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BBC Celebrates 90 Years Of Innovation By Asking 'Where Next?'

The BBC has become iconic in British culture and worldwide media.  To celebrate over 90 years of innovation, they have launched a new campaign telling the story of broadcasting, engineering and technological progress since 1922.

The 60-second launch film shows a timeline throughout the Beeb's broadcasting history, using archive footage of highlight significant milestones and moments in television.  Combine this with a mixture of animation techniques and an original musical composition formed from non-instrumental sounds, including finger-tapping, footsteps, heavy-breathing & singing, and you have something that sums up the corporation rather nicely.

"The BBC is innovating for everyone and we hope this powerful untold story will capture the imagination of audiences and make them wonder…'where next?'"  Philip Almond, Director of Marketing and Audiences said.

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Science, news Jason England Science, news Jason England

Study Shows Mobile Phone Use Makes You Selfish

The technology may have granted the public the ability to communicate with thre rest of the world in a way that's not been possible; but it turns out that very technology could be making us close off from the world.  A study by the University of Maryland has found that people after using their phones are more likely to engage in behaviour that would soully benefit themselves and not others, than those who didn't, or just used Facebook instead.

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Editorial: Smart TV is not a smart move

So a great deal of the buzz at CES this year has surrounded the idea of 'Smart TV,' as every company fell over themselves to try and create the competition to a product that we don't even know for sure of it's existence, the real Apple TV.

The vision behind this year's movement is that of convergence.  Some have gone the Google TV route, whereas others have gone for a proprietary interface (LG's gone for a Wii-style control system), all options implementing instances of the internet, the participatory nature of web 2.0, and technologies more computer-esque.  Of course, if Vizio's CTO Matt McRae is to be taken at his word, the prediction is that we'll see an internet TV service provide 50-100 channels in 18 months time (interviewed by The Verge), making the 'web connected' part of my argument completely pointless.

But the idea of a TV is not due for a further 'smart' revolution, because as consumers, we (well...I) don't want it to be.

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news, social media Jason England news, social media Jason England

Youtube planning to launch new vision for TV on the web

So over the next six months Youtube is planning to launch a new TV service, to change the somewhat grim idea of internet TV thus far.  Plans are for it to comprise of over 100 channels, and contain it's own producers, publishers and programmers.

This is to be part of a feature in next week's New Yorker where John Seabrook will be taking a look at the history of YouTube and it's strategy for the future.  Seabrooks also writes about VP of content at Google and Head of content at Youtube Robert Kyncl, who is spearheading what is described as the biggest change in television since the cable company led upheaval in the 80s broadcast industry, describing him as "architect of the single largest cultural transformation in YouTube's history."

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news, tech Jason England news, tech Jason England

LG Reveals World's Largest OLED TV At Just 4mm Thick

We're quite the keen observers of advances in TV technology here at NRM. From heavy investment in the 3D market and glasses-free 3D, to ever larger, smarter, thinner and more energy efficient sets. LG Electronics has revealed that it is planning to unveil the “world's largest” OLED TV at this year's Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, beginning January 10.

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