BBC Radio Widget v2.2
Thursday, 21st September 2006, 12:46 am
Well, it’s finally here! BBC Radio Widget 2.2 hits the internet with the full force of… well, with full force, anyway.
I know I’ve been promising this for nearly a fortnight now but - what can I say - I’ve been busy! Speaking of which, you may have noticed a few changes around here…
This version includes a final fix for that irritating freezing problem many people were experiencing, along with speed improvements, and other fixes. Get yours while it’s hot at the all-new widgets page.
September 24th, 2006 at 11:04 pm Quote
So much better! Thank you!
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:55 am Quote
I dont know if this is just my machine but after installing the latest Apple update my BBC radio widget seems to have stopped working.
October 6th, 2006 at 11:56 pm Quote
same here, with last update 10.4.8 widget doesn’t work.
October 9th, 2006 at 11:43 pm Quote
Yeah, my widget no longer works in 10.4.8!
October 11th, 2006 at 5:49 pm Quote
How odd. Now the widget is working.
October 14th, 2006 at 3:17 am Quote
Personally, I’ve had no problems on any machine I’ve updated. You can understand how that would make any problems tough to track down!
Some past updates have allegedly broken internet plugins. As ever, my advice is to first try reinstalling RealPlayer and the plugin. If that’s no help, please contact me with as detailed information as you can - exact behaviour, what you’ve tried, etc - and I’ll try to help. Response time at the moment is pitiful, however, as I have no net connection in my current accommodation.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:19 pm Quote
my bbc widget would not connect to realplayer - well your advice is correct - delete widget, then fire up realplayer, hide player, then download bbc widget again - works like a charm!!!!!
November 8th, 2006 at 1:58 pm Quote
You should also add the World Service Live News station, which is a separate one from just World Service with the next update. The .ram file is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/meta/tx/nb/live_news_au_nb.ram
January 5th, 2007 at 3:21 pm Quote
Excellent. BUT I can in fact only get it (and Real Player of course) to work if I set the Tansport Preferences manually as per the download notes - maybe I should have realised this earlier!
January 13th, 2007 at 8:31 am Quote
I was also pulling my hair out for two days after my new intel powerbook refused to play BBC sound.
Finally I stumbled upon the most bizarre of solutions suggested in http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30961.
It says I should start and then stop GarageBand - I didn’t even know I had Garage Band on my machine !
But the bottom line is - after a restart I can hear BBC again (i.e. RealPlay works again)and and enjoying the benefits of this great Widget.
Hope this post is useful to others.
January 31st, 2007 at 9:48 am Quote
The Radio 5 stream doesn’t allow you to listen to live football games, however using this link instead (on Radio Tuner) http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/live/surestream.ram you get full 5live coverage.
February 4th, 2007 at 11:21 am Quote
This works fine now. And as I am out of the country, it is great to hear English sounds.
Thanks.
February 17th, 2007 at 1:33 pm Quote
I love this widget and have used it for ages with no issue. Recently however I have found that it takes ages to connect to the stream (spinning marker) and also swapping from one station to another often does not work or cracks up. I have tried un-installing and re-installing ver. 2.2 which did not help. Looking at Console I keep getting the same error:
2007-02-17 12:27:47.430 DashboardClient[1378] (com.phantomgorilla.widget.bbcradio) file:///Users/simon/Library/Widgets/BBC%20Radio.wdgt/BBC%20Radio.js: Null value (line: 1571)
(event handler):Null value
I have MBP C2D and 10.4.8. Any one else have this issue? I saw a comment about Transport Preferences but not sure where this is?
Keep up the great work!
February 17th, 2007 at 8:40 pm Quote
Mike’s issue can be solved if you play the UK version of the 5 Live stream instead of the international one - check to make sure you have the correct one selected if you’re getting this. It needs a UK IP address though.
Simon: That error shouldn’t affect playback, you’ll only see it when you flip the widget over. Nothing to worry about. Any slow starting of playback is likely due to your internet connection, as it can take some time to auto-discover settings. This is particularly likely to be true if you’re on, say, a corporate or educational network. Something’s probably changed which makes it more difficult to negotiate a connection, either on your local network or with your ISP. Unfortunately, the only way you may get a speed improvement is by setting your network preferences manually in RealPlayer - and those preferences will be unique for your situation. If you’re on a managed network the administrator should be able to help.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:03 pm Quote
I discovered the BBC widget yesterday. What an elegant and useful tool. I like it!
September 14th, 2007 at 3:29 am Quote
why, why, why, why, ad infinitum!!!!!!!!!!!! Now it bloody doesn’t work and I need my 3:00 am BBC news fix, blast you.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:29 am Quote
why, why, why, why, ad infinitum!!!!!!!!!!!! Now it bloody doesn’t work and I need my 3:00 am BBC news fix, blast you.
September 14th, 2007 at 3:30 am Quote
why, why, why, why, ad infinitum!!!!!!!!!!!! Now it bloody doesn’t work and I need my 3:00 am BBC news fix, blast you.
November 29th, 2007 at 9:36 pm Quote
Hi
So i’m tearing my hair out. i’ve installed the new version of the BBC widget for my Mac, but for some reason it will only run for a couple of minutes then it stops playing and i have to play it again.
Can anyone help?
November 29th, 2007 at 10:17 pm Quote
mel, mimi: There is a bug in Dashboard which means that every time the audio stream needs to be buffered, the audio will cut out if Dashboard is hidden. It does not appear to be anything I can work around - it’s a Dashboard bug and sadly only Apple can fix it. You can use the widget on the Desktop in Dashboard developer mode, but it’s hardly a solution.