Month: January 2015

  • D2 Bids: Further Thoughts

    [Note: Updated following the publication of the detailed bid documents on the Ofcom website. Note that only parts of the applications have been made public. Other parts are confidential. Sound Digital application here – Listen2Digital application here.] At a risk of boring everyone senseless about D2, I’ve got a few further thoughts that have come…

  • D2 Bid: Sound Digital

    Earlier in the week I put a bit of context into the background surrounding the advertising of a second national commercial multiplex. I plan to go through in a bit of detail what each of the bidders is proposing. As ever, these are my own views and don’t represent those of any employer, past or…

  • D2 Bid: Listen2Digital

    Earlier in the week I put a bit of context into the background surrounding the advertising of a second national commercial multiplex. I plan to go through in a bit of detail what each of the bidders is proposing. As ever, these are my own views and don’t represent those of any employer, past or…

  • Looking Ahead to the Second National Digital Radio Multiplex

    Ofcom is finally closing its doors on applications for a second national commercial radio digital radio multiplex. Originally bids had to be in by the end of October 2014, but Ofcom extended its application period to the end of January 2015 when a potential bidder sought a Network Access-only reference offer from Arqiva. (Since Arqiva…

  • Things I’m Not Going to Embark on this January

    This isn’t a blog about New Year’s resolutions. I’d be a few weeks’ late if it was. But January is an interesting time for another reason – it’s when those curious partwork publications kick off their new runs. You know the sort: often advertised heavily on TV, with cheap first issues (although much more steeply…

  • The Day We Phoned Maggie

    One of the big stories in the news today is that someone somehow got through to David Cameron on the phone, and pretended to be the head of GCHQ. Cameron says that he realised that it was a hoax fairly quickly and hung up. I suspect that a lot of people are wondering: “Surely it…

  • Refurbishment

    This premises on Great Portland Street is using pop-culture magazines to black out its windows while it undergoes refurbishment. I can’t decide if it’s cool or sacrilegious! The naive person within me thinks that they found some magazines under some stairs somewhere and decided to use them to cover up the windows. The realist in…

  • On a Canal in a Canoe – Secret Adventures

    It being the middle of January, and therefore getting quite cold, what better way of spending a Monday evening could there be than paddling a canoe around London? This was an organised trip via “Secret Adventures“, an internet Meetup group. We set off from Moo Canoes’ base in Limehouse, heading up Limehouse Cut heading in…

  • Big Norfolk Sky

    Sheringham Beach, November 2014.

  • Amazon’s App Notifications

    As I buy a reasonable amount of stuff from Amazon, I use their mobile app a bit. It’s a relatively convenient way to manage my Amazon transactions. It also usefully sends you updates, using Android’s notifications system, to let you know when your items have been shipped, or if they’re available for collection should you…

  • A Portable Music Player

    When I was thinking about my future options for a home for my digital music library once I’ve breached Google’s 20,000 song limit, I also mentioned in passing the sad death of the iPod Classic – i.e. the iPod. If reports are to be believed, the remaining iPod Classics in the retail system were swiftly…

  • Why I’m Abandoning Google Inbox

    There was much excitement last autumn when Google launched Inbox, it’s revolutionary new email program. It came with accompanying mobile apps, and the company implored you to fully immerse yourself with it. Like any new product, it required invites to get in and try it. It’s the cool new thing. But having given it a…