Zune, the Entertainment Platform and Portable Media Player from Microsoft

23Aug

While looking through our podcast download stats, we noticed an increase in downloads to the ‘Zune’, what’s a Zune I hear you say…..well, let us tell you a bit more about this neat little entertainment platform and portable media player from Microsoft.

Launched last year, the first thing that you notice about the Zune HD is it’s glossy 3.3-inch touchscreen which if you’re used to the action of an iPhone or iPod touch will be very familiar and unlike other touchscreens that have tried to rival Apple, this does a very good job. The user interface is smooth, responsive and performs brilliantly, which is what you’d expect from it’s Tegra APX 2600 chip.

So what does the Zune HD do – firstly it’ll playback audio in many formats so downloading and listening to your favourite Absolute Radio podcasts is not only possible but made easy with its desktop software and podcast subscription option. The video below demonstrates just how easy it is to subscribe to your favourite podcast channels.

The video playback quality on the Zune is very good and what you’d expect when you combine OLED technology, tight pixel density and a small screen. HD video content is crisp and clear as you’d expect. With most devices you get one or the other, great video or great audio, but not usually both which is what the Zune is able to provide. Compared to similar devices the Zune HD audio sounds more expansive and open.

The Zune also has a web browser which is built upon the existing mobile Internet Explorer. Although it is useful and allows zoom-in/zoom-out via pinch screen technology, long sessions of browsing the web is probably not what the Zune was designed for due to it’s screen size.

For those FM radio lovers, the good news is that the Zune has a built-in FM RADIO and the audio quality again is pretty good and as it’s FM there’s no need to hunt for a free wifi connection when out and about.

Just like the Apple touch has iTunes, The Zune HD requires its own desktop software which allows the owner to manage the device contents and as you can see from the video below, it’s not only easy to use but looks great too!

The Zune HD is available in 16GB and 32GB varieties and costs between £150 and £200.

Categories: Technology podcasts 3

Posted by paul on August 23, 2010

Chrissy Polcino Wins Absolute Star Award

19Aug

Absolute Radio's Chrissy Polcino wins Absolute Star Award

It’s that time again where Absolute Radio celebrates a member of its staff for the achievements and enduring hard work in the form of the Absolute Star.

The massive trophy was awarded to Chrissy Polcino our Commercial Producer being graciously passed on by the previous winner our Music Section Producer Llia Apostolou.

American born Chrissy, moved over to the UK from New Jersey in 2002 and joined One Golden Square in 2006 as the Ad Technology Executive working alongside the online sales team in creating co branded adverts with clients such as Sony Ericcson and Renault.

In 2008 Chrissy moved into the Production department to become Commercial Producer working alongside Dave Kenny in creating homepage takeovers, splash pages and S&P online. Chrissy has taken on a massive amount of commercial production work and even used her own time after work to build the new Absolute Radio 90s website which is a credible achievement in its own right.

COO Clive Dickens recognises Chrissy’s efforts by adding, ‘Without Chrissy’s contribution during this busy period, the company’s fantastic online World Cup coverage would have been greatly hampered and preparation for our Premier League coverage would also have been severely impacted. On top of this, during the same period, she has assisted the 4th floor with the challenging migration to a new ad trafficking process. She is always approachable and able to think of creative solutions, Chrissy is a credit to the OGS team.’

Known as Aunty Chrissy due to her love of baking cakes for everyone at Absolute Radio, Chrissy always works with a smile upon her face, and always deals with the challenges ahead with a giggle has made it apparent she was a well deserved recipient of this award.

Well done Chrissy!

Categories: Absolute Radio People 2

Posted by dan on August 19, 2010

Playlist: 19th August

19Aug

The playlist is out now.

The xx – Islands (2nd August)
The English band’s debut album ‘xx’ has been one of the sleeper-successes of the last 18 months, regularly used on TV trails and gradually drawing more and more fans to the band’s smoky/moody/delicate sound. It’s a favourite for this year’s Mercury Prize.

Paul Weller – Fast Car/Slow Traffic (13th September)
Latest single from Weller’s acclaimed album ‘Wake Up The Nation’ – which is also nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize

The Drums move to Absolute Radio’s B-list

Categories: Music playlist 0

Posted by carrie on August 19, 2010

Absolute Radio July Engagement Metrics

17Aug

In July, The Absolute Radio Network (Absolute Radio, Absolute 80s, Absolute Classic Rock, Absolute Radio 90s and dabbl) served 11,093,352 million hours of compelling online content including live online streamed hours, live mobile streamed hours, downloaded on-demand audio and video. This is a massive 31% increase from June.

