A new patent filing shows that Apple will finally release a useful home media center solution: a digital video recorder. The patents not only indicates that you’ll be able to record up coming shows and stream video from the iTunes story, but you’ll be able to program the device from an iPod like remote. Details are a little scarce, but according to Appleinsider one will be able to fill up the remote with select shows and the device will run a Tivo like algorithm to determine other shows that might be of interest.
I can’t see why Apple wouldn’t integrate the iPhone and iPod Touch into this system.
This little ditty turns your iPod into a digital VCR. Just plug the iRecorder into your iPod and TV, satellite or cable box via A/V cords and hit record to capture the onscreen action. For every 1 gig of free space you’ll get 3 hours of recording time in an MPEG4 format; it can’t look very good at that ratio. You can even watch your recordings on TV.
Ok, so I’m kind of in denial that Comcast is getting Tivo. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good thing. But you see, Time Warner is what’s available in my area, so I can’t get it. Today, I ran across a Tivo/Comcast commercial running in New England. Before it was just a rumor, but now it’s an official reality since they’re putting marketing dollars behind it.
Tubestick Hybrid, by Equinux, enables you to receive and record terrestrial HDTV and NTSC television programing on your Apple computer. Even cooler you can view the recorded material on your iPhone or iPod touch (part of the TubeToGo feature which costs extra). Believe me I’m skeptical about the iPod Touch and iPhone capability. Included in the package is an antenna to receive the signals and Equinux’s proprietary software. Plug the antenna into your computer and launch the software and you’re in business. I should note that the antenna’s USB plug is designed such that it won’t intrude on the Macbook’s other inputs. Using the software you can record, watch and view upcoming shows. Through their web based application you can also set your computer to record shows. If you’re so inclined, you can also chat with other watching the same shows. In order to watch shows on your iPod Touch or iPhone you’ll need to publish your recordings to an FTP or .Mac account and access them through the web based application (aka TubeToGo) - be interesting to see how the quality is. Available at Amazon and other major retailers come February for $129.95 with a one month trial of TubeToGo.
Late last week I noticed what I perceived to be a Firmware update to my Time Warner HD box. The indication came in the form of a font change in the Moxi enabled box’s windows. Then I realized that the navigation windows weren’t appearing, but were in fact ‘popping up’ ala Apple style. Even niftier was the doubling, if not tripling in speed I experienced while navigating from menu to menu, or deleting a show. Prior to the update the Timewarner Moxi boxes stalled when entering the guide and often experienced a bottle neck effect when scrolling through the channels. They’ve also updated the menus and one of the more notable features is to view all upcoming shows in a vertical (sports, kids, etc) by a particular time. In the past you had to scroll through each channel’s time slots which is was a mind numbing and annoying task. Dare I say they’re more on par with Tivo then ever before…at least from a speed stand point? I might just snap photos of the new updates - that is assuming I can’t find any online.
Let’s be honest: no one is buying those pesky little PSP UMD. I concede that there a great piece of technology, but its just not practical to purchase UMDs, and a DVD. Well, it would seem that Sony has caught onto this trend and has released a few HDD/DVD (notably the RDZ-D97A) recorders that can directly hook to your PSP and zap recorded contents over. Only problem now is getting around the copy protection.
TiVo CEO Tom Rogers made some major announcements today for the TiVo including
TiVo to drop the Lifetime Service Plan
New Subscription Model (includes the hardware and service): $19.95 per month for a one year commitment, $18.95 per month for a two year commitment and $16.95 per month for a three year commitment.
New Upfront Model: $224 for a box and one years worth of service, $369 for a box and two years of service and $469 for a box with three years worth of service
The upcomign standalone, HDTV Series 3 TiVo is still due out later this year
TiVo is facing a lot of competition. On the DVR front, their partner DirecTV and other cable and satellite providers are making their own boxes. On the media center front, they’re facing Windows Media Center and Apple’s upcoming Intel Mac mini. TiVo is going to have to offer more than just a brand to fight off the cheaper DVR’s and fully-featured media centers.
So it made sense when TiVo partnered with Yahoo last month. Originally, this deal was so you could program your TiVo through Yahoo. Now, owners of stand-alone TiVo’s with internet access (some 300,000 TiVo owners), can view traffic, weather and personal photos from Yahoo Inc .
And that’s not all, TiVo has now partnered with Fandango to allow you to order movie tickets right from your TiVo.
Also, their partnership with Live365 gives you the ability to ability to listen to Internet-based programming, or podcasts.
TiVo definitely is going to have a big battle to fight over the next few years. Especially when you consider one of their competitors is Microsoft. And Microsoft has definitely found a way into households with the Windows Media Center-enabled XBox 360. Hmm, maybe Microsoft losing $126 per XBox 360 isn’t such a crazy idea after all.
And yeah I’m a little bitter this is yet another feature we DirecTV owners will not have. You guys suck.
like remote. Details are a little scarce, but according to Appleinsider one will be able to fill up the remote with select shows and the device will run a Tivo
