Sky/Lovefilm

So I have subscribed to Sky for a long time. I simply couldn't live without the sport, and a fair amount of the US import stuff. Sky+ is a great thing, and Sky HD is without peer in the UK.

They recently added IP-based on-demand content under the Anytime+ banner (well, they recently added it for people not using Sky broadband..). It seems to have a lot of decent HD content, and works well (starts streaming fairly quicky, no buffering) - but discovering content is a nightmare - so much that I basically don't use it.

They really, really need either an addition to the smartphone/tablet apps which allows search/discovery of on-demand content, or (preferably and) a search facility on the web.

We seem to be at a point (which has itself taken an age to arrive) where a lot of content is available to legally stream, but the usability isn't there yet. Sky also just added BBC iPlayer to my box, and it is pretty near useless trying to use it with a remote control, unless the thing you want to watch is on the front page (and even then it is several clicks away).

Let us control all of this from an app. I understand that Sky have an iPad app which allows control of the planner, but i'm not sure that it does this yet. And it is not available for Android.

And then there is Lovefilm.. I also subscribe to them, for a discs+streaming plan - partly because I use them a lot to rent XBOX/PS3 games. Their streaming catalogue seems to be growing, although much of it is still in pretty naff SD quality.

Their website is also next to useless for searching content. If I search for a TV show which they stream then:

• It lists every episode, with no breakdown by season etc
• I cannot mark things down, in any way, to watch later. If you can also rent a physical copy then you can add to your list, but TV show epidoes do not have this option... So I have to literally bookmark things I want to stream later - and that doesn't help if I'm not using the web to stream them
• Speaking of which... they don't have a streaming client for Android yet. Well, they do if you use a Kindle Fire (which is based on Android), but it is artificially limited to that device.

It feels like, whatever service I am using (and paying for), the content is just out of reach. It is there, but finding is is too painful.

My top 20 albums of the decade

So every newspaper, blog, and homeless person that I walk past on the street is doing one of these.. why not me??

Here are my personal top 20 albums of this very decade - and yes, they are in any particular order!

20 : Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz : This has a bit of everything, and most of it works.

19 : Nine Black Alps - Locked Out From The Inside : Being my current favourite, it had to be included. Frankly criminal that this is getting zero airplay simply because they are no longer signed to a major record label.

18 : Radiohead - I Might Be Wrong : When is a live album a classic? When it re-invents the songs, and throws in a genuine all-time classic unreleased song for fun

17 : Muse - Origin Of Symmetry : I'm actually not sure about this one, now you ask. But it has Plug In Baby on it for fuck's sake!

16 : Daft Punk - Discovery. Disco greatness; simples.

15 : Arcade Fire - Neon Bible : Choc full of in-your-face anthemic muchness. An album to warm your cockles.

14 : Eminem - Curtain Call : I had to pick an Eminem album because he has been one of the genui (is that the plural?) of the decade. So I kopped out and went for the greatest hits. It's a great album.

13 : The Strokes - Is This It? / Room On Fire : I'm not actually choosing one album here because neither is good enough but combined we have greatness, and they deserve to be on this prestigious list.

12 : The Field - From Here We Go Sublime : Yup, I hadn't heard of this either until it was all over the 'best of 2007' lists. It was all over those lists for a reason, ladies and gentlemen! This album manages to be a truly great, and more importantly cohesive dance record in a way that very few people have previously managed. There are plenty of dance artists I love who have made great songs, but none have made an album this good.

11 : Explosions In the Sky - How Strange, Innocence : There's not much to say about this except listen to it. Then again, and again. Then wonder how you lived without this band in your life.

10 : Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head. This is the album that delivered me from dance music and stoked that guitar fire inside, which burns to this day. Radiohead-lite? Maybe, but still bloody good.

9 : The Killers - Hot Fuss : So many great songs on one album.

8 : Green Day - American Idiot : This is everything a concept album could be; epic multi-part rockers, classic singles, and all so singular in message it's almost scary. It is scary.

7 : Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not : The most anthemic album ever? Something entirely fresh, whilst also completely brilliant.

