After Xbox 360, BSkyB has announced the release of the Sky Player on Microsoft Media Centre which equips Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate by default.

Users will be able to access Live TV, on demand movies and sport. Tech website Neowin understands that only paying Sky customers (possibly not those on say, Free Sat from Sky) will be able to access the service which will be available as an online Sky Player multiroom subscription for £5 per month.

Those who already have this subscription or using Sky Broadband Unlimited will be able to view the live channels for free. On demand content is already included in the deal.

Read more

Customers can take photos of goods and receive links to where they’re sold on Amazon.

Amazon has launched a free UK iPhone app that lets you search and buy from its entire online store.

Shoppers can already buy products using Amazon’s mobile site, but the new app simplifies the process by introducing one-click ordering.

The app also has a feature called Amazon Remembers which identifies photos you take of items you see in shop windows and adverts and sends you to a link to buy it.

If the app fails to recognise what’s in the photo, it then sends the image to a team of people who will search for the best link to the item and email it to you.

Read more

Don’t worry about the much-reported Nokia N900 delay. The Linux-based smartphone will only hit the shops a week or so later than expected.

Nokia said back in August that the device would be available to buy in October. But Pete Schneider, Nokia’s Head of Maemo Marketing, has since said: “We expect it to start shipping during November 2009.”

Read more

Bringing together commercial radio with Aunty Beeb online

A single website which offers a one-stop-shop for listeners to tune into all BBC and commercial British radio stations could be here by Christmas.

Director of audio and music at the BBC, Tim Davie, has expressed his support for the plan, which could offer instant, live access for up to 500 different networks.

A beta test of the site is being readied for launch this side of Christmas, with a public launch scheduled in for the first half of 2010.

Read more

More than half the population believes children should be told about creationism – the belief that God created the world – in school science lessons, a poll reveals today.

Some 54 per cent of Britons want biology teachers to discuss ‘alternative perspectives’ on human origins alongside traditional explanations of evolution.

They also want children to be told about intelligent design, the idea that aspects of the universe are too complex to be explained by science and natural selection. Critics say this is just creationism under another name.

Read more

France-telecom owned Orange is only a couple of weeks away from getting the right to legally sell the iPhone family in the UK as the exclusivity agreement between Apple and O2 comes to an end.

The iPhone will be available through Orange’s official outlets, online and on high streets, as well as through the usual retailers like Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U. Reports suggest that more than 200,000 people have already expressed their interests in getting the iPhone from Orange.

Vodafone is also set to get the iPhone by early next year and there are also rumours that 3 networks, the smallest of the operators, is also actively seeking to get the iPhone on its network according to its CEO, Kevin Russell.

Read more

Yahoo has announced that GeoCities, once one of the biggest destinations on the internet and often one of the strangest, will close its doors today after 15 years.

The web giant warned that anyone who runs a GeoCities site has until later today to back up, move or save their pages.

“If you do not download your files and images before October 26 2009, you will no longer be able to access that data. After October 26, your GeoCities files will be deleted from our servers, and will not be recoverable,” the firm said on its GeoCities help page.

Read more

Cyber criminals have targeted the Guardian’s Jobs website in what the company is describing as a ‘sophisticated and deliberate’ hack.

Users of the job listings board received an email informing them of the cyber attack which had breached “the security of the data on the site”.

The Guardian said that the incident had been reported to the police, and that the hack was being investigated by the central e-crime unit at New Scotland Yard.

Read more

LONDON (SHARECAST) – UK business confidence has jumped to its highest in 18 months despite the ongoing recession, a new survey has found.

A poll of senior executives for accountancy firm KPMG shows 19% of the 205 executives asked say the outlook for business is “good” or “very good,” up from 9% the previous quarter.

There was a big drop in the number of senior executives saying the outlook is “bad” or “very bad”, down to 24% from 54% last time.

Today’s news follows Friday’s revelation that Britain’s economy shrank by 0.4% in the third quarter, confounding analysts’ expectations of a return to growth.

Read more

‘It’s infuriating for people to see their friends losing their jobs, their friends having their homes foreclosed on and no one going to jail’

Warren Buffett has given another insight into the thinking that has made him one of the most successful investors ever.

In a BBC interview, the Sage of Omaha criticised the huge rewards enjoyed by those in the financial industry and called for a more “progressive” taxation system. The second-richest man in the world also sympathised with those who are furious with the bankers who helped to create the financial crisis.

The interview shows that the 79-year old has lost none of his charm. Buffett jokes that in another life he would probably have been devoured by a wild animal. He also defended his use of a private jet, the definitive symbol of corporate excess, on the grounds it made his life easier – even though it did undermine his “Huckleberry Finn” image.

The full interview will be shown on BBC2 at 9pm tonight – but here are some of the highlights:

Read more