I wish my Wii could download movies and television shows. It can’t…yet. That might change soon or it might change later or it might not change at all. Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime isn’t sure yet. He’s still too busy trying to produce enough consoles to meet demand. After that’s taken care of, he says that his company will begin to explore other channel… → Read More
Let’s face it. Much of TiVo’s charisma is due to its excellent software interface. The boxes are nice, yes, but the real power is in the UI. Well TiVo and Nero have just struck a deal wherein "Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer." Hot damn. No word on timeframe or how much it’ll cost but this is good news… → Read More
In the face of the ongoing writers’ strike, NBC has struck a deal with online show Quarterlife and will likely start airing episodes in February. The show’s creator, Marshall Herskovitz, wouldn’t reveal the exact details of the deal except to say that NBC is paying a licensing fee and it’s not nearly as much as what’s normally paid out for regular TV shows. → Read More
Kyle McSlarrow is the head of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. He sees the FCC’s attempts at legislating the cable industry as hurtful to consumers, particularly the idea of offering us a la carte pricing which would basically allow you and me to subscribe only to the cable channels we actually watched. He says it would "fundamentally wreck business models and hurt… → Read More
Any News Radio fans out there? Remember the last episode of the first season? It’s called Sweeps Week and it’s the one where Mr. James insists that they interview a “business visionary” named Tom P. Baxter. The interview goes something like this… → Read More
Thinking of buying a TiVo soon? You’ll enjoy discounted service rates if you make your purchase between now and February 2nd. Monthly dues have gone from $16.95 to $12.95, 1 year prepay has gone from $179 to $129, 2 year prepay has gone from $279 to $249, and 3 year prepay is staying the same at $299. Unfortunately, this offer only applies to new TiVo customers. Existing customers can… → Read More
The FCC is attempting to make way for a little competition in the cable industry by enforcing new rules banning exclusivity deals between apartment owners and companies like Time Warner and Comcast. This would, in effect, grant those of us who live in apartments the option of choosing from more than one cable company, which would, in turn, potentially lead to lower prices (as much as 30% lower)… → Read More
Nintendo of Japan knows that if the ability to watch TV on a portable console is possible, it must happen. Thus, it should come as no surprise that a 1seg TV Tuner is coming to the Nintendo DS Lite November 8th. It’ll cost 41€ or about $58 and allows the use to watch digital television on the top display, while controlling the channels, volume, etc. via the touch-screen. A New 1Seg TV… → Read More
Let’s face it. Sometimes trying to get a video from your computer onto your television can be a cumbersome process. A product from Sandisk called "TakeTV" recently appeared on Buy.com’s website with the tagline, "The smart way to take your video from the PC to any TV!" The basic idea here is that you plug an 8GB USB flash drive into your computer, transfer your… → Read More
It’s not quite what you think, though. Sorta, maybe. "The Skywalkers aren’t in it, and it’s about minor characters. It has nothing to do with Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader or any of those people. It’s completely different. But it’s a good idea, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to do," said Lucas. It’ll be more about robots. The development team… → Read More
Envision makes fairly good TVs for not much money. This 32-inch model is about $500 online right now and it has a built-in digital tuner and two HDMI in ports. You can also use it as a video monitor at 1366 x 768 pixels at 60Hz. Your best bet is to pick this up as a second TV in the house as it supports 1080i in but doesn’t display 1080i. One wag posted an online review noting that Envision… → Read More
Toshiba isn’t about to let Sony get the upper hand in the television market. Yesterday, Sony announced an 11-inch OLED TV that is only 0.3-inches thick, has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, and costs $1745. Considered a huge leap in technology, now other companies are scrambling to get on the bandwagon. Toshiba is claiming that by 2009, a 30-inch OLED TV will be available for purchase, ready to… → Read More
Get this. CBS Sports will air the World Series of Video Games at noon tomorrow. That’s right, smack dab in the middle of all the golf, baseball, and auto racing on the other networks. CBS, you’ve got cahones my friend. Wonderful, cutting-edge cahones. Kudos for taking a risk. If you were to tell someone ten years ago that poker was going to become a nationally-televised… → Read More
