The bbc iplayer will be launching soon on the windows phone

The bbc has posted today on it’s blog that it intends to launch the bbc iPlayer soon on the Windows phone.  This is great news for the users of the OS, the iPlayer has been on the other most popular OS’s bbc iplayer image v1such as Android and iOS for some time.  At the moment  users can access the iPlayer via the phones web browser, but when the new app is released it will provide Windows users with an option to access the iPlayer via the tile interface on the home screen. This will be most  welcomed by Windows users.

The BBC Future Media head of business development Cyrus Saihan sayin a blog post,: “We will be releasing a shortcut to BBC iPlayer in the near future which will be available in the Windows Phone Store, enabling the BBC iPlayer website to work on Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 via a live tile.

“This shortcut will wrap the BBC iPlayer mobile website together with our media player. Hopefully these and other developments will help to expand our online reach further.”

He also points out that: “Our latest figures show that over 650 different device types can access BBC iPlayer. Working with the industry in ways like this helps our digital services reach more of the UK’s online population and gives our audiences ever increasing ways to access BBC services.”

It was inevitable that the BBC would eventually support the OS, because the Windows OS is growing fast within the UK.  According to the popular website Digitalspy, it has grown by as much as 250% within the past year. They also claim that the OS has now over 6% of the UK market share and they say that it is set to grow further in the years to follow.

 

The TomTom app is now available on many Android devices

The TomTom app is now available on many Android devices from the Google play store. 

The TomTom app has been on the iOS for some time, which has proven popular amongst iOS users.   

Corinne Vigreux, managing director of TomTom says:

“TomTom has a history of making great navigation applications. Our existing iPhone app gets fantastic customer feedback and regularly wins awards,” .

“Today, we are bringing this world-class navigation experience to millions of Android smartphone users for the first time.”

Source:TOMTOM

On the downside due to Androids fragmentation issue the Tom Tom app will not be compatible with all Android devices, which is largely down to the device not being able to meet certain hardware and software requirements such as Android 2.2 for the app to run. Also many of the top end devices will also not work with the app, due to Tom Tom  not supporting devices that have a resolution of more than more than 854 x 480, some of these top end  devices that will not be able to run this app include the Samsung Galaxy S3,Google Nexus 7. This is a shame because this handicap makes Tom Tom feel incomplete on the android platform and this once again makes iOS shine out above Android as an operating system when it comes to the fragmentation issue. These app incompatibilities are practically unknown within the iOS eco system.  

On the negative side this app requires a lot of memory for it to run. It requires as much as 3.7 GB of free memory to install it. Those interested in this app will need to ensure that you have a large sd card installed in the phone.

The TomTom Navigation app for Android is available now in the Google Play store for an introductory price of 34.99 euros (about $45) The TomTom app is also available to download from the UK play store. The price will be £30.99 for those requiring the  UK/Ireland maps version and £39.99 for those requiring the Western European maps version.

 

The EU has passed new laws to cap roaming charges by July 1

The European Parliament  has passed a new law to cap roaming charges across all EU member states,  these laws will come into effect from July 1 2012. The price of a mobile 1 minute call will drop from €0.35 to €0.29 from July. Text messages will also be reduced from €0.11 to €0.09 per message this year, dropping further to €0.06 in 2014. Mobile data users will also benefit, mobile data charges will drop to 70 cents per megabyte, then it will be reduced to €0.20 per megabyte in 2014. 

This new legislation according to European Commisioner Neelie Kroes’ Digital Agenda will benefit frequent flyers, families and business people, it could save business travellers up to 1000 Euros a year in some Eu countries. Kroes said in a statement that she is glad to have “ended the rip-off  familiar to anyone who has used a mobile phone by traveling abroad.”