Pay TV without the Sports pack

Welcome back everyone. I have not being able to do a post for personal reasons & health reasons. I do thank everyone for their interest in the past blog posts.

I have being a subscriber of Optus TV featuring Foxtel in Australia for quite a while now. I used to be a Foxtel subscriber in Australia as well. I still have pay TV but with a reduced plan these days. I used to have the Sports pack but had to drop the plan for financial reasons. Till this month, the Sports pack was $25 but has being increased to $29. Foxtel have being claiming they had to increase the price of the Sports pack due to the price of production costs. My current plan is the lowest plan which is called the Entertainment plan which is the $25 plan plus the high definition viewing tax of $10. It is handy there for free to air reception & watching the news channels that are available on this pack. I feel it is best available option for me at the present time since I have very horrible free to air television reception via the indoor antenna that I have. All prices in this article are all in Australian dollars. Bye for now & have a good day.

Should I keep pay TV?

This is my first post of 2016. Sorry it has being a long time. I have being busy doing other projects like studying an information technology course at an adult community college in Sydney, Australia. Being watching a lot of Fox Sports via the Sports Pack during my spare time. I am an Optus TV featuring Foxtel customer. As much I would like to cut cable, I prefer to watch sport at home than going to the venue paying the admission & the snacks. I feel paying 60 Australian dollars a month for the Entertainment plus Sports is not a bad deal. It is so cold here in Sydney, Australia for now. Here are some Australian pay TV available options above in the menu worth checking out.

 

    Optus TV, Foxtel & Foxtel from Telstra Sports Pack channels:

  1. Fox Sports 1
  2. Fox Sports 2
  3. Fox Sports 3
  4. Fox Footy
  5. Fox Sports 4
  6. Fox Sports 5
  7. ESPN
  8. ESPN 2
  9. Eurosport
  10. BeIN Sports 1
  11. BeIN Sports 2
  12. BeIN Sports 3
  13. LFCTV
  14. MUFC TV
  15. Chelsea TV

I hope all this information has being of use to you. All the best & bye for now.

All the prices were correct at the time of publishing.

The Beatles have made it to streaming.

The biggest news in music from a number of sources is all The Beatles’ music is on available on all streaming services from Christmas Eve 2015. It is already available in Australia and major markets like the UK and the USA. This includes all the music catalogue. This is a chance for the current generation to listen to the sounds of The Beatles.

So far the main players in the streaming market are Spotify, Apple Music, Google Play Music, Tidal and Microsoft’s Groove.

Thank you for the graphic which is from the official Beatles website. For more details, go to the official Beatles website which is thebeatles.com

I have no commercial interest myself which is related to The Beatles. It is happy holidays from myself Peter from Sydney, Australia.

Not a fan of the Windows 10 upgrade

windows10
This image is courtesy of the Microsoft Australia website

The latest operating system that you can upgrade to is the Windows 10 operating system if you bought a personal computer (PC) with Windows 7 or Windows 8. I bought a PC with Windows 7 a few years back. I did upgrade my PC to Windows 8. My main issue that it made the PC more complicated. The speed of the PC surprising didn’t slow down. Windows 8 saw the introduction of the App Store for the PC which didn’t exist in Windows 7. Had to navigate to go to websites to retrieve the applications. The intention of Windows 10 was to simplify from Windows 8 and the navigate with less time. One unique feature is the introduction of Microsoft Edge, a new browser only available for Windows 10 users which is intended to replaced Internet Explorer which served Microsoft well for a couple of decades.

I have tried the Windows 10 upgrade to feel the simplicity but feel too many teething problems. One problem was the performance of the PC was too slow. Finding Microsoft Edge could not handle using reading the newspaper replica of The Sydney Morning Herald because The Sydney Morning Herald was using the older Adobe Flash software. I was finding so many performance issues with Microsoft Edge that I returned to Windows 8 where speed was lesser a problem. With my current PC, I want to stay with Windows 8 still support from Microsoft remains. I will only use Windows 10 if I get a new computer one day pre-installed with Windows 10.

P.S.: The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily newspaper from Sydney, Australia.

The Ashes is on Nine (Zero)

Yes it is nearly The Ashes again time in the sport of cricket. Australia plays England in another five test cricket matches. If you know the sport of cricket, this is one most important test series in the game itself. A cricket test match lasts for five days. Both teams have two innings with the team having the most runs as winners of the test match. Any incomplete tests within the five days then be declared a draw. For viewers in the Australian city of Sydney, everyday of the Australia v England international cricket is on Nine Network’s digital high definition channel called Gem except for one day of test cricket from Lords on Nine. Gem is on Channel 90 on the free to air digital TV sets or digital high definition set top boxes. Remember, 90 can be know as Nine (Zero) as well. The first test will held in the Welsh city of Swansea. This is Swansea’s first time of having The Ashes. The first ball will be bowled at 8pm Australian Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 8. Yes, The State of Origin decider from Lang Park in Brisbane which is a huge rugby league encounter will be on Channel 9/NBN/WIN all over Australia. The starting time is identical to The Ashes First test on Wednesday, July 8. Keep in mind The Nine Network has the Australian exclusive television rights for the 2015 and 2019 series. Bad luck for pay tv viewers who were watching Fox Sports The Ashes in 2011. The best thing to do is to switch to Channel Nine (Zero).

AC/DC have entered into the world of music streaming

According to a number of sources like The Guardian and Pitchfork, AC/DC have entered into the world of music streaming. Can access their catalogue right now in Spotify and Rdio. Will appear in Apple Music when it launches.

They join a number of major classic rock acts like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Eagles and The Rolling Stones who have their catalogues on a number of music streaming services.

acdchomepage
This image is courtesy of the AC/DC webpage acdc.com

Apple wants to get into music streaming

applemusic

Image courtesy of the Apple website.

The announcement of Apple getting to be in the streaming music business is soon going to be a reality. Buying music from iTunes as music downloads as being there main business for a number of years. Apple Music is the streaming product that marks their expansion to the music industry. A number of others such as Spotify, Google Play Music All Access and Tidal are ready for subscription at present. Apple Music according to the Apple website are promising a trial subscription for three months. I recently switched from using the iPhone to an Android. My newest phone is the Samsung Galaxy S5. I am still an user of iTunes. After reading the advertisement, I do feel that I should give Apple Music a try when it is released. I am currently a paid subscriber to Spotify. It is interesting where my subscription payments will go in the future. I do hope Apple Music will give the music industry a shot in the arm that it really deserves.
For more information, go to http://www.apple.com

NOTE: Hi to the other bloggers out there. This is not an advertisement. I am not employed by Apple. A little out of touch with the blogging world for now. Love to look at some of the exciting blogs out there. Bye for now.

Coming back to the world of blogging

It has being a long time since I have posted on Petesmusic’s Blog. Hello to all interested parties that want to read this. I have being quite doing my other project which I ended called The Indie Aspie & have being studying at one Australian technical college. I did happen to acquire a Certificate II in Information, Digital Media & Technology at TAFE NSW. TAFE NSW is a tertiary institution in the state of New South Wales in a country called Australia. This is the start of the new chapter and hope to provide interesting material down the line.

Not just on Facebook but on Twitter as well on @petergishere

Have a visit to my other blog called The Indie Aspie.