Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Gagging for a gig

Posted: September 14, 2010 in Bermuda, internet, Technology, Uncategorized
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Dream on, Bermuda. We're stuck in that left-hand pre-1999 timewarp.

Swiped this from the rdiscover tech site. Food for thought – and about time for consumers demand better, cheaper services from Bermuda’s so-called “world class telecommunications” providers.

Yesterday Chattanooga rolled out 1 Gigabit internet service to all its residents and business. The first City in the US.

New Pricing, effective Sept 13th in Chattanooga

– 30 Mbps up and down for $58
– 50 Mbps per second for $70
– 100 Mbps per month for $140
– 1 gigabit for $350 per month (launched September 13th)

Bermuda, population 68k people / Est. GDP: 5.86 Billion 2007.

Pricing effective September 8th

– 1 Mbps – $89
– 4 Mbps – $135
– 6 Mbps – $175
– 8 Mbps – $210 (launched September 8th)

It is not Bermuda’s distance, it not Bermuda’s size … must be something else 🙂

Things will improve if TeleBermuda and Cablevision are allowed to enter the home market and provide higher residential speeds – although they are only promising a miserable 12mbps – while North Rock trumpets its new 8mbps service as though it’s cutting edge.

With services like Hulu, BBC iPlayer and devices like Apple’s new streaming TV, the digital convergence of TV and the internet is here and now. If we want to really take advantage of it, consumers need to demand it. Let’s hear ya, Bermuda!

Apple TV – not quite the full picture

Posted: September 2, 2010 in Apple, Apple TV, internet, Mac, Uncategorized, video
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Without being able to test-drive it, it’s hard to know quite what to make of the revamped Apple TV.

Apple TV has become an integral and much-loved part of our family’s leisure time – as much for the promise of TV a la carte as for the convenience of renting movies on a whim and banishing video store late fees forever – and we’d just picked up a 160Gb version as we are increasingly loading it up with family movies and slideshows from the Mac. Even with Bermuda’s sluggish speeds, it works well enough for us to never go back to renting DVDs. Ever.

But I have to say I was hoping for a bit more from this next generation. Netflix is nice but you can’t get access from Bermuda without a US VPN – and given that the new Apple TV is apparently a purely streaming device with no storage, I’m not sure how that might work. At present you have to do a hack using aTV, and my experience is that the VPN doesn’t work easily – and of course there’s the hassle of having to renstall aTV if you update the Apple software.

(more…)

Breezeblog adopts media code

Posted: July 21, 2010 in Bermuda, internet, media, Uncategorized
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Breezeblog is pleased to announce that it has voluntarily adopted the Media Council of Bermuda’s Code of Practice. [See Code of Practice final version 6.10 for full text.]

Although Breezeblog is not strictly a traditional media outlet – it is mainly my occasional thoughts on anything from music to Macs and football, after all and for that reason is advertised as “the ramblings of a desk-bound man”. However, I do believe that whether we like it or not, blogs are now part of the media. By definition we publish publicly and with that freedom comes responsibility whether we like it or not. Our relationship with news and TV media websites is symbiotic – where would half the content for most blogs come from otherwise? – and the lines between the two are increasingly blurred.

From time to time Breezeblog does report or comment on Bermuda news and as a trained journalist by profession, when I do so, it is not unreasonable to expect me to be held to the same standards as any other journalist or broadcaster.

While I don’t agree entirely with fellow blogger Jonathan Starling’s point of view that blogs should not be considered part of the regular media, he does raise some interesting issues and I urge you to read his comments on Catch A Fire. Dennis Pitcher of 21 Square explains his reasons for adopting the code here.

I don’t believe like some that the Code is the thin end of a regulating wedge. I believe that the broader aim of the Media Council, to promote higher standards and better training is long overdue and well worth pursuing. As I’ve said here before, we expect other professions to be responsible and held accountable – why do we think different rules should apply to us?

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