The UK broadband market is slowing markedly as fewer new subscribers sign up for broadband services.
Fewer than 470,000 new subscribers signed up from July to September in the UK, down from 510,000 in the previous quarter – a figure that was itself lower than previous quarters. The fact is that the UK is running out of dial-up users interested in zippy Net access.
According to Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic:
“The reason for the sudden drop is largely the shrinking size of the remaining pool of dial-up users. There are fewer now and the ones that are left are more resistant to change. On top of that, the industry has been failing to bring enough new homes on line.”
Many of the dial-up users left use the Net intermittently and see no reason why they should fork out a lot more for something they rarely use.
Point Topic said that the falling numbers also highlight the growing digital divide. Johnson adds:
“We believe this sends a danger signal for broadband Britain with almost 40% of British households on the wrong side of the digital divide. The social and economic progress of the UK will be stalled unless the great majority of these homes can be brought on to the internet.”
By the end of this year, UK broadband customers could amount to 15.5 million, up 17% on 2006. Both BT and Virgin – the largest broadband suppliers in the UK - are expected to announce results this week so it will be interesting to see how depressed their broadband figures will be.
That said, for many Gizmodo readers, broadband’s speedy promises are a long way off the reality.-Martin Lynch
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As is always the case in Sony-related gadgetry, home market Japan will be getting a few tweaked favourites soon.
The PSP will now come in hot red, to coincide with its new svelte shape, thanks to the recently introduced Slim & Lite version of the handheld. The Deep Red PSP will come in two bundles, a Value Pack and a Seg Pack, the latter sporting a TV tuner and stand. There’s no point telling you how much they cost because you’ll just cry. OK, around £95 and £125.
The PS2 has also gotten a revamp with a new, lighter version that manages to lose the power brick thanks to an integrated power source. It’s the same size as the PS2 Slim and will cost the same too when it lands on November 22. The good news is that it will arrive over here in the New Year.
But what about the sexy, slut-red PSP? Don’t hold your breath. If you’re an optimist, there’s always hope, the power of prayer and animal sacrifice. Jump for another photo.-Martin Lynch
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As copyright crimes go, downloadable torrent files of movies, music and TV programmes is way out there in the lead and at its head is Mininova, the Web’s most important torrent site.
The site has just passed the 3 billion download mark since its launch in January 2005, boasting 3 million visitors and 10 million downloads every day. Most of which is illegally copied CDs, ripped DVDs, video games, TV shows etc. etc.
Despite the blatant illegality of much of the content, Mininova exploits certain legal loopholes and so far has managed to avoid the trouble The Pirate Bay [briefly] found itself in.
Speaking to TorrentFreak, Erik from Mininova said he thought they would hit 3 billion faster and claims 4 billion downloads should be passed within the next 4 to 5 months.
Right now there are over 543,000 torrents up for grabs and the most downloaded torrent is Episode 17 of Heroes at 2.43 million.-Martin Lynch
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There are a lot of streaming solutions out there right now but D-Link has announced the UK availability of the first one to use the DivX Connected technology for seamless streaming of high-def content.
Anyone that downloads video files off the Net will be very familiar with DivX, which takes really big DVD files and compresses them into smaller, download-friendly files without sacrificing too much of the quality.
The DSM-330 DivX Connected HD Media Player goes on sale in the UK on November 15 and will cost £130. It allows you to stream music, photos, standard video and high-def DivX video files from a Windows-based PC, or Mac, to your TV via a wireless or Ethernet network. DivX Connected also allows the box to stream content directly from the Internet.
It comes with USB 2.0 on the front and a HDMI port on the back for streaming 720p HD DivX files to your TV. The bundled software will convert and support a wide range files like MPEG-1, WMV 7-9, DivX 3-6, Xvid, MJPEG, and Motion JPEG. There’s also Scart and composite ports for hooking up to non-HDMI equipped TVs.
If it does what it says on the box, then this might finally be a low-cost, streaming solution worth looking at. It can be pre-ordered now at Amazon.-Martin Lynch
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
