Now TV Box

Now TV is a premium online video on demand service powered by Sky. As it's powered by Sky the available content will be very familiar to Sky TV's Sky Movies and Sky Sports customers. The sport packages give you access to Sky Sports with flexible pay-as-you-go packages such as a £9.99 day pass. Sky Movies is also available on monthly subscriptions.

You can get Now TV on mobile devices (iOS and Android), online through the Now TV website. To get Now TV on your TV you could use a PS3 or Xbox 360 and now the new Now TV Box.

The Now TV Box is remarkably small, less than 9cm wide. This form factor is very similar to the Apple TV. It's also very cheap, only £9.99 to purchase, including postage and packaging. The device includes access to a small range of other services including BBC iPlayer, Spotify and Demand 5.

Disappointingly for a new device, a likely a result of the low cost of the box the HDMI output is limited to 720p resolution.

For more details check out Now TV's webiste: https://shop.nowtv.com/ 

BBC Olympic Coverage

The BBC will be broadcasting the London 2012 Olympic games in a way that has never been achieved before. For a starters the coverage will all be filmed in high definition. And the Olympics will be broadcast live on 24 dedicated digital channels - this is too cope with the maximum number of simultaneous live events during the games. ALL 24 channels are coming to your Sky HD Planner very soon!

Here's your options for watching the BBC Coverage:

• On TV Olympics coverage will be available on the BBC channels BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC One HD and BBC HD as well as through the Red Button digital streams for digital Freeview viewers.
• Sky will be launching 48 new channels dedicated to the BBC's Olympic coverage. 24 will be standard definition and 24 high definition. The channels are free-to-air and available to any Sky home, including Freesat from Sky homes. The HD channels are available on any Sky+HD box and do not require a subscription, but do require an HD ready TV. Customers will require a Sky subscription in order to use Sky+. These channels will be availble from the 24th July 2012. More Info from Sky. 
• Online at the BBC Sport Website through the BBC's new interactive video player which will provide standard definition and high definition video streams, separated into chapters. You can watch a live event or previous events throughout the day, and overlay detailed information about the athletes and events to help guide you through each sport.
• On the new BBC Sport App which provides the 24 live streams too, where ever you are. If you want to catch highlights from events which have already happened, or check the statistics such as the medal table, it's all on the app.
• BBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics can also be enjoyed on mobile phones via the mobile browser version of the BBC Sport website.
• A 24-hour digital radio station, Radio 5 live Olympic Extra, will complement BBC Radio 5 live and BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra for the duration of the Games.

So between the coverage online, on TV, and on mobile devices everyone should be able to get access to watch their favourite sports during the Olympics. The Opening Ceremony will be live on BBC One and BBC One HD on Friday 27th July at 7pm (Ceremony starts at 9pm).

Get yourself ready for the games with the UK version of the BBC Olympic app for smartphones and tablets that can be downloaded now for these platforms:

• Android 
• Apple 
• Blackberry 

And for those outside the UK, the global version of the app (does not contain live video streams) can be downloaded now from:

• Android 
• Apple 

App of the Day - Facebook Messenger - iOS, Android and Blackberry

Facebook Messenger is a new app for smartphones from Facebook. It's basically an exert from the main Facebook app which still includes messaging as a feature. The new app is purely for messaging and opens very quickly on iOS4 compared to the Facebook app.

Facebook messenger features more control over messaging alerts, it allows you to hide notifications for 1 hour or until 8am.

The new app looks to be aiming to compete with over online messaging service apps such as:
Skype
Microsoft Live Messenger
Google+
Twitter (to some extent)
BBM (on Blackberry)
What's App (which is a paid download)
iMessage (iOS 5 - due 12/10/11)

So with all these options, and many being cross platform, will operators loose out on revenue from SMS and MMS? More than likely.



Rating 3/5
Price - Free
Developer - Facebook

Image: Facebook