All weekend, BBC’s catch-up TV service iPlayer has been suffering major outages across the UK.

Fans of the UK’s licence-fee-paid TV provider first started complaining that they were unable to access television shows via the BBC’s iPlayer service on Saturday morning. BBC is still “working to restore normal service”, with many people being offered only a “simplified” experience via the website; and dedicated iPlayer apps such as those seen on YouView boxes and games consoles, or on smart phones, remain down for many viewers.

BBC did not respond to complaints about the outage until Sunday morning, when Twitter account @AboutTheBBC posted the following:

We're hoping to get @BBCiPlayer @BBCiPlayerRadio & @bbccouk up and running for all of you soon. We apologise for the inconvenience. #iPlayer

— BBC (@AboutTheBBC) July 20, 2014

At one point, the BBC News website and radio service were also affected by the outage.

Despite continuing complaints to the BBC, the corporation has chosen not to reply to individual tweets posted to them and merely continue to deliver pre-prepared tweets about the status of their services. The last update was over 12 hours ago however; and BBC have not offered any explanations yet as to the cause of the downtimes.

Remember Sony VAIO laptops and tablets? While Sony may have discontinued the brand as part of its exit from the PC market some time ago, the VAIO brand itself lives on. Tonight, VAIO will officially launch as its own independent computer manufacturer – or “small” PC maker company, as their Japanese blurb describes them – with a launch event in Tokyo. Teasing its relaunch online, the company says that it’s free and that things are going to change, with its new-found small-scale status being one of the catalysts.

That small-scale thinking extends to its current production line. While the new VAIO eventually aims for international success and brand recognition like it once somewhat had under the arms of Sony, a spokesperson said that it’s focusing on success in Japan first, with no plans to launch laptops outside its homeland.

What laptops, though?

Well, if you’ve been following VAIO right up until Sony ditching them, you might find its debut range a little familiar. The two debut models, also launching today in Japan, are identical to the Pro and Fit models its parent company launched almost exactly one year ago – minus Sony branding, of course. To the new CEO’s credit, Takayuki Sekitori admitted that the two initial models were very well received — and that was part of the point. The company is focusing on establishing a foothold first in its new independent status; but all new PCs will hopefully be making it out of the doors in the near future.

VAIO claim that the new company has a clear focus, and its future work will be based around that focus while also presenting consumers with choice. To that end, the the company plans only to make PCs going forward; and it vows that all the new PCs it will make going forward will show an attention to detail and the VAIO DNA we’ve all grown accustomed to. We at Sanitarium.FM wish the company all success for the future.

After having already failed to make TV set-top boxes and Google-powered TVs attractive to punters, Google is planning another attempt at cracking the living room. The company is working with partners to produce several television set-top boxes that run its Android software, let users view content, listen to music, and play games on their television sets, according to people familiar with the matter.

D’oh! Someone should tell people responsible for security in major sporting venues that effective security begins at home. Just four months after the US Super Bowl scrambled to change its wireless credentials after CBS broadcast video which captured an SSID and password, now Brazil have performed a similar bungle with the World Cup security centre’s WiFi credentials.

Local news outlet Correio Braziliense received permission to attend the security centre in order to take a picture of head of international cooperation, Luiz Cravo Dorea, standing in the multi-million dollar security centre, to be included in an article later published by the paper. The centre is used to watch video feeds from surveillance cameras around the event’s venues. Unfortunately the picture revealed more than the operating firm, Risco of Israel, bargained for. In the background of the pic, an interactive whiteboard gives details of the system; and on the quadrant closest to the camera; it is possible to read the SSID “WORLD CUP” and password “b5a2112014”, leet speak for Brazil 2014.

The picture subsequently hit Twitter, where it received over 2,300 retweets. So that’s everyone who still supports England after our disastrous World Cup performance this year, then…

Coming upto the stations 7th b’day, we’ve been doing some upgrades in the back room (well, Crimsonshade has) and we’re proud to announce our new high quality stream!

From today, if you tune in through the website, nothing changes, you get our typical low quality (awful sounding) stream.
However, if you click the tune in buttons on the website to download the new updated file, you’ll get the brand new, high quality stream.

Here you go for ease of use…

And don’t forget to join us in a weeks time for our Sanitarium.FM 7th B’day Charity Gaming Extravaganza charity live stream