bbc

It looks like Twitter is ready to make its rumored foray into the TV business.

The microblogging site has partnered with BBC America to offer what the network trumpets as the first "in-tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series," according to a tweet sent Thursday evening. What this means exactly is not clear. Presumably, the tweeted video would be companion content to the programming that appears on the network, with the partners driving traffic to each other.

Specifics of the agreement were not revealed. CNET has contacted Twitter for more information and will update this report when … Read more

The Twitter account of the BBC weather service was hacked today, and hacker group the Syrian Electronic Army -- which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad -- is taking credit.

The BBC confirmed to Reuters that its account was hacked. The @bbcweather account was posting strange messages today, ranging in content but often mentioning Syria and Middle Eastern politics.

"Long Live #Syria Al-Assad #SEA," read one tweet. The group also claimed to have hacked @BBCarabicOnline and @Bbcradioulster as well. The BBC tweeted that the issue has been resolved.

The Syrian Electronic Army has claimed hacks before, including one on … Read more

James Bond and robotic spy-camera penguins have a lot in common. They both wear tuxedos and they both sneak into precarious places to do spy work. The robot penguins were unleashed by John Downer Productions for an up-close BBC documentary look at penguin life.

"Penguins: Spy in the Huddle" documents nearly a year hanging out with penguins through the surrogate eyes of 50 different spycams. Some of the spycams were disguised as chunks of snow or small boulders, but the most adorable cameras were those in the guise of robotic penguins.… Read more

I have a bone to pick with predictions. I was supposed to have my own personal jetpack by the year 2000. I'm still waiting. That's why I'm just a little skeptical about this BBC Future infographic that looks ahead a century and a half.

As we reported earlier this week, the infographic is packed with predictions ranging from "most likely" to "least likely" from 2013 until 150 years into the future.

For this year, the BBC is giving us pretty good chances that the Great Firewall of China will fall and that doctors … Read more

No matter how much you keep up with technology, it's challenging to predict its impact past a few years down the road. There are so many possibilities on the horizon -- especially considering the non-stop advancements in connectivity, nanotechnology, and other expanding fields of next-gen science -- that future generations may think of the early 2000s in the same way we think of the early 1900s: as a time when society stood on the cusp of incredible change.

A new BBC Future infographic takes a shot at what could happen in the realm of science, technology, and society as a whole from now to 2150. The predictions, which come from a cavalcade of sources (IBM, MIT, NASA, news outlets, and many others), indicate that the world we know today could be largely different in just a decade. … Read more

Poke around Amazon Instant Video's freebies section and you'll often find pilot episodes of new TV shows, previews of upcoming seasons, behind-the-scenes bonus content, and so on. But an entire season of a critically acclaimed (if little-known) series? That you usually have to pay for.

Not today. For what promises to be a limited time, Amazon Instant Video is offering BBC America's "Copper" Season 1 HD absolutely free. (It's also available in standard definition.) That season consists of 10 episodes.

Also available: BBC America's "Luther" Season 2, again in HD or … Read more

I am sure you'd watch. I am sure your kids would be fascinated.

And yet, it is not to be. The BBC will not be doing a live show in which scientists try to talk to aliens.

You might be wondering why this would be.

Thankfully, Professor Brian Cox, a celebrated particle physicist and TV presenter (and former member of the band D:Ream), revealed that Britain's most august news source was a little scared of the kind of news it would make.… Read more

An update to the BBC's iPlayer app will allow paying subscribers to download programs for viewing offline at no additional cost.

The update is due to be released tomorrow for iPhone and iPad, is expected to available on Android devices "in the near future," according to a report in The Guardian.

The update represents a significant shift for the app, which had previously allowed only streaming to mobile devices and downloading onto desktop computers.

The British network touted the upgrade's ability to let users watch programs while on the go, liberated from the constraints and costs … Read more

"Copper," the new BBC America crime drama, is set in NYC in 1864, while the Civil War was still raging. I was intrigued because the 10-part series was created by Tom Fontana, who did "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Oz," and on a more personal level, my old friend Frank Morrone is a sound mixer for the show. We met in 1999 when I was writing a feature story on mixing sound for Ron Howard's film "Edtv," and more recently, Morrone shared some of his experiences about mixing sound for … Read more