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UK wants tech giants to pay two percent tax on digital revenues
The British government announced a new "digital services" tax that would take two percent of revenues generated by tech giants, according to Sky News. The tax would skim cash off of what the companies make from services like online advertising and streaming content. The government believes such a tax could raise more than more than £400 million ($512 million) each year.
First-time smartphone buyers in UK seeking iPhone 4 drive sales
A new sales report from Kantar Wordpanel ComTech for the period of May to June 2013 showed Apple enjoyed a sales surge thanks to an old friend; the iPhone 4. The company jumped 5.2 percentage points to 30.5 percent of the British smartphone market. And those sales were thanks to the iPhone 4. Kantar analyst Dominic Sunnebo pinpoints the affordability of the iPhone 4 as its major selling point for first time smartphone users. Although the flagship iPhone 5 was widely credited with boosting Apple's global results last week, much of the market share growth for iOS in Britain is thanks to the competitively priced iPhone 4 attracting first time smartphone buyers. More than a third of iPhone 4's sold were to consumers who have never owned a smartphone before, compared with just one in 10 new customers buying the iPhone 5. Even with the latest increase Android still has a considerable lead over iOS in Britain, with 56.2 percent of the market. The iPhone 4 continues to be a major player in Apple's global sales growth, despite its lower average sale price.
BBC still deciding if they need a dedicated HD station
The BBC have been testing a dedicated high-def station, which should end in November '07, to determine if they need a dedication high-def station -- hellz yeah, they do. BBC HD seems to have a mash-up lineup similar to Discovery HD Theater with shows from other BBC channels all merged into one dedicated mega-channel. Currently, BBC is taking 50% of their content from BBC One, 30% from BBC Two and the other 20% is coming from BBC's other digital channels making up the high definition station that will launch in 2012. The programming seems to be there and we sure know people want HDTV, so why the wait for the British digital switch-over in 2012? It doesn't sound like BBC HD needs more testing, cut through the red tape and just launch the channel to high-def starved Brits already.
Channel 4 streams content to UK PSP owners
British commuters are getting access to a very cool new feature ... provided that they have PSPs. Channel 4, the edgiest television station in the UK, will offer streaming programming for PSP owners at one of 7,500 wi-fi locations owned by Cloud. Nathalie Schwarz, director of Channel 4 Radio, said: "Becoming the first broadcaster to make radio content available wirelessly on PSPs will help 4Radio connect with a young, mobile audience, making our programming easily available whenever and wherever they want."It's expected that this service will expand to offer full television shows, such as the new Celebrity Big Brother (pictured above).[Via Times Online]
Don't hate the ripper, hate the game
The RIAA isn't really all that fond of people ripping their CDs, but at least it isn't illegal here in the US. However, our friends in the UK aren't as lucky. It is illegal to rip CDs in Britain, but that doesn't stop people from doing it everyday. It looks like the government is realizing that, well at least certain members of the government, and they are working towards changing copyright law to allow 'private right to copy.'
