Kindle 3 Arrives August 27th in 3G & WiFi-Only Flavors

Right on schedule, according to months of rumor and speculation, Amazon will begin shipping a new 6″ Kindle e-reader in August. While Amazon isn’t referring to the new model as the Kindle 3, it is indeed a third generation product. Unlike prior editions, the new Kindle will be offered in a graphite color, as seen on the … Read more

TiVo Software Updates Rolling Out

TiVo software 14.5 recently started rolling out to Premiere owners. As usual, the initial wave of recipient hardware is a subset of total units. As I mentioned a few weeks back, the emphasis of this third Premiere update since launch is “stability and performance.” And initial forum reports have been positive… which is why I … Read more

Unboxing the Popbox

The Popbox ($130) media streamer has finally arrived… amidst reports of firmware issues. And we’ve got one. Tom, who reviewed the WDTV Live for ZNF, kept his pre-order in play despite these early reports and despite Syabas conceding there’s no imminent Netflix playback. Over the next few weeks he’ll put the box through its paces … Read more

End of the Road for DISH Network’s DTVPal DVR

A few weeks back, on the massive AVS Forum thread, I noticed comments of what appeared to be DTVPal DVR close-out pricing. After checking in with a DISH Network spokesperson yesterday, they’ve confirmed that the DTVPal DVR (~$250, no fees) is no longer offered and there are no current plans for a replacement model. The DTVPal … Read more

Closer To A Universal Mobile Power Adapter?

I doubt we’ll ever see a single, universal cable or connector to power each and every single mobile gadget… However, given the various devices that pass through my home and auto, it appears like we’ve settled on a solid trio of options. Of course, there’s the iEcosystem’s dock connector. Yeah, it’s mostly proprietary. But given … Read more

The (Current) Hardware of Hulu Plus

Click to enlarge When Hulu Plus launched a few weeks back, there was some initial device compatibility confusion – specifically, regarding the Sony PS3 implementation and compatible Samsung Blu-ray players. Fortunately, at some point, the Hulu folks updated their supported devices webpage to bring some clarity to the situation. And they’ve confirmed that a PlayStation … Read more

Resolving the iPhone 4 Antenna Problem

Late last week, Steve Jobs cut his Hawaiian vacation short so that he could respond to iPhone 4 reception concerns with a press conference. The takeaway seems to be that most smartphones suffer degraded network performance when held in specific ways, but the issue is overblown in real world usage. Yet, to overcome the iPhone’s particular deficiency … Read more

TiVo Collaborates with Netgear and HP for NAS

Earlier this month when Netgear announced new ReadyNAS products ($900 – $1350) that incorporate TiVo functionality, I reached out to the companies for more info. And, without having seen the feature in action, it sounds pretty much like what we’d expect… Sort of a TiVo Desktop port allowing you to offload shows to the NAS … Read more