what will offer a selection of “programmes” from the past “weeke” and offer “livee” “programmeing” as it happens. Apparently the program has been circulating for a few weeks but they’ve finally gotten it working… → Read More
I sometimes say regretful things when speaking off the cuff at conferences. Last month at The Future of Web Apps conference in London I (jokingly) called for the dissolution of the BBC because some of their online ventures are, in my opinion, stifling private sector startup initiatives in the UK and Europe. As a publicly funded entity with near limitless financial resources, I think the BBC needs… → Read More
and BBC News, and will be ad-free. BBC Worldwide content will carry ads and clips from popular shows and, finally, BBC News will only be available outside the UK and will also carry ads. It will include clips from the regular news reports. Old Farlettrousers, or the Smoke, as the BBC is called in England, has always been ahead of the curve on this who Internet concept, and they can only be… → Read More
If a bunch of open-source supporting nerds start yelling at a bunch of Brits, guess who it’s over? Yerp, Microsoft. The Open Source Consortium has come down hard against the BBC’s plans to force online TV viewers into Microsoft products. New on-demand service the BBC is offering will only be available to those using Windows and “up-to-date” versions of Microsoft products. I… → Read More
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=4662636869909322164&hl=en Digg just found this great 60 minute documentary on Tetris. I’d suggest saving this link and heading home for a good viewing because it’s really an amazing documentary. They literally make the story of a simple Russian puzzle game into a fascinating thriller. Way to go, loyal subjects of the Queen. → Read More
As much as I love the BBC, I can’t help but wonder if they would have written about this new virtual world if it wasn’t their own property. Details are very thin. In fact, as Ben Metcalfe, a former BBC’er, points out, we don’t know if this is a simple Flash game or a real competitor to Second Life. It is slated to go live this summer, and will be called “CBBC… → Read More
Zudeo, the new “100% legal” content sharing site launched by popular BitTorrent company Azureus two weeks ago, just nailed a distribution deal with the BBC. That just took them from a theoretically cool product to a player in the online video space. Under the agreement, BBC will license a number of television shows to U.S. users, including Red Dwarf, Strange and Invasion Earth, Little… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
