BT has revealed plans to offer new ultra-fast “on demand” broadband to businesses and homes next year, and will also double the speed of its Infinity service earlier than expected.

BT says that two thirds of Infinity customers will have speeds of up to 80Mbps by the end of the 2014, up from the current 40Mbps limit. But its on demand service will offer comparatively insane speeds of up to 300Mbps by extending the company’s fibre optic network right up to your door. Currently the fiber optic network goes to junction boxes in the street, which are then connected to homes and businesses via copper wire. This acts as a bottle neck, and means drops in speed.

The proposed new service is called “fibre to the premises” or FTTP, and has been successfully trialled in Cornwall. When FTTP becomes available (the aim is spring 2013, dependant on more trials) customers will have to request a fibre optic connection to their home or business, which suggests that this 300Mbps system could end up being fairly pricey. Well, what did you expect?

BT was one of a few companies that came out of Ofcom’s recent broadband speed report looking relatively good. Ofcom found that the average download speed of BT Infinity’s 40Mbps service was between 35.4 and 36.7Mbps. BT’s 20Mbps service didn’t fare so well (7.8 to 9.7Mbps) and Sky, TalkTalk, Plusnet, Karoo and Orange’s figures for services advertised at similar speeds also made disappointing reading.

Of course, even BT’s speeds look feeble compared to the 1Gbps connections now available in South Korea. Maybe we should all move to Seoul.

(Via Digital Spy)

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Today Sky revealed plans to launch a new internet TV service. Arriving by the middle of this year, this service will allow anyone with a broadband connection to access Sky’s programming through pretty much any device: computer, set-top box, connected TV, games console, tablet, smartphone, you name it. And unlike the current Sky Go service, customers won’t have to subscribe: if they fancy watching a film one evening, they can rent only that film; there’s no requirement to purchase a monthly pass.

But while Sky’s service could put the willies up the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm, Apple could be the company that really loses out as a result. Why? Well, Sky just turned everything into a Sky box.

If you’re a gadget fan, even a casual one, chances are you already have a device that’s compatible with the upcoming service. You probably, in fact, already have a device sitting under your telly – or perhaps inside your telly – that’s ready to receive these programmes.

Apple, it seems, is prepping a brand new Apple HDTV. While we don’t know anything for certain, it’s likely this device will let you access all sorts of lovely TV shows and films, probably through an interface that makes most other interfaces look about as elegant as a bowl of hacked-up pig bladders.

But, and this is a big but… you’re going to have to buy a whole new TV. And being an Apple product (a brand new Apple product at that) it’s highly unlikely to be cheap. Then pile on the costs of buying all this content and you’re looking at a hefty outlay.

Sky’s “box”? Well, like we say, you already have it. And we know all about Sky’s content: not only do you get a bunch of wonderful exclusive TV shows (Mad Men, Game of Thrones) but there are films galore and – and this could be the killer – sport. In particular Premiership football, the broadcaster’s jewel in the crown.

We don’t think Sky will offer football on the same pay-per-view basis as movies (The wording of its announcement implies that it won’t, and it doesn’t seem as though it would benefit Sky financially, when people will already subscribe just for the sake of a few games per season), so you’ll probably have to fork out a monthly fee, but it’s still likely to prove a huge draw to the service for millions of people. Sky Sports with no dish, no cable connection – just your broadband.

Perhaps Apple has foreseen this (hence unlikely rumours that it’s preparing a giant bid for the Premiership broadcasting rights), but perhaps not fast enough: its current Apple TV UK offering is fairly limp (Where the hell is iPlayer?), and it doesn’t seem like any major new deals are in the offing. Content, as the saying goes, is king – but when a company combines the best content with a cheap delivery system, as Sky seems to be doing, it seems like a recipe for huge success.

One thing that could put a spanner in Sky’s works is the issue of HD. People want to watch things in high definition, and the current Sky Go doesn’t offer that. It’s possible: see the BBC iPlayer app on the PS3 for an excellent example. If Sky can manage to deliver a proper HD internet television service, we’ll be among the first to sign up.

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At a time when yearly sequels seem to be becoming the norm, a four-year wait for a new Soul Calibur is likely to have stretched the patience of fans to the limit. Yet after just one session with Namco Bandai’s Soul Calibur 5, you can’t help but feel as if the series has never been away. Everything just clicks into place.

In essence, not a lot has changed. The gameplay remains true to its signature free-flowing style, the kind that allows for fast-paced button-bashing-friendly combat, yet still capable of catering to the die-hard fight stick crowd keen to hone their technique, learn each basic move, guard and signature speciality.

Happy Birthday: 12 ways the DreamCast lives on

Soul Calibur 5 maintains the balance between approachable controls and combat that remains easy to pick up and play, yet difficult to master to its fullest. Fully traversable 3D arenas lets players sidestep their way past attacks, and even walk around their opponent full circle – adding further attack and evasive opportunities for players in a way only Soul Calibur and fellow Namco Bandai alternative Tekken allow.