6 : Ash - Free All Angels : So many potential top-10 singles on this record, is this the best pop-rock album ever?

5 : Muse - Absolution : Muse at their very finest. Screaming basslines, virtuoso guitars, massively OTT vocals, and massive tunes.

4 : Radiohead - In Rainbows : Radiohead produces classic 'song' album! Radiohead does melody! This suprised a few people, but ultimately is a classic. It's only not no.1 because the 2nd half isn't quite as stunning as the first, but it's still pretty damn unbeatable! Not a bad way to release it, either.

3 : Nine Black Alps : Eveything Is : This is the perfect rock album. Heavy-as-fuck from start to finish, unrelenting guitar warfare (well, apart from the intermission). But that's not it - it has tunes, awesomely memorable, endlessly repeatable, gorgeously air-guitar-ariffic-ly brilliant tunes, with not a weak link on the album (and not many even on this page can say that).

2 : Radiohead - Kid A : This is just the most astonishing achievment. The only album that pushes all the boundaries, yet remains completely listen-again. And again. And it has beautiful songs behind the icy facade. Leaving this off no.1 was a tough choice.

1 : Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak : This has to be number one, because it is my most-listened album this decade. The Bucket drew me in, and the rest kept me there. This is everything that their last couple of albums are not; Insane, unintelligable vocals, instantly memorable songs, openers, closers, NO POWER BALLADS. This is a work of art, a new deinfition of pop, it's nu-rock, and it's nothing that any other band could do. It's also among the best things i've ever heard live. Rock and roll for the 21st century - this is it.


And where would we be without some stuff that almost made the good list, but I haven't listened to it enough? Thirteen Senses, Operahouse, Bat For Lashes, Florence & The Machine, We Are Scientists, Maps, Sam Forrest - looking at you.

Honourable mentions for Worst Album of the Decade (from an artist who should know better) go to... (and you don't get links, chumps!!)
Muse - The Resistance
Oasis - Heathen Chemistry (or any other album this century from them)
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
Kings of Leon - Only By The Night


Apalled at the shocking lack of muscial snobbery and bands your dad has never heard of? Shocked by the omission of Girls Aloud? Feel free to comment, or to simply never read this page like everyone else. S.

A beginners guide to commenting at El Reg

Firstly, and most importantly, think carefully before commenting. Not about whether your viewpoint is carefully considered and will make a positive contribution to the conversation - don't be stoopid! I mean think about whether your comment (ne The Truth(tm)) is condescending enough. Don't leave readers in any doubt.

If you are unsure on which position to take when commenting, here is a handy guide: -

• Microsoft are the spawn of Damien
• Mobile phones are for talking, and maybe very occasionally, texting. Anyone who wants to do anything more on their phone: has no life / should get a digital camera / how can they surf on 3.5" screen? / I managed without a phone in my formative years (please delete as appropriate, or simply list). Be inventive!
  
• Cyclists are a semi-human extension of the characters from Road Rage, and points are on offer
• No-one else contributing to this thread has, has ever had, or will ever have, a girlfriend - use this to your advantage when crafting your witty, insightful comebacks (see below). See how superior you feel towards everyone else now? Channel that!
  
• Twitter... hah!! Get a life. Same goes for facebook
  
• The iPhone is officially known as the Jesus phone here. Yup. It's because if you drop yours from a 10th-floor balcony, it will come back to life... try it
  
• Did I say that Microsoft are the spawn of Damien? I meant Phorm. Phorm kills blind babies and collectively eats their heads.
  
• Paris Hilton is a slut. Just saying
• YOU could run the country/company/council/brothel more efficiently and effectively than whoever is in charge (delete as appropriate); don't be shy now
• It is not cool to be commenting after 12pm on a Friday, you really should in the in the pub. Use this to your advantage: come back wasted (minumum: 6 pints and a curry (vinadloo or above) or a kebab (pigeon only)) and then the commentage will flow! Don't forget to tell the boss what an unbelievable shitfuck he is first though
• Generalise. It's boring when you are just insulting a small minority ("some BMW drivers can be right cocks"). Much better to go the whole hog ("all BMW/Audi/Merc drivers are fuckits of the higest order. I've personally witnessed at least 1094 causing fatal accidents whilst on their phone with one hand and jerking off with the other, at 146mph. In a blizzard. The only answer is to commandeer some 18-wheelers and run them all off the road over a steep sliff (all in the name of Darwin)" much better eh?).
  
