Dave Zatz Come Thursday morning, your TiVo is your Slingbox… with both live and recorded digital cable becoming available to us outside the home. Assuming you have TiVo Roamio Pro/Plus DVR hardware and an iPhone or iPad. Unfortunately, Android support has been pushed to 2014 and it’s not yet clear if Premiere units and the base Roamio will … Read more
TiVo Roamio and Mini set-tops have begun receiving updates this evening, as the folks in Alviso continue to squash corner case bugs at a rapid clip. But, beyond Roamio tuning, the TiVo Mini extender has received the long overdue feature of a full fledged recording manager UI – via the new menu item highlighted above. … Read more
As we inch closer to a 10/23 release of the $150 Samsung Smart Cable Box, a rumored 10,000 units are en route to the US and its user guide has appeared online. Via the aforementioned literature, the combo cable+Internet box is confirmed to sport Netflix as a tent pole app. So, while Netflix and the US cable industry continue to gnash their teeth, consumers will have another option, beyond TiVo, to roll their own best of breed video platform. Beyond that compelling nugget of intel, manual visuals appear quite similar to what we observed at the Cable Show — a unidirectional CableCARD powers its pay TV capabilities, augmented by a Samsung-provided guide, joined by a variety of over-the-top apps, plus local media playback. Further, Samsung Android devices, sporting Samsung’s AllCast app, will be capable of TV-based screen mirroring. And no mention of recurring fees for guide date.
Outside of Apple, it’s inevitable that a vendor’s product pricing drops over time. So it comes as no surprise that TiVo is offering a $100 discount on Roamio Pro hardware to folks that call in looking for a deal, lowering TiVo’s top-end unit with 3TB of storage, 6 tuners, and streaming capabilities from $600 to … Read more
Fear not, TiVo Premiere owners… as our platform hasn’t yet been abandoned. And, within the next few weeks, the Fall Update will begin rolling out — bringing a variety of bug fixes, a far more usable Netflix app, Wishlists in HD, and dynamic tuner allocation for a better TiVo Mini experience. Unfortunately, the new slightly tweaked … Read more
Within the last week, both Sonos and Nest released new products. And, while each is somewhat compelling in its own right, I can’t say I’m in the market for either.
First, Nest has beautified and modernized another mundane home appliance. But the connected Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide detector runs a lofty $129 and, with 5 existing detectors, I don’t care enough to spend the kind of money needed to outfit my house. Further, unlike the Nest Thermostat, there’s no potential energy savings to offset and perhaps mentally justify the cost. Lastly, for reasons unknown, my Nest Thermostat has a tendency to reboot and the motion sensor hasn’t been very responsive — neither of which motivates me to entrust my safety to Nest, despite the Protect’s imminent UL endorsement.
Sonos, by comparison, has released a $199 speaker… which almost makes the multi-sensor Nest Protect appear a reasonable proposition. But Sonos has never been inexpensive and the connected speaker market has featured outrageous pricing across the board these last few years. But ya gotta pay to play, and like my TiVo Mini, I’ve been willing to drop the cash on the best solution irrespective of a company’s profit margins. If I hadn’t recently outfit a couple more rooms with the $299 Play:3, I’d have saved some coin and went with the new and more attractive Play:1.
But what if these two companies hooked up…
The current generation of Slingboxes arrived about one year ago and, now that I’ve finally begun organizing my gadget laboratory, we’re ready to pass along one of our two review units. Besides the questionable aesthetics, what sets apart the Slingbox 350 and 500 from prior models is the ability to stream in true HD and direct integration of IR-blasting capabilities to control your set-top (without the unsightly cable clutter). While we’re temporarily hanging onto the Slingbox 500, given whispers of compelling updates that we intend to cover, the WiFi-less Slingbox 350 is up for grabs and just as capably allows you to placeshift your home television content. And, unlike my TiVo Roamio Pro, the Slingbox supports out-of-home, PC, Mac, and Android streaming… in addition to Apple platforms (although mobile apps run $15/each).
The giveaway is open to Zatz Not Funny Facebook fans located in the US and you can enter using the embedded widget below. Please be aware that we did crack open the enclosure to identify the transcoding chip — proceed accordingly as we will not be held responsible for burning down your house. Good luck!