The Absolute Radio Network streamed 8.9 million hours of live audio in July, up 35% from 6.6 million in June. 244,000 hours were streamed via a mobile platform. 

The Network served a total of 2,149,701 on-demand hours via IP connected devices – up 14% from 1,884,963 in June. This on-demand figure consists of all audio and video content available online through downloaded podcasts, audio clips, live sessions and videos both on Absolute Radio websites and third party sites. A record 3,854,000 podcasts were downloaded in the month which equate to 2,006,717 hours of audio and 57,919 hours of video – 2,064,636 in total. On-demand hours represent a huge growth area for the brand opening content up to a far wider online audience and the content has become an attractive commercial proposition for the stations advertisers.

Absolute Radio remains the only commercial UK station to release its streamed or on demand listening hours data and make this information public. This measure of engagement allows the station to give greater insight into how listeners hear it’s output via the internet providing further accountability for customers and stakeholders.

Absolute Radio continues to work hard across the industry to ensure it provides consistent figures. The statistics are gathered using data from streams in a variety of formats with actual listening data collected from multiple computers or internet radio devices. Data is also collected from cookies removed from PCs.

Monthly figures for the network are available from our stats page.

Categories: Uncategorized 0

Posted by rhiannon on August 17, 2010

Brand New Iain Lee Show Mobile App Launches! And It’s Free! by Iain Lee

16Aug

Iain Lee

Hello you.

Iain Lee here. Hope you’re well and stuff. If you’re not, I may be able to help. And if you are well, I think I can make you even wellerer.

I can’t count the number of times I have been sat at home and wished that I had some of the mentals who called my show, sat there with me watching Mistresses. Actually, that’s a lie. I have never wanted any of them to be actually near me – in fact that’s quite scary. But I have considered the fun I could have by having recordings of their voices to play at a moments notice. Sadly, I’ve never found a way to make this possible.

UNTIL NOW!

A lovely chap called Rob has made my dreams come true by building an iPhone application app that allows me (and by me, I really mean you) to have the 3 most popular (and by most popular, I mean they just call in a lot) callers to my show on permanent stand-by. That’s right, if you download the Iain Lee Show App, you can have Barry From Watford talking dirty, Vinny mumbling, and Andre from Basildon mumbling dirty and drunkenly ANY TIME YOU WANT!

These 3 chaps have donated their voices and their souls to this project, and it would be such a shame for that generosity to go to waste. Saying that, I’m not sure if Andre knows we’ve used his voice. I did tell him and offer to send him some promos, but he’s probably forgotten by now.

Anyway, amuse your friends, pleasure your work colleagues and get in trouble with your teacher by playing these sound clips as often and as loud as you like. There is also a hidden ‘I’m a cougar’ Easter Egg.

But that’s not all…

The Iain Lee Show iPhone Application app also allows you to interact with the show in bold new ways that no other radio show is doing (I think) I know have the ability and technology to send you the topics for the next few shows before we even go on air. I can see only one drawback to this – I often don’t think of the topics until the first record is coming to an end. But never fear, now this function is here, I will try and work a bit harder.

But that’s not all…

I can also send out things for you to vote on, and you can vote on them. Obviously. I can’t think of any examples now, but it would be like a votey type question with options, you would then like click on the thing you thought and I would get the results and, er, like, um, well, to be honest, I’m not sure what I would do with them, but I would do something with them.

But that’s not all…

…actually, I think that is all. There may be more, I can’t remember.

Anyway, dig this. It is Absolutely free. What more could you want?

My boss, Mr. Grace was reluctant to release this. He said we couldn’t get the figures to make it worthwhile. I told him we could get 10,000 downloads easy. I am now regretting saying that, because if we don’t, I will get in trouble. So, would you mind downloading it, even if you hate me? Ta.

Also, nick your friends iPhones, iPads and the other i- thing, you know, the walkman thing, and download it on them. If you’re in an Apple store, download the app onto that. Basically, do whatever you can to get downloads.

You can find it in the Absolute Radio section of iTunes, or if you type in Iain Lee it should come up.

Thanks for this. I owe you one.

Iain Lee

X

The Iain Lee Show mobile application is available now via iTunes.  It joins the complete range of Absolute Radio applications for mobile. Get it here http://bit.ly/IainLeeApp

Categories: Absolute Radio Comedy Technology Uncategorized mobile podcasts 0

Posted by jonny on August 16, 2010