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ITV Player revamp brings ad-free TV rentals, keeps the free catch-ups
As a profit-driven network, ITV has its work cut out in the online streaming world when the BBC's iPlayer looms overhead. How do you compete with a cultural institution? Its solution these days is one of sheer choice: it's launching a publicly available beta of its ITV Player refresh that offers TV show rentals. While viewers will have free, ad-backed viewing for the last month's worth of programming, they'll also have the choice of renting 30-day access to archived episodes at 49p (79 cents) each without the pesky commercials in between. Anyone who just can't get enough Collision can spring for a 90-day rental of a whole series at a lower total price, and the broadcaster is even planning trials of streaming-first episode premieres -- if only we were so forward-thinking in the US. We'd question the wisdom of anyone who really, truly needs an uninterrupted The Only Way is Essex, but at least those who want fodder for water cooler chats can blast through their pseudo-reality TV at a record pace.
Medal of Honor: Warfighter unseats FIFA on UK charts
Shock and awe, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which is receiving some of the worst reviews of the season so far, took first place in the UK last week. This is either a sign of the media's impotence or a hat tip to the brilliance of publisher EA that it withheld review copies until launch. A similar situation occurred with Resident Evil 6 a few weeks ago, a game which still sits pretty at tenth place on this week's chart.Other new releases last week included portable games Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask and Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park, which debuted at eighth and ninth place, respectively.If you're wondering about Just Dance 4 ('cause how can you not on the UK charts?), it may have slipped two spots from fourth to sixth, but sales were actually up one percent. Dance Central 3 debuted in 39th place. Shimmy on past the break for the UK top ten.
FIFA fo fum, we see sales of Skylanders to English mums
Welcome to the fourth consecutive week of FIFA 13 topping the UK Charts. No need to feign surprise. Also, don't expect FIFA's run to end by next week, unless Medal of Honor: Warfighter shocks and awes us all. Then again... there's always Forza: Horizon. Racing games can be a wild card on the UK charts. The big debut this week was Activision Blizzard's Skylanders Giants. The sequel outdid the premiere of its predecessor with a second place start, while the original Skylanders, Spyro's Adventure, debuted at number 16, but saw great success after. Bethesda's Dishonored slipped to third and -- there it is! -- the insidious Just Dance 4 keeps working its way up the charts. You can't turn your back on it for a second. Soon it'll be number one and working all that Gangnam Style. Now saddle dance past the break for the UK top ten.
Samsung begins delivering Jelly Bean to UK-based Galaxy S III owners
Samsung has already started on the Jelly Bean upgrade path for the Galaxy S III, but that hasn't meant much so far unless you live in Samsung's homeland. The update's global relevance is expanding in grand fashion now that the company has confirmed the software is rolling out to Galaxy S III units across the UK. Variants on the smartphone for British carriers should get their taste of Android 4.1 over the course of a multi-week update process that brings everyone to the new version. Different carrier testing methods prevent Samsung from being any more specific; it's reasonable to say, though, that most owners living in Old Blighty should be running Jelly Bean before the holiday season kicks into overdrive.
UK carriers form alliance to speed up 800MHz LTE rollout, let us enjoy our Freeview TV
Isn't it better when we work together? British carriers think so. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have officially created a non-exclusive joint venture, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, that should speed up the deployment of 800MHz LTE by keeping Freeview over-the-air TV signals clear of interference while the partners bring their low-frequency 4G online. Previously, the networks were bound to form an equivalent company called MitCo that wouldn't have been active until after the 800MHz auction, preventing companies from getting their wireless houses in order until they'd already made a commitment. There's also a competitive angle involved to go with the cooperative work, as you might imagine: with EE's 1,800MHz LTE poised to go live on October 30th, choosing infighting over assistance would only help widen the frontrunner's lead. Whether DMSL represents altruism or pragmatism, we'll appreciate knowing that the hurdles to a catch-up in UK 4G will be more those of the technical reality than the usual political maneuvering.
