Recent Stuff at TiotiCentral

Techcrunch UK Meetup

So, I was completely blown away when I saw Mike Butcher from TCUK had added me as the agenda item for TC's first meetup of the summer. I'm touched and would like to thank all those who have sent me good wishes and offers of help with Tioti - I'm feeling *much* better thank you and will be online and active a good deal more from now on, and (fingers crossed) out and about in a few weeks. I'd also like to thank the team who have been gone above and beyond to keep the show not only on the road but steaming ahead... more on that, soon soon soon.

Have a great Friday TCUKers - shame I can't join you myself.

-- paulpod

Techcrunch UK Meetup Friday 9th May

Stephen Fry Knows The Score

Clearly Stephen is a good deal more geeky than the average punter, but acknowedging that iPlayer streamed content is as good as ripped, even by his dear old mum in the near future, is a bit more enlightened than the beeb itself. We really have to get past this 'protection' mindset.

Similarly, NBC seem confident that Microsoft will restrict tv content playback to purchased video only on their Zune (and one presumes the desktops of millions too). This isn't sounding like progressive digital media to me. [Microsoft to add 'copyright cop' to their Zune DRM [ Link ]

Read the transcript of the Stephen Fry speech

Work In Progress : Homepage

I used to do this a lot more, and stopped, but it's time to get back in the saddle. This is a work in progress for a homepage redesign, and we'd like your comments if you have any. (click for full sized image)

Specifically, it's a homepage as seen by a first time visitor - members will have less "hello, my name's Tioti" and a bit more "This is stuff you'll like".

Sony PS3 goes for... The Grid!

So, with all the computing power of the Cell processor at their fingertips, and the relatively easy to manage number of channels of Freeview, Sony have gone for a very conservative interface for their new PlayTV PVR add-on to the PS3.

It's in HD, so the type should look nice, and isn't exactly ugly... It just seems like a bit of a wasted opportunity to do something more, with a device that could and is likely connected to broadband too. TiVo++ at the very least. But no, seems we have yet another grid: 8 channels x 2 hours to wade through. At least it has a search...

EPGs, PVRs are still in the dark ages

This post over at NewTeeVee really highlights the extent to which EPG design is stuck and how the same thinking feeds into PVRs at the moment.

Not being a Comcast customer myself, those screenshots from the service are real eyeopeners... beauties aren't they? To think a Tivo from the previous century does a better job (avoiding recent repeat showings according to the article, and my own experience) while looking a good deal smarter...

Quite keen to see how Sony approach the problem with their PS3 add-on.

Fresh feeds in February

We've got some new feeds that should be appearing in Tioti over the next few days, and we think you'll be quite happy about them.

First up, for our UK users we're adding iPlayer links for most of the shows on the Flash streaming service. In addition, we've got links for ITV.com content coming up covering catch-up content and some of the classic TV they have on their site (in Windows Media embedded on the site unfortunately...).

Extending our coverage of other services we have a listing of the VOD content available to Comcast cable subscribers - sometimes it's quite handy to know the show you're looking for is available a couple of remote control pushes away on the big telly.

More feeds soon!

BBC iPlayer brings doom to ISPs

It seems the wailing of doom from ISPs prior to the full launch of iPlayer is turning into reality, according to the numbers run up by The Register...

"In only its first month of service, iPlayer pushed up ISP costs by 200 per cent, from 6.1p per user to 18.3p per user. This obliges ISPs who are simply BT resellers - and most are - to order more pipes; yet there's no extra income."

This is especially interesting as the current figure for iPlayer usage might look good, we're just at the beginning of a much bigger usage pattern as takeup increases through the year.

read full story on the register

Twittering Television on Tioti

Not many people know this, but we've had a couple of interesting ways for you to feedback on Tioti about a specific episode for a while. The simplest, quickest way is to mark an episode as "watched" and give it a quick rating out of 5 stars. The longer, more involved way is to add your blog details to your account settings to allow the one-click "blog a review" function.

Now we've got something inbetween - instant but with a bit more detail. We've added a "twitter this" button to episodes allowing you to quickly tell your Twitter friends what you're watching and TinyUrl-style link for them to join you. If you use Twitter already, you add can add your account details to allow this in the Tioti settings page.