Archive for the ‘Technology’ category

DAB+ turning up the broadcast quality?

Wednesday, 27 December 2023

Listeners to Classic FM will have recently heard adverts advising them that the digital broadcast of the station is going to switch from DAB to DAB+ from January. We are told that they are “turning up the broadcast quality” (by the mellifluous tones of John Brunning, no less, who is no longer regularly on the […]

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Smartphones require smart people

Sunday, 6 February 2022

The other week, the BBC ran an item on their various news outlets about people who are giving up smartphones in favour of “Nokia-style” phones that can only make and receive calls and text messages. I have seen similar articles before, but this one started with a young mother who had noticed how many parents […]

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20 years of internet shopping

Wednesday, 10 March 2021

Today marks twenty years to the day since I first bought something online. The item was a CD of Novák’s Slovak Suite and other works, and it was bought online from hmv.co.uk for the princely sum of £11.24, plus £1 for postage. The site still exists today, although HMV must have been in administration and […]

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Classic FM HD stream

Sunday, 6 November 2016

For the latest post in my occasional series about digital radio, I was intrigued to receive an e-mail from Classic FM this week advertising “HD audio” in their mobile app. There are versions of the app for Apple and Android devices, and they allow users to listen to live broadcasts, as well as to a […]

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TV licensing: i-Playing fair enough

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

The date has finally been set after which users of the BBC iPlayer catch-up TV service will require a TV Licence. From 1 September, viewers will need to have a licence if they are to use iPlayer legally, just as they do to watch live television. I think that is fair enough. The only reason […]

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New digital radio stations and the introduction of DAB+

Monday, 29 February 2016

Readers could be excused for not knowing that a new digital radio multiplex launched in the UK today, containing 18 new stations. There has been little in the way of fanfare; in fact, there has been virtually no media coverage at all. Take-up of DAB radio continues to be poor, thanks mainly to two factors. […]

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BBC internet radio streams join race to the bottom

Sunday, 15 February 2015

I shouldn’t have tempted fate. At the end of my article on the poor sound quality of Freeview radio, I mentioned that internet streams are much better, singling out BBC Radio 3 for broadcasting at 320 kb/s. Little did I know, the BBC were just about to switch that stream off. The BBC had announced […]

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No Digital Dark Age as long as we make backups

Friday, 13 February 2015

Google vice-president Vint Cerf warns that the 21st century may become a “digital Dark Age” as a result of the use of digital media for storing our records. He says hardware and software obsolescence will mean future generations will no longer be able to read our documents or view our photographs. Media outlets such as […]

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Classic FM comes to Freeview – in glorious mono!

Sunday, 8 February 2015

DAB Digital radio in the UK has long suffered from sound quality issues on many stations due to broadcasters’ preference for squeezing a large number of stations into their multiplexes. The low bitrates utilised mean most stations are even broadcast in mono: a huge backwards step from FM. It is often suggested that anyone wanting […]

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Stop using my address!

Monday, 6 May 2013

What do the Utah First Credit Union, US Weightwatchers, a school in Washington State, an alarm system for elderly people, Bell Canada Telecom, and the Danish Pipe Shop all have in common? They have all sent e-mails to me, believing them to be addressed to one of their customers. I always thought I was fortunate […]

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