Dishonored is 2012's biggest new IP launch in UK, FIFA 13 sees 1st place hat trick
FIFA 13 was – and, probably still is – the top selling game in the UK. For the third week in a row the footie sportsball game, despite a 63 percent decline in sales last week, retained its premier position.Bethesda's Dishonored actually debuted in second place. According to Chart-Track, it's the biggest new intellectual property launch of the year, besting Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs. Even combining sales of Pokemon Black (#3) and White (#5) Version 2, Dishonored would still hold its second place position.The other major launch last week, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, premiered in seventh place behind the insidious Just Dance 4. The aliens are winning. Check out the UK top ten after the break.
FIFA 13 still on top in UK; Resident Evil 6, Just Dance 4 debut strong
FIFA 13, which had a record-setting debut, maintains its premier position on the UK charts. The game saw a 72 percent decline in sales in its second week, but from a historical perspective, FIFA 13 is going to have a long tail and be in the top of the charts for quite a while.Taking the second spot were launch-week sales of Resident Evil 6. Despite crushing reviews, the action horror adventure was the fourth largest game premiere in the UK for 2012. Borderlands 2 slips one spot to third, just above the insidious debut of Just Dance 4.Insidious? Yuuuup! Again, if history serves as any basis for the future of Just Dance 4, it'll just hang out this holiday season, being charming as ever. It won't go away or may find some way to sneak into the top spot once things slow down early next year. Hit the dance floor after the break for the UK top ten.
Bloodhound SuperSonic Car test-fires its engines, roasts the lab wall (video)
The land-speed record has been in British hands since 1983, but it's never been the motherland's habit to rest on its laurels. Yesterday, in a bomb-proof shelter in Cornwall, the team behind the Bloodhound SSC test-fired its rocket system for the first time, producing a staggering 14,000 pounds of thrust thanks to its liquid peroxide and solid synthetic rubber hybrid engine. Pumping that mix through the V8 of a Formula One car, the team hopes to reach a top seed of 1,050 mph (Mach 1.4), well beyond the 763 mph achieved by ThrustSSD back in 1997. After the break, we've got a short clip of the firing as it happened, which, frankly, makes the Batmobile's flaming jet engine look a little bit mediocre by comparison.
Free Skype WiFi hits Ireland and the UK through Wicoms, steps up the quality of public hotspots
Let's face it: many free WiFi hotspots are tacked on as bullet point items to get customers into a shop or hotel, without much concern for quality high enough that it keeps visitors coming back. Wicoms is hoping that a strategy to offer free Skype WiFi in Ireland and the UK will reverse that neglect. Instead of leaving stores to go through carrier partnerships or devise their own solutions, the partnership has stores pick up a £49 Wicoms router and commit to either a £10 ($16) monthly rate or prepaid brackets of £49 ($79) for six months and £95 ($153) for a year. The aim isn't just to provide a more consistent level of performance -- the Skype deal also provides a ready-made sign-in process, whether or not visitors have Skype accounts, as well as someone to turn to for help. While temptations exist to go with earlier alternatives, Skype and Wicoms are giving away the router during October to help sweeten the pot, even for those outlets that drop the Skype WiFi solution later on. Let's hope the hotspots work well enough on the public-facing side; we could all use a few more shelters from low data caps and oversaturated access points.
UK carrier cooperation could see 4G LTE rollout ramp up by summer 2013
With the formal creation of Orange and T-Mobile's LTE network lovechild, Everything Everywhere, the UK finally joined the horserace for 4G. Now, it looks like rival domestic operators could get a chance to play catch-up sooner than expected, according to a report from The Telegraph. It appears the mobile companies, having recently put to rest concerns over any potential "first mover advantage" that would see each party entering into litigation, have been freed up to bid in a spectrum auction set to take place in early January. And further speeding this next-gen rollout along, is Ofcom's admission that those precious frequencies could be ready for use as soon as this coming May, allowing carriers to prep service for public consumption by mid-summer 2013 at the latest. All told, it's good news for denizens of the British isles hankering for blazing wireless speeds and the LTE devices that love them. But as with all things commercial, we'd caution you to expect some regulatory bumps in the road to this rollout.