Those of you who are keen to watch Lost or Grey’s Anatomy know ABC has been kind. For over a year now, ABC has let users stream episodes of all the hit primetime shows for free via a flash-based video player. Though it’s fantastic, a lot of users probably wanted to start jumping on the HD-bandwagon. ABC listened and is now offering users a beta of its video service in HD. Got a… → Read More
Looks like hotshot startup Joost is gaining even more credibility as a true alternative to standard television. It just struck a deal with VH1 that will allow Joost to showcase the new series “I Hate My 30s” a full 10 days before it even hits TVs around the country. With over 500,000 people using Joost, VH1 knows this is a great way to attract people to its programming. The deal also… → Read More
Just a quick heads up to anyone with a new HTC Touch perhaps and a Slingbox. Sling Media released a new Windows Mobile 6 version of the popular SlingPlayer. You can now watch your favorite local TV while on a bus, train, or in your neighbor’s crack den. Lovely. It’s $30 for an upgrade to the WM6 version but if you’ve been using the WM5 version for a while now, it’s a free… → Read More
I really wanted to use the title “Big Trouble In Little China” but this showdown is taking place in both South Korea and the US. LG has filed suit in Texas against television-manufacturer Hitachi, claiming that the company is violating patents LG holds. LG is seeking the big bucks and an injunction to halt the sale and production of any television sets that violate patents. The dispute… → Read More
Football fans can rejoice knowing that there is now an even bigger screen to watch Tony Romo fumble on. Now you can experience failure on a 110-inch rear-projection screen of awesomeness thanks to JVC. This $53,000 TV set hasn’t hit the US yet and probably won’t be hitting your local Circuit City anytime soon considering it’s only in Japan at the moment. The set includes all the… → Read More
http://www.nbc.com/Video/export/swf/nbcsyndpl.swf?id=snlbackstage With YouTube still growing every day, online video is in extremely high-demand. Don’t offer video? Keep movin’. It’s a Web 2.0 world and people want content. NBC has caught onto this notion and will now offer video that users can post on their website or blog. Clips of shows like “Meet the Press” and… → Read More
Now that flat-screen TVs are popping up everywhere, it makes sense to take advantage of them to the fullest. After all, you might not be watching that much television, but you did plunk down three grand for the set. Might as well put it to good use. With Lightascope, you can turn your high-def plasma or LCD TV into tripped out visuals for parties a beautiful work of art. It slides over the… → Read More
As a general rule, journalists (particularly us of the tech stripe) go gonzo when trying to proclaim something a new “trend.” We take one example of a hit YouTube video and proclaim it to be the death of TV. The stories are usually the same: Lead with an example of a internet video that became part of the geek cultural canon (take the anti-Hillary Clinton/Apple “1984” mash-up video, or… → Read More
You may have caught the American Idol episode dubbed “Idol Gives Back.” It featured a bunch of famous recording artists and celebrities doing songs with Idol contestants and what not. I just saw a commercial so that’s what I’m assuming went down. Anyways, Apple will be offering all of the performances from last night’s show on the iTunes Music Store in the form of… → Read More
TV obsessives take note: the fine folks at Technovision unveiled a 205-inch Luxio LCD TV at CeBIT. (And to think people were drooling over 108-inch TVs at CES earlier this year.) You may well need to move into a bigger house just to be able to fit all 8.3 x 15 feet of the TV. The Italian manufacturer didn’t specify how much the TV would cost, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and say… → Read More
Well, not quite. This is the Weemote 3 from SmartHome – a special remote designed for little kids so they don’t go watching scary flicks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. An adult programs the remote so that kids can only watch approved stations that are safe for your children to view. The remote itself is incredibly kid friendly and only had a few buttons to deal with. It even has the… → Read More
Sling Media’s Slingbox is one of those products that you might not grasp the necessity of until you use it–like a tablet PC, TiVo or condoms. For the uninitiated, the short of it is the Slingbox lets you watch and control your home TV on a laptop, desktop or select mobile devices. The first version had some very minor drawbacks but all-in-all it was a great product. Tomorrow Sling… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
