Bluekat Magazine

Microsoft is set to launch a new free streaming video service through MSN in the UK. It sounds like it will be a great service with a wide range of programming from all the major TV Networks including Channel 4 and the BBC.

MSN video player screen shot

The ad supported service is about to under go a 6 month public beta which according to Ashley Highfield, Microsoft’s managing director and vice president of consumer and online, will be streamed without DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy protection but will only be available to people with a UK web address.

Microsoft are making an aggressive and decisive grab for viewers in the UK online video content market which is becoming very crowded what with Youtube, BBC iPlayer,  Joost and Hulu which is about to make its début in the UK.

The service is backed up by a lot of popular British programming which should make the service a hit and Microsoft claim that they have had no trouble selling their ad spaces, not to mention how deep Microsoft’s pockets are. So there is really no reason why the MSN streaming video service should fail. This can only be a good thing for online audiences who prefer to watch content online and with so much more content freely available online it should reduce the need for video piracy and illegal downloading.

Source: BBC News.

Can’t wait to see Tron 2, especial after seeing the bootlegged trailer on Youtube. You can see it(below) or if video quality really maters view a high quality official posting on Youtube here.

Source: youtube

Today is the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon landing and there is a ton of video footage facts and information on the internet available on the subject.

Of course some people still believe it was a hoax…

You decide.

Hi all I have updated the front-end of the site. This should, eliminate the script errors experienced by users with Internet Explorer and hopefully looks a lot better too.

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- Admin

I was expecting to see a Mac tablet at the 2009 WWDC, especially after all the reports of Apple alegedly purchase large numbers of LCD displays too large fro an iPhone but too small for a Macbook. Along with stories of other parts ordered for some new form factor Apple was supposed to be working on, such as processors.

Mac Tablet

I’m a little disapointed in this but perhaps there will be more announcements later on in the year.

This is an excellent example of information graphics taking a complex subject like the current economic meltdown and turning into an easy and understandable short animation.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

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- W. Saliu

Dell have just launched a fabulous looking ultra-light PC called the Adamo. It’s stylish looks and high price make it an obvious competitor to the Apple Macbook Air. I think that finally other manufacturers are discovering what apple have know for years that the industrial design of your product is as much a feature as its technical specifications.

The Adamo comes with a “Macbook Air like” price tag and will retaill at around $2,000 US. A steep price tag for a machine that isn’t designed to do all the heavy number crunching that designers, gamers and other proffesionals would expect with a price tag like that. The same goes for the Macbook Air. This class of notebook is limited by its size and is no substitue for  a the larger, heavier notebook when it comes to music, video or image editing.

This is probably the beginning of a whole new class of “luxury” computers where brand and coolness mean everything. Apple have almost a 10 year head start but from the looks of the Adamo Dell may hard on there heals.

I think its fair to say that every Ad Microsoft has done to counter the very successful Mac vs PC ads by Apple has been a complete flop till now. The new ads finally hit the nail on the new ads attack and exploit the perception that Macs are very expensive, more so than PCs and that if your a PC user thinking of “switching” don’t bother… “you probably can’t afford to”.

Microsoft’s previous attempts at countering Apple’s ruthless Mac v PC marketing campaign leave a lot to be desired.

Mac and PC played by Justin Long (below right) and John Hodgman (below left).

I dont believe this ad will effect the opions of those who have already switched but it should be very effective in the current economic on people thinking of buy a new computer and are considering buying their first mac.