• Always use the reg-coined nickname (Wacky Jacqui)
• Record companies may not be the spawn of Beelzebub, but.. hmm actually they must be! They are systematically raping both artists and consumers at the same time (no mean feat if you ask me). How dare they charge people for music? If they made the price more reasonable, no-one would download it for free - fact(tm)
• If there is a new technology or invention, which you think might actually be a good idea and might improve some people's live, whatever you do, please don't spew this nonesense from your foaming mouth - keep your earth-is-round nonsense to yourself. What a pointless waste of money, time, and my oxygen. If it is transportation-related, tell the lazy bastards to walk instead. If it is home-entertainment, then the tards should really be outside getting a life(tm).
  

Have a swift, comedic rebuttal ready for when some tard dares to disagree with you. The stronger their argument, the firmer we have to be here. In extreme circumstances (a well-argued, cohesive response which has made us look like a twat) we must wheel out "fuck off twatfuck fucktard" before anyone notices. That'll show'em!

And two-for-the-price-of-one this handy guide can be easily adapted for posting on Slashdot! There are some small but important differences that must be taken into account though: -

• If you are within the first 5 posts, then you must tell a joke - it must be the first vaguely funny thing that comes into your head (no thinking time allowed - must get in first!). Remember, no-one here has a girlfriend!! They will find anything funny! (If you can't think of anything funny, scan previous stories' comments for several well-used templates. There are some timeless classics that never get boring; I won't spoil them here but they involve ?? profit and overlords). Just don't be original or genuinely funny - that's not cool, mkay
  
• Mod points are at stake here, so try your very hardest not to actually be rude. Hard, I know - try and make the others sound like plonkers with your inciseful cutting wit.
  
• Please, whatever you do, do not research your comments! Where would the flame wars be without upstanding individuals such as yourself just Telling It Like It Is(tm)
• This really is the linux domain. If you post a comment using a Microsoft Windows PC, little balls of linux will travel back down the tubes and cause your computer to BLUE SCREEN. You have been warned

Now you have been given a basic introduction - off you go into the big-ol-wide-world and show us what you've got!

If you are interested in learning more advanced commenting techniques, then well done! There is big money to be made from spouting forthright ill-humoured nonsense from these very pages. I will be running seminars soon at a very reasonable price. The absolute masters among you, who truly excrete bile from every orifice (except your ears - that would be steam) can perhaps one day look forward to a long and successful career baiting the nation at the Daily Mail.

Do you have any other sage advice for potential comment-tards? Please leave it below, and put into practise what you have learned above.

TomTom on the iPhone

TomTom on the iPhone should: -

• Have HD traffic updates. It's built into an iPhone, which has an unlimited data connection...
• Use the Compass in the 3GS!! It always manages to guess that I am facing in the opposite direction at the start of a journey
• Allow custom voices. They have them for sale, but you can't use them on iPhone
• Allow custom POIs and maybe even POI/favourite syncing (maybe via a web portal)
• Fade out iPod music gracefully when speaking a direction, rather than suddenly chopping it off
• Have a "back function" of some sort - so that when deep in the menus I can instantly go back to the main navigation screen without hitting about 3 buttons.
• Allow more than one "travel via" point. Itineries?
• Mapshare?!

Really poor effort considering the price they are charging.

Mobile Phone Convergence

I don't want my mobile phone to surf the web, I don't want it to play music, I just want to make phone calls and, maybe, make the ocassional text

There-above being a typical response as seen on The Register comments section upon any advanced mobile device being introduced. (There are devices for these people, by the way!)

