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Samsung has finally announced the Jet Ultra edition – and will be making it exclusive to O2. While the release has only come today, the phone has been available on the site for a number of weeks. The Jet Ultra edition isn’t much of an upgrade either over the disappointing first Samsung Jet – essentially the headline grabber is the fact it now has BBC iPlayer on board. This means that users can use Wi-Fi to download videos from the service on demand and watch them wherever they go.

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Facebook is culling some of the applications available on its site, believing them to be nothing but conduits for advertising. The ingeniously monikered ’stalker apps’ allow you to see who has been checking up on your profile – presumably to give you some sort of self-esteem boost, by proving that people actually care about your entire life and not just your witty status updates. According to the BBC, a number of apps have disappeared from the social-networking site, including the idiotically titles ‘Stalker Check’ and the not-so-catchily named ‘Who has visited my profile’. Stalking status update “Don’t believe any applications that claim they can show you who’s viewing your profile or photo.

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The .com domain name is celebrating its 25th birthday, with computer maker Symbolics.com the first to add the domain to its name on March 15, 1985. Nine years before anyone thought to buy sex.com, and with the world wide web still a gleam in Sir Time Berners-Lee’s eye, Symbolics became the first to register a .com, and earn itself a footnote in internet history. Five others took the plunge that year and bought a domain name, with the BBC suggesting that another 199 million or so have been registered since. Around 86 million of those are still active as internet sites. Who would have guessed

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Virgin Media has officially announced that ITV HD will be coming to the platform from April 2, allowing subscribers to watch all World Cup matches in high definition. With the summer’s World Cup looming, and the likes of Freesat and Freeview HD offering a high-definition option for footy fans on BBC HD and ITV HD, it is no surprise that Virgin Media have done a deal with Britain’s second broadcaster. ITV HD is the forth hi-def channel to be announced by the cable giants this year, as HD becomes an increasingly important offering to consumers. Growing line-up Cindy Rose, Executive Director of Digital Entertainment at Virgin Media, said: “ITV offers some of the UK’s most loved programmes and we’re delighted to add them to our growing HD channel line-up. “This year’s World Cup promises some unforgettable games and Virgin Media TV viewers will be able to enjoy every nail-biting, heart-stopping, breath-taking moment in stunning High Definition.” Interestingly, Virgin also revealed that some of ITV1’s HD content will also be available on demand via ITV Net Player on Virgin Media’s TV platform

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Legendary prog-rockers Pink Floyd have won a landmark court ruling, which states that songs from the group’s albums are not allowed to be sold separately online. Unless Pink Floyd gives permission to EMI – its record company – to do so, only the bands albums will be made available for purchase on the web. According to the judge who resided over the case, this is to “preserve the artistic integrity of the albums”.

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All users of Humax’s Freesat Foxsat-HD and Foxsat-HDR set top boxes will now be able to use the BBC iPlayer through the red button. Humax has successfully completed a beta trial of a red button catch-up service and has now rolled out the functionality to all users. “After successful BETA testing, the highly anticipated BBC iPlayer service, which enables viewers to search and view a range of programmes, is now freely available to all owners of a Humax Foxsat-HD or Foxsat-HDR box, so they can play their favourite shows from the past seven days direct to their televisions,” confirmed Humax. It ‘beta’ work Users will need to make sure that their Humax Freesat box is connected to both the internet and satellite dish, press the red button when on a BBC channel and then either navigate to the somewhat confusing BBC iPlayer Beta option in the list or type in 7001 on the remote control.

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MSN Video Player has been a big enough success through a pilot scheme to be launched as a major new product, and Microsoft is not ruling out offering the service to television manufacturers, on Xbox and through the forthcoming Windows Phone 7 Series. A million people have already used the ad-funded and free MSN Video Player in beta to watch full-length programmes, trailers and clips, enough of an audience to convince the portal that the service has the appeal to become a key asset for Microsoft. With users staying for an average of 25 minutes – far more than major catch-up services like ITV Player and 4OD – and advertisers champing at the bit to buy up pre-roll adverts before the features, Microsoft has now sealed deals with the likes of Endemol and Shed Media to expand their offering further. Thousand hours “We are expanding our catalogue to over 1,000 hours,” explained MSN’s Rob Crossen. “We’ve signed a number of new deals…we’ve gone out there and sourced content that appeals to our audience.

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The boss of BT has criticised the government’s plans to cut-off persistent illegal file-sharers from their internet accounts, suggesting that fining them would be a far more progressive option. British Telecom’s chief exec, Ian Livingston, has teamed up with a number of other key industry figures and written a letter to the Financial Times urging that changes be made to the Digital Economy Bill. Unnatural justice Plans to cut off filesharers go against what Mr Livingston refers to as ‘natural justice’ and instead he wants to see those accused of filesharing either pay a fine or fight their case in a court of law. ISPs will no doubt see this as a preferable option to the current suggestions in the Digital Economy Bill, which, if ratified, will essentially see them being forced to cut off their own customers. The BT boss said that this alternative approach would “create a fund” and “you get some good, rather than getting some hurt out of people infringing copyright”

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The television licence fee will go up by three pounds, with Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw laying a Parliamentary order to approve the increase from next month. The rise in the licence fee, is just the latest in a six-year plan approved back in January 2007, but arrives in an inevitable storm of criticism and brings the cost of a colour television licence to £145.50. The Department for Culture Media and Sport argue that the January inflation figure stood at 3.5 per cent, which means that the £3, or two per cent, rise is actually below the increase to cost of living. Hard times But with the country still reeling from the economic crash, and government departmental cuts, the increase has drawn disapproval.

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The proposed web cuts in the recent BBC strategy review, which will involve the closure of around 200 websites, are not just an exercise in cost-cutting according to BBC’s Digital Chief, Eric Huggers. Speaking to the Guardian, Huggers argues that the BBC’s mistake was in allowing its web presence to ’sprawl’ which, he says, was, “a natural consequence of not being constrained by spectrum.” Huggers added: “We need to be more focused, and do it much better… we need to improve the quality level, and reprioritise on what we do best.” Double click-through to rivals Huggers has identified around 400 “top-level domain” websites that will be closed or merged by 2012 . “We’re not saying we’re cutting niche parts,” said Huggers. “What we’re saying is that we want to focus BBC Online on doing less a lot better

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