The broadbandchoices blog

Read our blog for interesting articles, site news and more!

The worst dads on TV & what to get them on Fathers Day

Greetings card shops are breaking out the golf, beer, and shed insignia, and that can only mean one thing: Father’s Day is coming up.

Topics Digital TV

What’s happening to old red phone boxes?

All around the UK, there are hints of a former, pre-smartphone era: thousands of red BT phone boxes. These days, most of them only make a couple of calls a week, and spend the rest of their time standing there looking forlorn.

Topics BT No phone line

Teletext and Ceefax: A memoir

If you’re an old, wizened crone like me, you may remember a certain little televisual relic of days gone by: Teletext, and its BBC version Ceefax.

Topics Digital TV

What happened when I took my mobile phone on holiday

Ah, the holiday season – weeks of sun, sea, and Snapchat.

Topics Mobile phones Smartphones Apps

Child Safety Week – turn off your phone for the kids

A few years ago, I was almost run over by Adrian Chiles.

Topics Mobile phones Security

How accessible is the internet, really?

Broadband is about to become a whole lot more accessible if the government’s new Digital Economy Bill goes through. There’ll be a legal right to fast broadband for everyone, and a cut to the cost of installing cables and masts – more Brits will be able to get online than ever.

Topics Broadband

The worst and weirdest reality TV

Reality TV is doing pretty well at the moment. Reality-specific streaming service Hayu launched not too long ago, and the BAFTA award for best reality and constructed factual show had some decent nominees – from the genuinely entertaining First Dates to the fascinating Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds.

Topics Digital TV

Spoiler etiquette: how not to be a total Joffrey

They say you should never discuss politics or religion with people you work with. Sage advice, but I’d add a third option: Game of Thrones.

Topics Digital TV

How to be tech savvy AND eco-friendly this Earth Day

22 April means the world to us. Why? Because it’s Earth Day, of course. It’s the day when we’re encouraged to love our planet and do what we can do protect the environment.

Topics Hardware Mobile phones Smartphones

Should you capitalise the I in ‘internet’?

Believe it or not, we at broadbandchoices are big fans of the internet. Or should that be Internet? Well, according to the AP Stylebook, as of June we should say 'internet', with a lower-case i.

Topics Broadband

Which Virtual Reality headset is the one to get?

VR’s nearly here and I’m very excited. Even writing this now, it’s virtually (heh) all I can do to stop myself from running around the broadbandchoices office flapping my arms around in glee.

Topics Hardware Reviews

6 of the prettiest gadgets for delicate ladies

Over in a little corner of MWC, two ex-Microsoft employees showcased a prototype of a very special phone. What made it so special? Well, it’s designed for ladies, with features to suit all our delicate needs – like 2G, and a ridiculously tiny screen.

Topics Hardware Mobile phones

MWC 2016: What did I miss?

It was MWC this weekend! That’s Mobile World Congress, a trade show where companies show off all the mobile, smartphone, and telecoms tech they’ve been working on, and in the mobile world it’s big news.

Topics Mobile phones Smartphones Hardware

YouTube makes me feel old so I’m lashing out at it

A few months ago, my birthday arrived and I turned an age that I absolutely, definitely cannot pass off as my ‘early twenties’ any more.

Topics Apps Digital TV

Sky Q is more than TV - Sky's investing in its future

Whatever you think of Sky, you have to admit that the company is smart.

Topics Digital TV Sky Providers

6 reasons why the new BBC Three will succeed

It’s fair to say that some of us were a bit shocked when the BBC announced it was switching off BBC Three in favour of a new online-only form. What will happen to all those brand new comedy shows it keeps promising? And where will we watch our endless repeats of Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents?

Topics Digital TV Apps

ASA to simplify broadband pricing. This HAS to happen.

Earlier this week, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) revealed that it may implement new rules to make broadband advertising much easier to understand.

Topics Broadband

CES 2016 round-up: The good, the bad, and the weird

CES – the Consumer Electronics Show – took place last week in Las Vegas. The idea behind CES is that it’s the place for tech companies to show off their brand new innovations and products.

Topics Hardware Digital TV

16 tech predictions for 2016

Whew, 2015 was a busy year for technology, broadband, and TV. The iPhone 6s and Samsung Galaxy S6 were released; the UK telecoms industry got shaken up a bit; BT Sport took the football world by storm; and Jeremy Clarkson refused to exit the tabloids.

Topics Reviews Hardware Mobile phones Broadband Digital TV

2015: the year in review part 2

In our last post, we looked at some of the most memorable news stories of the first half of the year. Now it’s time to reminisce about the more recent past.

Topics Reviews Broadband Mobile phones Digital TV

2015: the year in review part 1

With 2015 almost in the rear view mirror, it seems like a good time to reflect on the year that was.