Convergence of mobile devices has been happening for a long time now. The first thing to be added to mobile phones was cameras ~2003. My first cameraphone was the Nokia 7250 (it's predecessor had an addon camera module). But this was something like a CIF camera, basically useless (which didn't stop me taking oodles of snaps of course). It had an FM radio also - another device not required.

Around the same time saw the introduction of the first series 60 devices - smartphones! These had PIM (converging a PDA) and allowed the user to install native applications to extend the functionality of the device (facewarp, anyone?). These things were, very slowly, becoming portable computers. 3G arrived, and the power of web browsing was available.

2006: Wifi was added, better cameras (3mp with autofocus). That and a decent mp3 player (although an actual 3.5mm headphone socket? come on!). What could be next, you ask?

The N95 was introduced in 2006, and I think it is fair to say that it blew people's minds: -

• A 5mp camera with autofocus and flash, and VGA video recording!!
  
• Built in GPS (with network assistance)
  
• WiFi
• Dedicated music keys
• 3.5mm headphone socket
• Great screen
• Accelerometer

How many of those features were new, and how many set the template for the phones that we use today? Most of them, on both counts. How many separate devices have we been saved with carrying around?....

After the N95, we have seen evolution rather than revolution on the hardware front. Cameras have increased in megapixel count, but the image quality is not massively better. Slightly larger screens, and more compact design. The revolution came in the form of software - Apple software. The iPhone when it was introduced was an extremely limited device but with a beatiful interface. This didn't itself bring any further convergence, but it brought the smartphone to the masses. Possibly the same masses who had been using s60 devices for the last couple of years (because of the 5 megapixels?) but who had not been installing applications and playing games, or web browsing; until now.

Here are some of the separate gadgets that have been integrated into mobile phones today: -

• FM radio
• Camera
• GPS/Sat nav
• PDA (with web browsing thanks to the ample connectivity)
• MP3 player
• Portable video player
• Portable gaming device (ie gameboy/PSP)
• Oh yes, and you can talk to people with it ;)

But how many of these are proper replacements, and how many are compromises? Radio is covered, with FM and internet streaming capabilities (the only thing I can see coming is DAB?). GPS/Satnav is just as functional as the real thing. PDA? do they even exist any more?! MP3 player is absolutely covered, and playing videos is an excellent experience on the latest devices. Gaming is rapidly approaching the levle of dedicated devices, although not quite there. But it will get there.

The omission form that list is the camera. My phone has been my primary camera for years now, and for the last 3 years it has produced excellent results. But phone cameras are limited simply by the form of the device, like none of the other additions are. There will not be a serious optical zoom in a compact mobile phone any time soon, or seriously good optics - there simply isn't space! That's why I just bought a dedicated camera (shock, horror!!) in the form of a Panasonic TZ7, which has a 12x stabilized optical zoom and 720p video capture. I'm happy that I won't have this camera everywhere with me and the iPhone photos that I take at 3MP will be "good enough" for instant snaps, but for holiday photos I want something better.

So the first device to be converged is the one device that I still require to own separately!

What comes next?

• HD video recording. This is just a matter of processing power (and to some extent storage) and will come soon
  
• Next-level connectivity: WiMax or even just 802.11n
• Battery technology. Ever more powerful devices, with more functionality, need power more than ever before. We are still awaiting the massive leap here..
  
• Software. We have the hardware now - improvements in that sphere will not be radical. We just have to find the best ways of using it! Flixster for the iPhone is a perfect example: it uses your GPS location to give you local cinema listings, integrates with online sites to give you ratings of each film, and lets you view the trailer on youtube directly. Bringing all of these converged devices together in unison is the future.

Nokia to iPhone: Taking the plunge

When the first iPhone came out, it had a few nifty tricks but was ultimately useless (no 3rd party apps, aweful camera, no 3g!!!). Then the 3G arrived; things are getting better, but a 2MP camera with no video recording won't really cut the mustard. The app-store idea had promise, but I couldn't live without stuff like TomTom, SlingPlayer and Sky+ which I have had on my Nokias for the last few years.