Visa lets iPhone-toting NatWest and RBS customers pay with NFC cases, join the future
Two can play at the UK-banks-with-NFC-payments game. RBS (and by extension, NatWest) is partnering with Visa Europe to roll out TouchPay, a mobile payment system based around an iCarte case for the iPhone 4 and 4S -- sorry, early iPhone 5 owners. In tandem with a native app, the service allows paying for goods at British shops by tapping the phone at a Visa-capable NFC terminal without needing the short-range wireless built-in. Any purchases under £20 ($32) can even skip the PIN code, if you're just in that much of a hurry to get a Pret À Manger sandwich. Only 1,000 of the 9,000 who pre-registered for TouchPay are getting into Visa's wallet-free initiative at this stage, although all NatWest and RBS customers with one of Apple's semi-recent smartphones can participate once a trial run is over. We're just wondering if and when Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 8 owners get in on the action.
Of course FIFA 13 is biggest thing since FIFA 12 in UK, PS3 'Super Slim' helps hardware
FIFA 13 debuted in the UK last week and the footie franchise dismissed last year's record-setting premiere. According to Chart-Track, FIFA 13 outsold the previous year's installment in units and revenue by 27 and 31 percent, respectively. The game represented 80 percent of all entertainment software sales on the British isles.Last week saw the biggest sales week in the UK of the year so far, with a 196 percent increase of unit sales in the market and 282 percent in overall revenue.FIFA 13 wasn't the only major player to come on the field last week, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria got its kung-fu panda on in fourth. Although that may seem like a lowish debut for what's still one of the biggest MMOs in the world, it should be noted that the game was available digitally and therefore wouldn't be tracked.Finally, on the hardware front, the PS3 'Super Slim' 500 GB sent PS3 sales up 138 percent, with the console representing 37 percent of PS3 sales. Storm on past the break for the UK top ten.
Nominet proposes more secure .UK domain for British websites
Nominet is considering a .uk internet domain for users who can't bear to type the extra three characters necessary for .co.uk. The body is lobbying for the new domain in time for ICANN's next TLD expansion, which includes new entries like .shop, .play and .home. Nominet has promised tough entry requirements for the system, with only businesses (or persons) that can prove a UK presence being eligible to register. It'll also be around four times more expensive, with the extra charges going to pay for daily malware scanning to prevent domain spoofing and a donation to a trust to improve web security. If you're an interested party, you can offer your tuppence-worth at the organization's official public consultation which runs until January 7th 2013.
Barnes & Noble Nook lands in Currys, PC World and Sainsbury's stores, furthers the UK conquest
Barnes & Noble must want no corner of Britain untouched by Nooks. Following its planned bookstore invasion, the American company is bringing both the Nook Simple Touch and its GlowLight cousin to Sainsbury's and Waitrose supermarkets, as well as Dixons Retail-owned chains Currys and PC World. When the e-readers arrive at the outlets' respective online and retail stores from early October onwards, they'll bring the Nook's reach to nearly 2,000 UK sales points -- not quite ubiquitous coverage, but more than double what we saw in our most recent check. About all that's left is to offer the Android tablets that have been conspicuously missing from Barnes & Noble's initial expansion strategy.
Samsung's Galaxy Note II gets its UK release date: October 1st
We've already asked around to let you know that British phablet fans can get their Galaxy Note II fix on ThreeUK, O2 and Vodafone, and now we know the date, too. Anxious S-pen lovers will be able to grab the new device from October 1st from the carriers, or pick 'em up at the Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U -- in either Marble White or Titanium Grey. If you'd like to read the words "whole new level of innovation," then head on past the break for the company line.
