Archive of TheNextWeb.org
Written on December 18, 2008 – 6:20 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
The latest version of BBC iPlayer Desktop has just been released with both Mac and Linux compatability thanks to Adobe Air.
When the iPlayer first launched the BBC was criticised for producing versions that only worked with Microsoft’s Windows XP, thankfully this is now not the case however my impressions are not good and overall I can’t see myself switching over from the website version of the player.
Firstly, with the experiences I have had with Adobe Air, I am disappointed they decided to use the platform to release the app.
Secondly, after launching the app I clicked the large link to start “Downloading from BBC iPlayer” and was taken to the BBC website only to discover I wasn’t able to download yet. Am I missing something?
Thanks to James Mitchell on Twitter and Phazer in comments I discovered you need to sign up as a registered labs tester which then enables the extra functionality. However, not all the current “stock” of videos is available for download, you will need to have a dig around for videos with the ‘Download to Computer’ link.
Upon clicking the download link, you will notice the download begin in your desktop player with the average 30 minute show taking approx 12-20 minutes to download (see image below).
The iPlayer lets viewers stream programmes for up to seven days after broadcast or download and watch them for up to 30 days.Infuratingly however, after waiting 20 minutes to download, I was greeted with this message:
So I will definitely be sticking to the iPlayer website from now on. Bah Humbug!
Download BBC iPlayer Here and more info here
Thanks to Dave Lee for the heads up.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on December 16, 2008 – 4:12 pm
Zee, Internet Marketer, Design Connoisseur & Web App Devotee
If you’re still looking for a reason to finally switch loyalty from Internet Explorer over to one of many competing browsers, trust me, this is it.
A major flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer that allows hackers to gain the password details of the user has been revealed.
This is not a rumor, it has been confirmed by Microsoft who in fact announced the discovery themselves admitting a “vulnerability in Internet Explorer” that “could allow remote code execution.” Not Good.
Still think this is over hyped news? Think again. Even the BBC has picked up the story with commentary from a number of industry analysts. (more…)
Written on September 24, 2008 – 2:39 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Charles Leadbeater, author and former adviser to Tony Blair, opened the Picnic conference in Amsterdam today with a keynote about collaborative creativity. He started with a statement about collaboration: “it not just applies to high tech, new media, and culture, but also to social challenges - like the environment. Collaborative action is not just about new things, but about very broad challenges. We’ll have to bring different people together”.
He wrote the book “We Think” about this, but don’t worry, you won’t have to buy it. According to Leadbeater, several people told him a four-minute YouTube video gives a good idea of his book.
When showing this video to his 13-year old, the young fella patted him on the back and left after two minutes. 92,000 other people did like the video though and left over 300 comments. “It’s the beginning of a conversation”, said Leadbeater.
He then showed a video that his kid probably liked better: a teenager playing along on his electric guitar with a synthesized version of Bach’s Air. Leadbeater: “49 milion people around the globe spend five minutes of their lives on watching this kid playing his guitar. Just image he would have told the BBC controller of entertainment whether she wanted to show this five-minute clip. (..) Get out of here, would have been the definite answer. Thanks to the web this boy didn’t have to go through all that. It’s the new world.”
Leadbeater talked about the changed media environment. How the old media world existed of a few major players and the millions of smaller parties that have now popped up. “The challenge is to connect them and try to make something more out of it than just bits”. This is of the utmost importance, because creativity mostly flourishes because of collaborative action. “It’s a myth that creativity always comes from a single person with a brilliant insight. Most creative ideas come from people blending and mixing things”, said Leadbeater.
Yet not all collaboration leads to creativity. Sometimes there’s too much consensus (boring) or too much chaos (leads to nothing). To get us started, Leadbeater shared five key conditions for stimulating creativity through collaborative action.
- Diversity is king, participants need to think differently and have different knowledge.
- Give people ways to contribute. They need really simple ways to add their piece of information.
- Connect people with each other by using the most suitable technology
- The most important one: participants must have a shared sense of purpose and an individual sense of pay-off. Use a mascot or something.
- Communities need to have some element of structure to make decisions.
[Photo credit: Jaap Stronks]
Written on September 10, 2008 – 11:01 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
So far, London-based Webjam has resisted the temptation of going after the Facebook-kinda audience and remained the focus on B2B. I wrote about this start-up in July, when they closed a €1.9 million round of funding. The BBC once called the iWeb-like community builder “better than Facebook”, and this could have distracted them from their real objective: mobilizing the crowd for companies and organizations. They’ve now released a product that brings this goal closer, called Branded Services.
Brand managers can use the tools and structure of Webjam to give people an opportunity to “befriend” their brand. Sort of like a Facebook company profile, but then with more control for the brand manager. If you look at the page of The Other Side Magazine, only the top bar gives away that we’re dealing with a Webjam page.
Although larger companies won’t feel the need to join Webjam, simply because they have their own outlets, smaller companies might be interested in creating a Webjam-based community. Instead of hiring a developer and designer, The Other Side Magazine only had to subscribe to Webjam’s services and
now their members can write their own blog posts, comment on almost every piece of content, maintain their own profile, publish their own “art”, and have discussions in the forums.
So while many social networks are struggling with their advertisement-based business models, Webjam will happily sell licenses to mid-size companies.
Written on May 28, 2008 – 10:31 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
For me, the digital revolution that has been raging on for quite some years makes perfect sense. I don’t look back at another era of media usage, but I can imagine others do. All those weird Web 2.0 services that fulfill needs people couldn’t think of having ten years ago can make you nostalgic. Right?
I think BBC editor Darren Waters agrees with me. In his dot.life column of May 25, he looks back at those good ol’ water cooler moments. Colleagues used to chit chat about last night’s television show, as they had all watched the same one. But all the new technologies like video-on-demand, DVD boxes, torrents, and YouTube killed that precious daily ritual. Everybody is watching something different.
Yet Waters has now found a new way to discuss the highlights and low points of modern television: Twitter! The microblogging service honors the water cooler as the perfect metaphor. When Waters watched the Eurovision Song Contest a few days ago, he didn’t just turn the tube on. He also browsed to Tweetscan and Summize (Not Summarize, Mr. Waters) to see what others were saying. It’s like putting the TV next to the water cooler. Moreover, people posted links to background stories, which makes watching television and Twitter at the same time “informed viewing”, and that, my dear readers, is “exciting”.
Interesting conclusion by Waters. But it wasn’t the only thing about his article that struck me. Waters is twittering with people not because they’re acquaintances, no, because they’re watching the very same show. Is Twitter moving towards some sort of revamped and improved chat box?
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
