two things from BT (british telecom - ignore if you are not a UK reader) have pleasantly surprised me recently.
the first is that i thought it was about time to renew my flickr pro subscription. if you use flickr you can get a small number of photos shared for free but if you want to share a lot then you need to get the pro subscription which costs about $25 a year. anyway i checked when it was due but found that i now get a pro account free because flickr was bought by yahoo last year and bt have a tie in with yahoo. so i get flickr pro free. so if you are a BT broadband customer you might want to go and sign in with flickr. all i need now is for yahoo to buy typepad so i can get my blog account free!!! i know a lot of flickrites were very unhappy about yahoo taking over so it may not all be rosy but it was a nice surprise for me...
the second is that because we are on the top broadband usage we could get a BT vision box for free which i did. and it has transformed our television viewing. with bt vision you get the freeview channels which we had already but bt vision has a hard disc which enables you to select up to 80 hours of viewing to record at the click of a button. with video i very rarely recorded anything because it was such a hassle but now it is so easy that we have recorded loads and ben watching more tv as a result. admittedly it's been christmas which kind of goes with dossing and viewing tv. with recorded programmes you can rewind or fast forward so skip the adverts. and you can rewind tv on the channel you are watching. in practice this means that say it's grace on a saturday night and i get in half an hour after match of the day has started, then i can just rewind and watch the whole thing. and that makes me happy :-) . the video recorder is now unplugged and redundant technology. i suspect it won't be long before dvd goes the same way.
i realise that there are several other digital tv solutions out there that are like this. but what i loved about this is that it came free for us as we are on the total broadband option. everyone loves something that is free (ok i know we pay plenty for our broadband).
so there you go - good old BT!
We have also had our TV life transformed by BT Vision this Christmas. Praise you BT!
Posted by: Dave | January 06, 2008 at 11:15 PM
Gosh, that is the first positive thing I have heard about BT for long, long time! It is usually (and our experience) a bad experience when they are involved in setting up or moving a phone line/broadband line - it is nice to hear something positive about a company! All we need now is The Phone Coop (the only ethical phone provider) to buy BT and then we are all happy!
Posted by: russell | January 07, 2008 at 09:13 AM
Sorry - I know BT might be good for you urbanites - but BT refuses to upgrade their cable in my part of the world for me and my parish to get broadband without Government money to protect their poor shareholders There is a clear digital divide - shame on you bt supporters!
Posted by: Rhys | January 07, 2008 at 01:22 PM
and BT broadband gives you inclusive unlimited wi-fi hotspot minutes but i guess you already know this!
Posted by: Matt Rees | January 07, 2008 at 02:54 PM
rhys i knew someone would comment with a grievance!!!! sorry...
matt yes of course - i love that too. at airports, train stations and service stations i often make the most of bt hotspots free!
Posted by: jonny | January 07, 2008 at 06:56 PM
The advantage of DVD over a hard isc is that you can transfer it to another place. I think that some form of transferable media is here to stay. That said, Maplin do a Hard disc that will plug into your telly. All those MPG's become much more attractive as you don't need to wait 3 hours or buy an X-box to watch them.
Posted by: Robb | January 09, 2008 at 11:45 AM