BBC iPlayer hits XBox One and extends TV show downloads to 30 days

The PS4 got iPlayer at launch but the BBC made XBox One owners wait a little longer. Now, just in time for Christmas, the wait is over. The BBC has launched an iPlayer app for XBox One which takes advantage of the console’s Kinect voice control features.
To grab the new app, you just need to switch on your console and log in to XBox Live, you’ll find the new BBC iPlayer app there as a free download.
The BBC has also announced that it’s extending the extending the time you have to download TV shows to watch offline from 7 to 30 days.
➤BBC iPlayer comes to the Xbox One [BBC Internet Blog]

Great deals on iOS design and development courses

iOS 8 is one of Apple’s biggest mobile platform release ever, and empowers developers to create more powerful and engaging apps than ever before. It also carries forward the recent design language introduced in iOS 7, that encourages simplicity and showcases content.

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Mozilla tweaks Hello Firefox feature for easier account-free video calling

Mozilla has today released its Firefox 35 beta, which arrives with improved ‘Firefox Hello‘ video chat functionality.

First introduced back in October and built in conjunction with mobile operator Telefonica, Firefox Hello allows users to make video calls directly from the browser without the need for additional software using the WebRTC standard. The feature first became available to the browser’s general users with the release of Firefox 34, but version 35 beta sees the feature fleshed out.

One of the benefits of using this standard, rather than a proprietary technology, is that it allows users to connect with anyone that uses a WebRTC-enabled browser, such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera. Today’s changes see a more streamlined call initiation setup for people making calls without a Firefox account (it’s not mandatory to have one in order to make calls) and a slightly different conversation view that shows a self-view until the person you are calling has joined the chat.

You can now also create multiple unique shareable URLs for your conversations and name them whatever you want, meaning you don’t need to keep creating new links for that weekly call with mom or daily call with your colleagues, and you still don’t need an account. If, however, you want to make direct calls to people without sharing links, you’ll both need a Firefox account.

The beta follows the switch to using Yahoo as the default search provider in the release version of Firefox 34.

IBM’s Watson Analytics platform is now open to everyone

IBM’s Watson Analytics service is now in open beta. The natural language-based system, born of the same programme that developed the company’s Jeopardy-playing super computer, offers predictive and visual analytics tools for businesses.

Early this summer, IBM announced it is investing more than $1 billion into commercializing Watson. Watson Analytics is part of that effort. The company promises that it can can automate tasks such as data preparation, predictive analysis and visual storytelling.
IBM will offer Watson Analytics as a cloud-based freemium service, accessible via the Web and mobile devices. Since it announced the programme in the summer, 22,000 people have registered for the beta.
The launch of Watson Analytics follows the announcement two months ago that IBM has teamed up with Twitter to apply the Watson technology to analysing data from the social network.

Bing Pulse now lets anyone conduct audience polls

Microsoft said today that it is opening up its audience polling tool Bing Pulse to all users, to allow them to get reactions from groups at events and meetings in real-time, reports TechCrunch.

Until now, the tool was only available through partnerships. Fox News used Bing Pulse to gauge how the nation felt during US President Obama’s State of the Union address last year in February.

Bing Pulse lets users create a poll page using a simple Web-based interface and pose multiple questions on the page through the duration of their events, and automatically graph reactions over that period. You can also post messages to your audience, and soon you’ll be able to also set up social feeds and video streams.

You can use Bing Pulse for free while it’s still in beta until Jan 31 next year, after which it might move to a freemium model.