The Firefly Remote Giveaway

Brent and I are giving away a Firefly PC Remote ($50), courtesy of Snapstream. For remote details, check out my brief hands on or Brent’s extensive review. The rules are simple: Leave a comment on this post saying you want in. However, your comment must be accompanied by a Gravatar image/icon – sign up here. … Read more

Network Remote Control of TiVo (iPhone!)

The latest TiVo hack doesn’t actually require any hacking. Last fall, TiVo partnered up with Creston to integrate the Series3 into their home automation framework. While I haven’t heard anything since, it turns out the hooks are wide open (via Omikron) to any application or hardware on one’s home network – and possibly well beyond by implementing router port fowarding. Until something more polished is developed, the telnet protocol allows you to manually feed a variety of remote commands to a networked TiVo. For example, in the video above, I’m using a terminal application on my jailbroken iPhone as a rudimentary WiFi remote control. There’s some real interesting potential here…

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The Firefly Remote

SnapStream, the folks behind Beyond TV DVR software, offered Team ZNF a look at the Firefly RF media center remote control ($50). While Brent‘s finalizing his review, he shipped the remote back to play with before we give it away on ZNF. The Firefly controls a wide variety of media apps out of the box, … Read more

CES: Harmony One

After a looong time, Logitech is finally updating their Harmony remote line with the One. (The Harmony 1000 slab is a different product category as far as I’m concerned.) Given the extended gestation and $249 price point, I’m not particularly impressed. The remote looks and feels bulky. I was browsing the show with Kyle Copeland … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… Dave missed while vacationing. DVB-T tuners, DVR functionality, and placeshifting coming to European PS3: Sony Logitech Harmony 1000 reviewed: PC Mag Paramount and Dreamworks sell out to HD DVD: TiVo Lovers YouTube video advertising arrives: Yahoo

TiVo Channel Change

There aren’t that many U-verse users and (relatively speaking) there aren’t that many TiVo owners either. But for the small number of folks that fall into both categories, there’s been an annoying little issue in trying to get TiVo to work with AT&T’s service: no way to change channels. Luckily, the problem now appears to … Read more

A Closer Look At TiVo’s Series 3 Remote

When most people think about TiVo, they only think about being able to record TV. They might be aware of some of TiVo’s extra features, but unless they’ve actually tried the service, it’s hard to understand the little things, that make TiVo so great.

It’s easy for consumers to understand the appeal of features like suggestions, wishlists or internet scheduling, but it’s the more subtle differences, that actually makes TiVo such a luxury product. Things like being able to clip out that extra minute of programming the networks schedule, just to punish DVR viewers or being able to skip forward 15 minutes at a time, so that you can get back to the middle of a ballgame, in case you happened to pass out fall asleep before the end. When I had my generic DVR, I was forced to navigate several menus, just to get to my recorded content, but with TiVo, all I need is to hit the TiVo button twice and I’m right at my now playing list. It’s a very small detail, but one that makes their user interface, so much more enjoyable to interact with.

Of all the subtle differences that make up the TiVo experience, the remote control probably has the greatest impact. The cable companies remote might get the signal to your set top box, but the TiVo remote looks better and gets you where you need to be faster.

From the very start, TiVo got the remote down right. It’s peanut shape fits perfectly in the palm of your hand and the buttons were placed in areas, where you would optimize them most. When the remote first came out, it was recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association for it excellence. I used my first remote so much, that I wore off the fast forward icon on my button.

I was always happy with the original remote, but when TiVo released the series 3, I was excited to see an upgraded remote, included with it. While the series 3 remote doesn’t offer any functionality that you can’t live without, some of the the new features are still worth checking out.

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Apple’s Multi-Touch – Not Just iPhone

According to an USB analyst, by way of AppleInsider… We also expect new touchscreen video iPods, more phones and possibly even TVs in the future,” he added. “With regard to the iPhone, we expect Apple to have a full line of phones from $150 to $600 available for purchase at multiple retailers in several geographies … Read more