BT to offer free YouView box with one-year broadband contract, £49 for existing customers
If you're not quite comfortable shelling out £299 for BT's YouView box, then you're in luck. Starting October 26th, the hardware will be free for new Infinity broadband subscribers who ink contracts that are one year or longer. Instead of relying on cable, the Humax-built device uses both aerial and internet connections to deliver content from more than 100 digital TV and radio channels including Channels 4 and 5, the BBC and ITV. With the IPTV box, users can sift through content that's aired in the past seven days, watch on-demand programs and record up to 300 hours of standard definition television or 125 hours of high-def video to a built-in 500GB hard drive. Current British Telecom subscribers pining for the subsidized box will be able to get their own for a £49 activation fee and a £6.95 delivery charge. Those eager for the gratis set-top solution will be able to order it online starting October 19th if they register interest with BT's website beforehand. For more details, check out the press release below.
Acer Iconia Tab A110 comes to Europe this fall with Jelly Bean, £180 UK price
Acer missed its summer launch target for the Iconia Tab A110, but it's making amends for its timing. The 7-inch, quad-core tablet is now reaching Europe in the fall, but it's also carrying that rumored upgrade to Jelly Bean -- including the same mini-tablet interface that we know best from the A110's arch-rival, the Nexus 7. Hardware hasn't moved on since then, however, so you'll still have to cope with a lower 1,024 x 600 resolution and likely the same 8GB of storage, even with a 2-megapixel front camera offering a slight upgrade. That feature loadout may make the sales prospects difficult, at least in the UK: Brits will have to pay £180 ($292) versus the £159 ($258) Nexus 7. Let's hope that any US plans involve a price slash.
Uros' Goodspeed hotspot packs 10 SIM cards, says roaming is for chumps (update: fee differences)
Snagging international data service usually involves either special agreements or steep roaming costs. Not Uros and its new Goodspeed hotspot. The pocketable, 21Mbps HSPA+ router carries a staggering 10 SIM cards and simply uses a local SIM for whichever destination country you visit. The brute force strategy helps Uros offer a relatively low flat rate for 1GB of data per day, no matter where you are on the coverage map: while the Goodspeed itself costs €273 ($352), Uros asks just €5.90 ($8) a day for occasional visits and €9.90 ($13) a month for frequent fliers. It's a very sizable bargain for the jetset, even with a current scope limited to Finland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. A number of "important" countries are due before Christmas, which could make Uros' hotspot a go-to choice for those who just can't stay settled in one place. [Thanks, Antti] Update: Uros has gotten in touch with us to clarify the pricing beyond what we've seen so far. The €9.90 fee covers account details and doesn't "yet" reflect data -- you'll still need to pay €5.90 per day . There's also a chance the rate could go up in future countries, although all the existing countries abide by that rate.
We test speeds on EE, the UK's first LTE network! (video)
Formerly known as Everything Everywhere, also known as the union of Orange and T-Mobile's UK networks, it's now going under the name EE and (finally) bringing LTE to the British Isles in the coming weeks. We decided to see what that means by running Speed Test on the device -- and it's looking good. Upload speeds averaged around 20Mbps, while downloads peaked around 38Mbps -- consistently above 25Mbps. If you're wondering what this means for how you'll normally use your phone, Angry Birds' 20MB-plus app download rocketed down from the new network and this very site appeared in an instant. See for yourself after the break. %Gallery-164916%
Sleeping Dogs bites back on UK charts
Sleeping Dogs returns to the top of the UK sales chart this week. This would be the third time the Square Enix sandbox crime game has held first in the month since its debut. It took last week off for Guild Wars 2, which now sits in sixth following an 84 percent sales drop.The only new entry to the top 40 this week is the latest Sims expansion. The Sims 3: Supernatural, featuring sparkly vampires and brooding werewolves, premiered in second. It is the seventh expansion to the popular dollhouse franchise.The rest of the top ten are a mix of newer entries like Darksiders 2 and entrenched games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
