Hop 255

Online TV Recorder

Cybdertivi have developed an online tv recorder at which fans of German television from around the world can record and stream their favourite shows from 40 different channels.

combots

Combots gets a write-up at Techcrunch today. Cute graphics but the FAQ says users have a 200 MB limit on file transfer which will be a limit for some. No privacy policy except for some marketing double speak. Hop255 prefers Allpeers  -- in their words "Share 100KB, 100MB, 100GB, it does not matter!" and they do have a privacy policy.

Broadband Speed Test

Thes best site for testing the speed of a broadband connection.

Slingbox advertisment

A new Slingbox advertisment.

PAL Slingbox in UK

Looks like Slingbox has quietly started to sell their units at PC World in the UK.  The link is here. The advertised price is £179.99.  That is about US$ 334 -- a lot more than the sub $200 prices available in the US.

The specs don't mention PAL but this presumably represents to launch of the first non NTSC version.

Sling Media Slingbox Model : SB150-110

Watch & control your TV any time/where

Watch TV anywhere in the world via web

On screen or infrared remote control

Watch your satellite/cable or digital TV

Includes software for superb picture

Record via your Sky + service or PVR

Requires existing broadband connection

Connects to your wireless network

Min Spec: Windows XP Home/Pro/2000

Guba

Guba provides a good idea of the future of on demand online television.

SageTV

SageTV looks to be another useful addition to the feild of place shifting television over the Internet.

Mobile Content

It is probably only a matter of time before all mobile companies start competing with Slingbox  -- Motorola being the first. For user preferring to film rather than watch some fun here with short clips filmed with a Nokia. Meanwhile Vo Sky seems to be doing the same as thing as IPdrum. And if Euclid Discoveries actually delivers on this who knows what is in store for mobile delivered content.

Honest TV

Honest Technology has developed a tool to send television content over the Internet remotely to users. The service My-IPTV starts in April 2006. More here.

World Bank Report and Australian Broadband

A World Bank study  on communications around the world is written up in the Australian press.  According to numerous reports Australia is not flattered by the study in terms of broadband comparisons. Australian broadband offers may well be slow but the journalist covering this story has well and truly misunderstood the indicator concerned. What the is reported by the World Bank is the ITU's indicator of international bandwidth per person. This has been interpreted as average broadband speeds for users which is something totally different.  In other words because the UK is an international hub, with a lot of international capacity, they rank highly. But this does not mean, for example, that average broadband speeds are higher in the UK than in France or Japan. In fact the reverse is true. A more accurate proxy for international average broadband speeds per user can be found here. The speeds reflect real throughput rather than advertised broadband speeds but also provide an average for all users who have completed the test in that country. Australia has not been in the top ten for some time.