Topics Reviews Broadband Mobile phones Digital TV

6 stupid gadgets to buy your loved ones for Christmas

It’s that time of year again: a couple of weeks before Christmas, the moment when you’ve realised you haven’t done all the Christmas shopping you need to do.

Topics Hardware

What to watch on Netflix when you’re ill

I’ll be honest – it hasn’t been the best week so far. Why? One (hyphenated) word: man-flu.

Topics Digital TV Apps

The 6 eras of British kids’ TV

We’ve got an exciting weekend up ahead: Friday 20 November is Universal Children’s Day, and the 21 November straight afterwards is World TV Day. Sounds like a good time to revisit all our favourite kids’ telly.

Topics Digital TV

What’s the best smartphone for each James Bond?

James Bond is very picky about his smartphones it seems. Earlier this week, we heard how the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Sony Xperia Z4 were turned down by the makers of SPECTRE because they weren’t good enough for ol’ 007.

Topics Mobile phones Smartphones

Does Halo 5 prove our broadband isn’t fit for purpose?

Halo 5, the latest game in Microsoft’s incredibly popular video game series, launched last week to great fanfare. The critical reaction was mostly glowing – there were a few complaints about a weak narrative and dull characters in the campaign (which, having finished it, I think are entirely valid), but overall people seemed to agree that it’s jolly good shooty fun.

Topics Gaming Broadband

6 weird smartphones you can actually buy

Pretty much everyone is catered for in the smartphone market: hipsters can get the latest iPhone, gamers have their choice of high-powered handsets, and even old folks have a range of phones designed for them. But what if you want a phone that really stands out?

Topics Mobile phones Smartphones

5 spooky mobile apps for Halloween

There’s only a couple of weeks to go before the spookiest night of the year. That means you haven’t got long to carve a pumpkin, make a ghost costume from an old sheet… and of course load your smartphone full of scary apps and games.

Topics Mobile phones Apps

Emoji are here whether we like them or not

Today I feel very thumbs-up pleasantly-blushing-smiley-face glowing-star. If you’re not sure what I mean by that, you’re probably not used to using emoji.

Topics Mobile phones Apps

Angry Birds 2 is everything wrong with mobile games

There’s a train of logic that says this: if a business does something that makes things worse for consumers than they were before, that business is not long for this world. For the most part I think that holds true, but there does seem to be one notable exception: the videogame industry.

Topics Apps Mobile phones Gaming

What makes a good music streaming service?

No matter how much people like Noel Gallagher might moan about it, streaming music is the future. Actually, it’s not the future – it’s right now.

Topics Apps

I, for one, welcome our Apple Watch trailblazers

In our last blog post, Duncan argued that there’s no good reason to buy an Apple Watch. He said the tech isn’t refined enough to bother investing in, and there’s not enough going for it right now. Is he right?

Topics Hardware

Should I get an Apple Watch? Um, well…

Now that the Apple Watch has been out for a few months, it seems like a good time to evaluate its place in the world. It arrived with more pomp and fanfare than the last night of the Proms, but has it lived up to that early hype? Is it worthy of your valuable wrist space?

Topics Hardware Reviews

4 big ways our mobiles are changing festivals

Festival season is upon us, with Wireless truly kicking off on Friday and Reading and Leeds on the horizon.

Topics Mobile phones Smartphones Apps

Could we get by on a phone with just a data plan?

Earlier this week, WhatsApp announced a new feature on its iPhone app – free voice calling. Android folk will have already seen the update, and the iPhone version is now slowly rolling out too.

Topics Mobile phones Mobile broadband 4G

Money-saving tips for students: film and TV

Being a student isn’t all about attending lectures and going down the pub. You’ll also have an awful lot of downtime, especially if your loan gets held up and you can’t go out – and if you’re anything like us, you’ll fill a lot of it watching TV series and movies.

Topics Students Digital TV

Money-saving tips for students: shopping

We've got three tips for money-saving when you're a student that you may not have thought of...

Topics Students

Best apps for cooking

What’s cooking, good looking?

Topics Mobile phones Apps

App of the week: Monument Valley

Monument Valley is like one those images brought to life.

Topics Mobile phones Apps

Hey you guys – virtual reality is actually really good

This weekend I got the chance to try out the virtual reality headset Oculus Rift. I’d heard a great deal about it before, of course. Some of the broadbandchoices team had previously given it a go and walked away impressed, and we’ve previously written about Samsung’s own Oculus-supported headset.

Topics Hardware Reviews

Why I won’t be too blue if Blinkbox goes belly-up

As you may have seen in the news this week, film streaming site blinkbox might die unless a buyer is found soon, as its owner, daddy of UK supermarkets Tesco, has finally had enough of it trailing behind Netflix.

Topics Digital TV Apps

Will broadband make or break 4K?

If anything dominated this year’s CES – and BBC technology correspondent Mark Ward has postulated that the international technology trade show has lost its focus – it was 4K ultra high-definition (UHD) television.

Topics Digital TV Hardware