The BBC has finally released it’s iPlayer, albeit still in beta form. The iPlayer allows users in the UK to download and watch programmes from the last seven days. Officially launched yesterday but the BBC are still limiting the number of people who can download the player – I registered in the morning and receive my invitation at 10pm, not sure how many are being allowed through at any one time.

My initial reaction was how similar to was to channel 4’s 4OD and the reason for that is that they are both based on the same underlying third … Read the rest

I always like it when something goes wrong with IT and it uncovers a human side to the company. In this case it is YouTube. I was setting up my account to allow me to upload videos from my phone when the following appeared. At least it is going to get looked at…

 … Read the rest

I had need to set up a blog for Jim the other day. Previously I have always used Greymatter but I knew that what was needed was something with simple picture upload and Greymatter didn’t fit the bill. So I did a search on Google and quickly identified that WordPress was likely to fit the bill. That was the easy part out of the way, next was to get it installed and up and running. What I had not banked on was it being so quick. Once I had set the parameters in the configuration file correctly I was up … Read the rest

Friends think that I keep this blog simply to have an outlet for all my complaints against the world at large. That’s simply not the case, that’s only partly it’s use. Then again, when I see things such as this it does begin to make my blood boil.

I upgraded to the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader this week and during the installation process I was presented with the following screen.

One of the questions asked was “Please select a language for the Licence Agreement” and there was a dropdown which had helpfully been set to a default of … Read the rest

Sorting out a friends computer last night that had become infected with the very annoying CpvfeedPopup spyware I tried all sorts of tricks to try and get it cleared. I find that a combination of Spybot and Adaware are usually sufficient to deal with most things. In this case neither of them could manage it. So searching the net I came across Adware Away which claimed to remove CpvfeedPopup or you got your money back. Seeing as it was only £16 it seemed like a no lose situation. Anyway it is not really for the beginner as it needs to … Read the rest

During the storms in January the aerial got blown off our roof leaving us without any telly for, as it turned out, a month. This allowed us to to try out the iptv service from Channel 4 called 4OD. This allows you to download programmes from it’s catalogue and watch them on your PC. During the month we watched probably eight downloads, all of which costs us 99p a go.

My verdict? Well it still has some way to go yet. For a start the software was pretty flaky regularly crashing when searching for programmes and, on one occasion, … Read the rest

Multiple remote controls are the bane of any gadget lovers life. In our house we have the usual remotes for the TV and DVD along with others for the TiVo and Freeview boxes. It was all getting too much for us trying to keep them in one place and find them when you needed them. So I took a look for an all-in-one remote that would not only deal with all the devices we had but any we might get in the future. It was while surfing the net for something suitable that I came across this beauty:

The Logitech … Read the rest

Spotted on the FAQ to the fabulous program anagram was this answer to the question “Why isn’t there a Macintosh version of anagram?”

The quite brilliant response was “Our overworked developers are kept in cages at night and fed gruel. Morale is low and we’re having trouble convincing them to take on the project.”

Enough said!… Read the rest

I’ve been running the IE7 beta on both my work and home PCs for quite a while now with no problems. So when my home PC offered to download and install the release version I was happy to allow it to do so. What a mistake that proved to be.

One of the very first things that I did was to listen to a programme on Radio 4 using the Listen Again feature. This brings up a pop-up screen from which you can adjust the volume, change the programme etc. This was all fine until I closed the pop-up window. … Read the rest

I am a big fan of Skype and have been using it more and more recently both for my contacts with family and friends but increasingly also for work. I have invested in a decent USB phone – one that actually looks like a phone rather than a plastic mobile with a USB cable on the bottom, and have been making business calls to clients both in the UK and abroad. To a small business such as AppSwing even the relatively small savings made by switching to Skype can make a very positive difference to the cashflow.

I was therefore … Read the rest