Oh yes, the Nokias! My handset history reads something like:

• A Philips handset, my first phone, back in 2000 - can't even remember what it was but it had absolutely no frills!
• Nokia 3330 (2001). The classic 3310 + WAP!! Oh the excitement of being able to check the cricket scores whilst out and about! (At a cost of 10p/minute)
• Nokia 7250 (2003) = first cameraphone! CIF camera at that. First colour screen as well! also the magic of GPRS (at a princely cost)
• Nokia 6600 (2004). First smartphone, the magic of S60 and 3rd party apps! Facewarp, Agile Messenger (I recall sitting atop the grand canyon and sending a picif the view over MSN to a buddy, must have cost a bomb in data!). VGA camera, better than nothing! Friends were amazed what this thing could do though - the concept of apps began here for us!
  
• Nokia 6680 (2005). My first entry into the world of 3G. Pretty neat actually! 1.3MP camera which felt like something of a watershed - you could actually take photos with this that didn't look truly aweful when viewed on a PC screen.
  
• Nokia N73 (2006). S60v3 arrives, and so does a brilliant camera. Actually, looking back at all of the phone snaps the ones taken with the N73 still look the best (yes, better than N95/85). Fantastic screen compared to what went before, and the form factor was sooo much slimmer and sexier than the 6680! This also introduced TomTom and SlingPlayer
  
• Nokia N95 (2007). This was the big one; Nokia shook the world when they released this, and I had to wait agonising months to run out my contract before getting it! 5PM camera, GPS, dual-slide, massive microSD expansion, real headphone socket, WIFI! This was all fresh, amazing stuff.
  
• Nokia N85 (2008). Hmmm.... evolution rather than revolution eh? It's an N95 in a neater package, with the party trick of an OLED screen (and the always-lit standby screen clock/etc is incredibly cool). But it had nothing really new about it, same old 5MP camera (the biggest improvement was actually the new version of the OS - fp2). I really got bored of this after not very long. Oh, and the screen is useless in any kind of sunlight.
  

So, 2009 and time for a new phone (well, before time to tell the truth - contract still has a few months to run!)? iPhone 3GS, of course!

During the last 6 months the iPhone 3G had me getting quite jealous: The lovely interface, superb web browsing, and the rapidly growing catalogue of excellent applications (and the intregation of the applications into location/web) are so superior to anything i'm experiencing with Nokia. But the iPhone 3G is still limited; no copy/paste & MMS are much trumpeted but not really a problem. No video is a problem. 2MP camera with no auto-focus is a problem.

Then the 3G S is announced. Still a little underwhelmed by the 3MP camera to be perfectly honest, but it's reached the point where it's "good enough", and it was the same VGA 30fps video as Nokia. Plus SlingPlayer and TomTom have been announced, result! But it's so expensive! I live in the UK, and the O2 prices on contract are obscene (when you factor in that it's an 18 month contract, and there's no way i'll last 18 months with 1 phone!). I have actually ended up buying on O2 Pay as you go, which is a big hit upfront but the free 3G data for a year is great.

So what do I think now that i've finally taken the plunge, moved over to the dark side, etc..?

The good: -

• The screen is simply beautiful. Big, bright, vivid.
• Mult-touch is amazing. Navigating google maps is bliss.
• The web browser is simply light-years ahead of what I have experience on the N95/N85.
• Thw whole UI is a dream to use. There are obviously some things that will take getting used to, but nothing is killing me yet (i'm surprised).
• Google voice search - this is amazing! I just speak something and it does a google search for it!!!
• Location-aware apps. Flixster, Weather, AroundMe, Maps. These are doing in an instant what I would spend minutes trying to achieve before.
• App store. Yup, there is a lot of crap out there. I've got 5 pages of apps on my home screen already, a lot of which I probably won't use much; but there really is a lot of good stuff out there, and it is so easy to find/download/pay/install.
• Voice commands. I can say "play artist Radiohead" and it will do just that. You know what annoys me? Nokia had one phone that could do this, but it was on a crappy midrange music handset, and the feature wasn't allowed out to play on any other devices.
• Jailbreak. I did this 1 day after I bought it. Partly so that I could unlock and make use of the remainder of my vodafone contract, and partly so that I could install such brilliance as sbSettings, yourtube, 3G-unrestrictor, statusNotifier, lockScreenCalender. All of these are tweaks that could/should have been there already, but are already proving incredibly useful.
• The games. Ragdoll blast, monkey ball, real racing, sheep launcher(!) all better than anything i've played on a mobile before (apart from S-Tris 2 of course!)
  

