New BBC Homepage Is Live! [BBC]

Yesterday evening I went through one of the things I do most often on my laptop/netbook/tablet/desktop/smartphone: I visited the BBC website to browse the news/sport/iPlayer content of the day. In this particular instance I was on my laptop (which is happily running Linux Mint 12). Low and behold the BBC Homepage has switched to the new interface!

The New BBC Homepage (First Page)

I like the new BBC Homepage on www.bbc.co.uk . The top bar remains static, with links to the main sections of the website (News, Sport, Weather, iPlayer, TV, Radio, More...). The bar beneath the top one is static as well, but contains an analogue clock, the date and weather snapshot (you can personalise this feed for wherever you are by simply entering your postcode). Below the two static bars at the top, content from the website is displayed as tiles with snapshot previews and easy to read symbols of the type of content contained within the tile. This user interface is in many ways similar to the Windows Phone 7 Metro UI (tiles). I like it!

The lower section of the New BBC Homepage

If you scroll down on the webpage you are presented with sections (tiles) specifically for the iPlayer, popular content on the website and a fuller selection of sections of the website. The website is designed as a 3x2 panel canvas so you can click on one of the large arrows at the right or left of the page to scroll through the content. The 3x2 panels are on a loop so once you click right from the 3rd panel you go back to the first one. The lower panels of the homepage are all populated by the same content as the first bottom one.

The New BBC Homepage (Second Page)

The lower section of the New BBC Homepage (it's the same throughout)

The New BBC Homepage (Third Page)

As I have said in the past, I really like what the BBC have done with their website homepage. The new design is clean, sleek and magazine like. I love using the new website on my Archos 80 G9, the new design is particularly well suited for touch interface devices. Using the service and browsing the content easier and more intuitive. Well done to everyone involved in the redesign. I'm happy to see my TV License money being spent on improving the BBC services I receive.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below or on the Google Plus link. Let me know how you get on with the new BBC Homepage.

BBC Beta Homepage

For a few days I've been forcing myself to use the new BBC Website's beta homepage to get an idea of what it is like in everyday use.

The New BBC Beta Homepage

It is a bit like the new Blogger Dynamic Views pages, and very html5y. Pages seem to adapt to screensizes (great if you are using a netbook or a tablet) and are a simple roll of 2 vertical/many horizontal to the right panes.

Lower section of the front page of BBC Beta Homepage

Next panel to the right. Note more iPlayer links and content.

I'm quite liking the new BBC Beta Homepage and am sure I could quite easily get used to it. I hope the clever people dealing with this at the BBC give us the chance to change our location on it (I live in Scotland and am not particularly interested in the London weather or the London local news).

Lets see how this BBC Beta hompage evolves... I am already noticing more iPlayer links and content. You can try it out yourself by visiting http://beta.bbc.co.uk/ Please also use the feedback option to let the people at the BBC know what you think about it.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.

Rugby World Cup 2011 Android App

This is an excellent app I have been using to follow what is going on (early in the morning for me) at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

The RWC 2011 Android Application is available for free in the Android Market (here's the link). The Homescreen to the application is simple enough: six buttons which take you to the main sections.

Match Centre

News

My favourite and most used sections are the News one and the Match Centre one. Here you can follow matches live (as I have on my way to work a few times), read the latest news and keep up to date with events in the southern hemisphere at the RWC.

In the video section you can also watch highlights (or depressing video evidence of defeat) from matches (beware, it can be very data intensive). The Team section lets you interact with other fans, find out more about the stadia used and New Zealand as well as purchase match tickets.

Well, I had better get back to the second quarter final of the day. France are beating England at half time.

How I'm Following The London Riots

Today is a sadly eventful one as far as news and the "London Riots" are concerned. This blog post is not about the rights or wrongs, it is not a criticism or condonation of events. I would just like to explain how I'm following what is going on.

Mouse and the two smartphones I'm using at the moment.

While at work today I was on a break. In the staff canteen the TV was on and someone had the SKY HD box on Sky Sports. As usual, I was checking my Twitter and Identica feeds on my smartphone (using Mustard!) and noticed some recent tweets and dents about more "London Riots". We switched the TV over to BBC News 24 and started watching the rioting and looting in the Hackney area of London. Between tweets, dents and the live BBC News 24 coverage it was all very involving.

My computer desktop with the BBC iplayer and Gwibber for Twitter and Identica

I am now at home, and still following the events that are continuing to unfold live. I have realised that the way the news is being reported and the way I am following it are fundamentally different from how I followed news ten years ago. Ten years ago (2001: Genova Riots at the G8 and 9/11) the way I followed the news was entirely passive and curated by the news channels and agencies reporting. Now, as well as the curated BBC News coverage, I am also actively following and engaging with people over Twitter and Identica over the news. It is a completely different experience and in many ways much more engaging.

This is the sort of thing that Gina Trapani, Leo Laporte and Jeff Jarvis discuss often on This Week in Google. Now that I think about it while experiencing it, I understand the whole technological and social shift in news more. Is this just the beginning of a more federated news service/system? With this sort of news technology so widely available, do print newspapers have any point apart for conveying specific journalists' and opinionists' take on the situation? Do most people prefer today's news today or yesterday's news today?

This is not a complete thought train by any means. It is just my ramblings regarding how and by what means news is reaching me now compared to just a few years ago.

As usual, feel free to leave comments and/or questions below.