From our two-hour session, we can already see that such tactics will be required, what with the powerful new Critical Edge attacks, capable of inflicting up to two thirds of damage to opponents. To activate these, a Critical Edge bar needs filling up, and is done so in incremental stages. The more it is filled, the stronger the Critical Edge attack. At full whack, it is both monstrously powerful and unblockable. Sidestepping just before the strike hits is the only way to dodge them. With just half a second’s notice, evading it requires ninja-like reflexes. These attacks are a handy leveler for when squaring up to more skilled foes.

Character-wise, old favourites Maxi, Mitsurugi, Siegfried, Cervantes, Ivy and more are still there – yes, even creepy bondage fan Voldo. A minor clear-out has seen some old cast members out, and new cast members entering the battle. Kilik has been replaced by Xiba – another staff-wielder who plays in a similar way, using many of the same moves.

And then there’s the special guest character – Ezio Autidore from Assassin’s Creed – a major coup, and much more relevant than former cameo fighters Darth Vader (PS3-exclusive) and Yoda (Xbox 360-exclusive). Soul Calibur 5 has its share of short and long-range focussed characters. Ezio is the former, but once close enough to an opponent, Ezio can be devastating. Unlike Vader and Yoda, Ezio looks a perfect fit for Soul Calibur 5.

Lastly, the story mode. We were only privy to one chapter in which Patroklos, son of Soul Calibur’s Sophitia, goes about a town ridding it of evil, battering enemy knights in pursuit of the powerful ‘Soul Edge’ sword. The story is told through cinematic, cutscenes, hand-drawn interludes and voiceover narration to fuel the storyline.

Previous Soul Calibur games let players collect and equip new weapons and take part in challenges. Little about these aspects was revealed to us, so we can only hope that come release there will be more to the story mode. A character customisation mode lets you either tweak an existing character, or create your own from scratch.

The customisation options here are impressive enough to make your own Frankenfighter look and sound almost any way you like. We gave ours a purple afro. We’re creative like that.

As we’ve seen with the Marvel vs Capcom and Street Fighter games, the best fighting games manage to evolve without tweaking too much. Right now, that’s how we’re feeling with Soul Calibur 5. The basic gameplay treads familiar ground, but it’s the little changes, new move mechanics, an overhauled story mode and its much-improved fighting arenas that should see Soul Calibur 5 end up a worthy refresh of the series, and one we very much look forward to playing more of.

Out February 3rd 2012 | £TBC | Soul Calibur 5

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Spotify’s CEO and Founder Daniel Ek hosted the conference in New York to announce that third party apps from the likes of The Guardian, Rolling Stone, PitchFork and Last.fm, will be entering Spotify Software via a bespoke app store.

Apps will be made using JavaScript and run within Spotify via HTML 5. Once downloaded, they’ll appear tucked away in the left panel in line with your playlists, maximising to fill the middle space when in use. It’s up to developers as to what they can do with this tech, but apps at launch revolve around reviews and ticket buying, as well as an app dishing up song lyrics to accompany tracks from TuneWiki.

Ek said that he’s wanted “Spotify to be like water: available everywhere, seamlessly,” but that just being ubiquitous isn’t enough; by becoming a platform it can offer users much more in terms of music discovery.

We’re not sure if altering Spotify from a background app to a platform itself is entirely necessary, but it’ll be interesting to see which apps will change our mind on that one. Will you use Spotify apps? Or is the big green music machine trying too hard to echo the likes of Apple and Facebook?

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First off, you’ll need Google Chrome – at this stage YouTube’s new look is only available on its parent company’s browser, as you might expect. Got Chrome? Navigate to www.youtube.com and do the following.

• Click View > Developer > JavaScript Console
• The console should enter at the bottom of the screen
• Paste this into the console: document.cookie = “VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE = ST1Ti53r4fU”
• Press enter
• Reload YouTube
• Close the console

As you should be able to see from our gallery, it’s a fairly easy process to coerce YouTube into its new look. The redesign integrates social sharing with Facebook and Google+, as well as generally tightening up the look to fit more in line with Google’s recent aesthetic shift.

Let us know what you think of the new look YouTube below.

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The enterprising chaps at XDA Developers have just released an APK of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard, which requires no root, and should run on any Android phone running 2.2 or up.

We’ve just given it a whirl on a Google Nexus S, and it seems a great improvement on the already excellent Android 2.3 keyboard. The keys look ever so slightly larger, noticeably less laggy, and you can now long press on the auto-suggestion words to see many more instead of having to drag across right.

Check out the best Android keyboard apps of all time here

It’s too early to say, but perhaps one of the biggest improvements can be found in the settings: the Android Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard bases its auto-corrections and suggestions based on the previous words you type: it’s context sensitive, in other words.

