Announcing the DAB Pure Highway – a handy way of getting DAB in your car without having to replace your existing radio. The Pure Highway is a DAB radio that sticks to your windscreen much like a satnav unit – it’s a DAB receiver that re-transmits DAB stations onto FM, so that your existing card radio can tune in to DAB. You can also pause and rewind live DAB. Powered from the car’s 12V socket / 2 x AA batteries, the Highway has 20 DAB station. Easy to install and remove from your car.

Available for £69.99. More on our DAB Car Radios page.

UK radio firm Revo has launched the world’s first ever combined DAB, FM receiver and Internet radio, that’s also ready for the new DAB+ standard. Called the Blik RadioStation, this is the first commercially available radio that provides plug-and-play reception of both existing DAB and new DAB+ broadcasts.

David Baxter, Managing Director of Revo Technologies said: “The fact that we have beaten bigger, more established names to the market with this new technology, highlights our desire and commitment to making REVO a global force in the digital radio business.”

The Blik RadioStation features full DAB and DAB+ digital radio reception, FM radio coverage with RDS, Wi-Fi internet radio (easy access to over 9,000 stations from around the world), full alarm clock functionality and the ability to plug-in your iPod® and use BLIK as a loudspeaker system for MP3 playback. It’s available for £150 from Revo

Channel 4′s now offering an HD service on Sky. The service has gone live on Sky’s HD offering this week offering shows like Ugly Betty in HD. More shows, including Hollyoaks, are expected in HD from 4 in 2008

Just to let you know… a new episode of FrequencyCast , the UK’s online TV and Tech radio show, has just been released.

FrequencyCast Show 21, released on the 1st of December, covers the following topics:

• News Updates: Plans for a Freeview expansion and HD on Freeview, Sky’s having a Freeview picnic, an update on the US writer’s strikes, plus news of some Top Up TV changes, 4oD’s free player and some mobile Hoff.
• Archive Your Media: Carl and Pete explore how to get your audio cassettes, 7″ singles, VHS cassettes and photos safely archived digitally – something to keep you busy over Christmas.
• Two phones: We look more closely at the phone that offers free calls, plus we don’t review Apple’s iPhone.
• Other goodies: A wi-fi gadget that vibrates at 40,000, plus you can get your hands on the Knight Industries 2000.
• Your Questions: Broadband on trains, wi-fi broadband, DAB+ radios, on-demand TV, plus HomeSight and XDA Orbit fixes.

You can download Show 21 direct to your MP3 player, listen online, or view the show notes at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/cast21.html

Broadcasting hours for UKTV Gold on the TopUp TV service have dropped (again). This time, it’s to make way for some new content. Boxes will now be able to get programming from The History Channel, Crime & Investigation and the Sci-Fi channel.

You’ll have to go ‘Menu’. ‘Customise’ to get this new content. More on our Top Up TV Anytime pages.

The Disney Channel announced it’s joining the Picnic TV lineup. If you’re not sure what Picnic is – this is a pay-TV service backed by Sky.

Picnic is pending apporval from Ofcom. If it gets the go-ahead, the service, that can be received via a TV aerial, will offer subscribers premium Sky content, including Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One and Disney. Sky’s current Freeview channels, Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three, will vanish to make way for this new service. Are you pro-Sky One coming to Freeview, or anti-Sky’s plans for TV dominance? Ofcom are after public opinions on this. See http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/dtv/. Consultation ends on 14th December 2007.

The UK regulator Ofcom announced that we can expect more channels on Freeview, including some high-definition content, as early as 2009. The extra Freeview channels can only happen when the analogue switchover happens, as there’s not enough space on the system at the moment, so we could see new channels first in the Border and Granada TV regions, as they’ll be the first to have gone digital by 2009.

The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five and all stated their intention to launch HD services between 2009 and 2012. The Beeb is already offering HD on satellite and cable, with Channel 4 launching their service soon.

Missed a show on Channel 4? A fan of classic comedy like Black Books, Peep Show, Father Ted or Brass Eye?

Download the free 4oD player from Channel 4. 4oD on your PC provides access to 30-days of Channel 4′s schedule free of charge, plus some pay-to-view classic shows. Download the free 4oD player from www.channel4.com/4od.

We’ve heard that a new version of Top Up TV Anytime software is being rolled out from 8th November 2007. This reportedly offers: EPG & VOD Search, an expanded the Synopsis window, improvements to Series link and VOD downloads, and some other user interface changes. Updates should be received on your Anytime box automatically. www.radioandtelly.co.uk/topuptvanytime.html

Gems TV has appeared on Freeview channel 43. it looks like this is the Gems TV shopping channel.

In the early hours of this morning, the 17th of October, Whitehaven in Cumbia lost it’s analogue BBC2 service has part of the UK’s digital switchover. The rest of the UK is set to follow suit, region-by-region, with the UK’s analogue telly finally being turned off in 2012. For more on the digital switchover and what it means to you, have a listen to our Digital Switchover Edition of our podcast.

If you’re a fan of the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, you might want to be listening to Radio 4 for the next few weeks. The production team behind the last three series of the Hitch-hikers radio series (2004-2005) have completed a radio version of Douglas’ other creation, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Starts from 3rd October 2007.

More at http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/dirkgently.html

Some changes to the radio stations found on Freeview. Some stations will be changing frequencies for technical reasons. In September, Heat and Kerrang moved, and on the 3rd of October, BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be moving. They’ll be on the same channels numbers, but you will need to rescan the channel lineup on your Freeview receiver to continue to get these channels.

Virgin One starts on Freeview in the evening of 1st October 2007, replacing FTN.

From 15th October 2007, the UKTV G2 channel will be rebranded to “Dave”. It’s also coming to Freeview, replacing UKTV Bright Ideas. The idea behind the name is that everyone knows someone called Dave.

The channel’s target audience is 16-34 males. Dave will share the Freeview bandwidth with UKTV History. A re-scan may be needed.

BT Vision has pushed out a mail to a number of its customers to alert them of a BT Vision service update that’s planned for this coming week. From midnight on the morning of Wednesday the 19th of September, until 10am on Wednesday, the BT Vision service is being upgraded. There’ll be no on-demand content available during this upgrade, and the advice is not to reboot your box during this time. We have no details on what the upgrade will do. Keep an eye on our BT Vision forum for discussion of this upgrade.

More on BT Vision

ITV has announced plans a high-definition (HD)service in Spring 2008, initially offering two hours HD content a day at peak times. More when we get it…

ABC 1, on Freeview channel 15, closed in late September 2007. The channel, owned by Disney, originally launched in late 2004. No news on what will take its place on the Freeview platform.

Apple has just announced some new iPod products, and they’re already available to pre-order. Here’s what’s new:

• The new Apple Touch – a touchscreen iPod (8 or 16 Gig), with wi-fi for net surfing.
• The new iPod Nano – a small one that lets you watch video on the 2-inch display (4 or 8 gig)

If you’re an iPod fan, get in early and pre-order from Comet’s iPod page

We’ve just got our hands on a tiny MP3 player – the Cowon iAudio D2. This is the Swiss Army Knife of MP3 players – Audio, video, images, FM radio, DAB radio, text viewer, recorder (voice and radio), plus loads more. It has a touch screen and probably the most powerful set of audio tweaking tools we’ve been on a portable. And did we mention it’s tiny?

This is a well-made, and feature packed little device, and we’ve been able to secure two deals – a 5% off voucher or a free case for the player.

See our review of the iAudio D2 at www.radioandtelly.co.uk/iaudiod2.html