The bad (of course there is, did you think this was some Jesus-phone or something?): -

• The lockdown: I can't create my own ringtones without resorting to little hacks (i'm not even trying to make a ringtone out of copyrighted material here folks, this is my own stuff, that I created with my own fair hands, but the assumption is that we are all pirates).
• The lockdown: I can't use a custom SMS/message alaert tone without jailbreaking and accessing the iPhone filesystem.
• The lockdown: There is no direct access to the file system from my PC. At all. I can't even copy a photo to the iPhone to use as a wallpaper, without setting up iTunes to sync a folder on my PC and putting the image in that folder. And that image sync only works one-way PC->iPhone. Seriously?
• The lockdown: I have to use iTunes to put music on the device. To put anything on the device in fact. To be honest, this I can probably live with. My music library has needed organising for a while and iTunes maybe just what I needed.
• No multitasking... hang on? Yep, everyone quotes this as the big disadvantage of the iPhone. And every apply fan(boy?) retorts with push notifications. Firstly, I have not found myself missing multitasking. iPod runs in the background, and the web browser (and most other apps) remember exactly what you were doing before so that you might as well be multitasking. Plus if I really need it I have jailbroken and can install backgrounder. But I haven't needed to yet :)
• The lockdown: .. until I installed 3G unrestrictor!
• Battery life. This was a big problem. It was draining in no time at all. Until I disabled location services; i'm guessing that it was continually trying to get a GPS fix, regardless of whether I wanted one or not. I just click this on using sbSettings when I need it now.
• The lockdown: one can't change the background wallpaper on the battery charging screen. Annoying; every other screen uses my wallpaper but this is black (it spends a fair amount of time on charge..)
  

It looks like a lot of negatives, doesn't it? But it's really not; they are niggles whereas the positives are big, sweeping improvements in my mobile life.

If there had been a Nokia just released with an 8MP camera, HD video recording (this will be the next big thing in mobile, by the way!), a DAB radio (dreaming, I know), a bigger/better screen, etc then I may not have gone for the iPhone, but i'm glad that there wasn't! ;) Nokia haven't brought out anything that has excited me since the N95 (that includes the N97: I have no interest in a querty keyboard, and the touchscreen UI is immature and with few apps available, regardless of how good it is).

In short? I'm finding it a joy to do most things now, things which I was amazed that I could do at all before, but weren't very easy or enjoyable. There's no single thing that I wish this phone could do that it can't.

Sky+HD new EPG

The new EPG is fantastic. Infinitely better than that which came before.

• Being able to press the play button to instantly bring up the planner is worth the upgrade by itself!
• Series stacking is genius. I have about 25 episodes of one series taking up but 1 entry in the planner
• Full 7 days EPG cached on the hard drive with no waiting for listings to download! This also means that series links actually work more than 1 day in advance.
• Hearing the sound from the current program whilst browsing the planner (I have the mini-tv turned off)

There are, of course, a few annoyances though.

• The new blue button functionality is a mess. They have tried to integrate a 'last viewed channel' function with the existing 'favourite channels' function, and it is the most frustrating thing to actually use. It makes no sense. Use the green or yellow button for 'previous channel', OK?
  
• Being able to view full program info whilst browsing on the now/next banner is great, but it times out way too quickly, before I can actually read it.
• The new multi-level menu system isn't really very clear. I'm not entirely sure what the distinction is between 'Options' and 'Settings'.

The good things are big, sweeping changes for the better. The bad things are niggles which i'm sure can be worked out. Good work so far, Sky - keep at it.