While this is an unofficial app, there’s only one caveat we can see: the microphone button is missing, presumably since only Ice Cream Sandwich phones can make use of the new realtime voice dictation it offers. You can download it now at the link below: just turn it on under Language & Keyboard in settings.

(Android Market via XDA Developers)

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The company has announced that it will launch Roku boxes in the UK and Canada in early 2012. Roku boxes are small, cheap (Starting at $59.99 or £37), and offer more than 350 channels to stream, including American giants like Hulu, Netflix and HBO. Some of the latest Roku 2 models also allow media playback from local storage too, and even play games such as Angry Birds.

Roku 2: Five ways it beats Apple TV

By comparison, the £99 Apple TV is a rather less appealing device in the UK than it is in the US, thanks to its lack of British streaming services, and it’s here that Roku could shine. It says its platform will allow for region specific channels, so you’d have to fancy the likes of BBC and Lovefilm will want to get in there with their own apps.

It’s possible to buy Roku 2 boxes on Amazon right now, but be warned: you won’t be able to watch much of the premium content locked to the US on them for now. We contacted Roku for details on UK channels and pricing, but a spokesperson declined to comment.

(Pictures: The Roku 2 line of devices)

Further reading:

• 10 amazing Apple TV hacks
• Boxee Box gets live TV
• Boxee Box review
• New Apple TV: Siri powers incoming

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The Boxee Box media streamer has added a new string to its bow in the US, by unveiling a branded Antenna add-on that’ll bring content from some of the biggest American networks to the device with no monthly subscription.

The Boxee Live TV Stick is a dongle that gifts US customers access to ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in HD with no monthly fee. That’s a pretty amazing deal considering its $49 (£31) price tag. Boxee suggests that US cable customers sick of incredibly high monthly subscriptions are scared to leave their packages due to a “Lack of live sports, local news, special events and live TV shows,” which is a gap that the Boxee Box Live TV Stick aims to bridge.

Check out our Boxee Box review

There are no plans as yet to launch the device in the UK for Boxee Box owners on these shores, but it’s certainly something that Apple, and to a lesser extent Sony, should keep an eye on. Apple TV is currently no replacement for a package like Sky that combines broadcast TV and on-demand content.

Apple may well look to infuse its TV offering with broadcast content in the near future with an Apple-branded TV, but it’s unlikely to be as generous as Boxee and do so without subscription. Want the Boxee Box Live TV stick in the UK? Let us know below.

Available January (US and Canada-only) | $49 | Boxee

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For all RIM’s troubles of late, we’ve always loved its Bold series of phones, and their pro-worthy keyboards. Put simply, there is still nothing faster out there to type a properly punctuated email. But the Bold 9900, released earlier this year, was almost too large: it was built with the American market in mind, and they like they like their phones like their cars – big.

It’s no coincidence then that RIM is launching the BlackBerry Bold 9790 in Indonesia, market with less absurd tastes, later this month, followed by the UK in the new year. The 9700 line of Bolds is a little smaller, a little more manageable – and this time, a whole lot thinner.

Like the recent super skinny BlackBerry Curve 9360, this is a slim, smooth phone. RIM hasn’t released the exact dimensions, but it feels comfortable to grip, and the smooth plastic back panel is far more subtle, and far less silly, than the faux-leather finish of the Bold 9700 and 980 phones.

The front of the phone however has changed very little, save for the four buttons below the screen, which are now separated (we can take or leave the change. The 2.44-inch 480×360 display is pin sharp, and responded well to pinch gestures, zooming in on the browser. But it is still barely bigger than a postage stamp: this is not for watching videos on.

We’re pleased to report meanwhile that the rubbery keyboard hasn’t changed a bit. It’s a matter of preference whether you prefer these ridges keys or the isolated, clicky plastic buttons of the BlackBerry Curve line, but we love them, and though they’re slightly smaller than on the Bold 9900, you can race across them at incredible speeds with your thumbs.

Inside, the BlackBerry Bold 9790 is powered by a 1GHz processor, but more of note is the inclusion of an NFC chip (Near field communications). RIM is betting big on the technology, and although its real world uses are limited for now, RIM’s UK boss Stephen Bates says the company is in talks with big payment companies, and reckons that NFC will be available to use in day to day use in public during the lifetime of these phones.

Of course, BlackBerry 7 is still BlackBerry 7: a very modest software upgrade with a decent browser and universal search, and not a lot more. The BlackBerry App World isn’t exactly packed with awesome games and apps, but you knew that already didn’t you? With the advent of RIM’s new OS, BBX, expected next year, that’s not likely to change either – but if you want a decent emailer with no distractions, this could well be worth holding out for until after Christmas.

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Alongside the BlackBerry Curve 9380, RIM is launching BBM Music in the UK today, which lets you keep 50 songs at any one time, and stream all the songs from your contacts’ libraries as well. We should be going hands on with both later on today, but in the meantime click through for the official photo gallery. The BlackBerry Curve 9380 is out in the “coming weeks”.

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