Dave Zatz

Will Cisco Destroy the Flip Brand?

Back in February, I assisted a research firm putting together a Cisco report. While their analysis isn’t specific to Cisco’s Pure Digital acquisition and casual video gadgetry, it was an obvious topic of discussion. And I was far more bearish in my outlook than the project lead. Cisco has an amazing opportunity to capitalize on the Flip … Read more

Details on the RCN TiVo Premiere Emerge

Last week, cypherstream tipped us off to all sorts of details on the RCN-branded TiVo Premiere, posted by a company rep and beta testers on DSLReports. Come Summer, RCN will offer TiVo Premiere hardware “rentals” in lieu of the generic DVR. ($20/mo?) As such, one would hope a cable-co issued and supported box would result in … Read more

NBA lands on Roku, NHL on Boxee

Good things are happening in the over-the-top sporting video realm this week. Boxee and the NHL have launched a port of the GameCenter Live computer-based video streaming service. Like MLB.TV, a subscription ($20/mo or $80/yr) is required and grants you access to all of the (out of market) hockey – games, live or archived. Of … Read more

All Your Tweet Are Belong To Us

While I was preoccupied filing taxes last week, the Library of Congress announced a deal with Twitter. Basically, Twitter will donate all public tweets, past, present, and future, to the LoC for archival purposes. Twitter elaborates:

It is our pleasure to donate access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress for preservation and research. […] after a six-month delay can the Tweets be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.

I’d think the publicly funded and lofty Library of Congress would have more meaningful projects to prioritize ahead of rescuing Twitter from their inability to provide more than a few days of searchable tweets (without bringing down the server farm). But what do I know, there’s probably quite a few needles in this pop culture haystack that we’ll reflect on years from now.

I do have a few logistical questions for the parties, though. Not because I’m personally concerned, but to stimulate a dialog as we engage in this new era of open online communication.

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The Apple TV Hobby Carries On

At Apple’s earnings call earlier today, COO Tim Cook reiterated the second class citizenry of AppleTV. As paraphrased by Macworld: Apple TV market isn’t that large, so that’s why we classify it as a hobby, so nobody gets the wrong impression that it’s anywhere close to the other markets. A number of us use the product, love … Read more

Is This The Next iPhone?

Engadget’s quite confident they’ve got pics of what could be the next gen iPhone. I had some initial doubts, assuming Apple would have had them yanked and given the unexpected, but not unattractive, seams/gaps. But both elements can be explained away… Apple may not want to show their hand by having their legal staff write letters and word on the street is that this could be a hand-milled prototype.

As handsome as the device is, real or otherwise, the way it’s played out in the blogosphere has been unusual… in seeing Engadget’s original post revised a number of times and word that the “owner” has been shopping around a hands on for $10,000. Assuming this is a legit iPhone HD prototype, paying for info could open a legal can of worms. Dependent on who possesses the phone and how it was acquired. Also, unexpected is Gizmodo’s radio silence on the matter. Are they making a play at the device, do they believe it’s fake, or do they fear being frozen out of a review unit? Curiouser and curiouser.

We rarely speculate on rumors here and I don’t have the Apple sources Engadget and Gruber do. So, I’d rather focus on the sorts of iPhone enhancements it would take to get us to upgrade or switch carriers.

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No New 13″ Macbook Pro For Me

Like many, I was anxiously awaiting the Macbook Pro refresh. And, like many, I was disappointed that 13″ model didn’t see the more significant processor upgrade that its 15″ brethren were treated to. The new 13″ MBP features astounding battery life, on par with the iPad, that I’d most definitely appreciate (along with a backlit keyboard and SD slot). But my primary complaint with the current 13″ unibody Macbook (late 2008 model) is that spinning beach ball. Something I’d hope to see significantly less of with an Intel Core i5 processor. Incidentally, this same sort of Apple decision is why we don’t own a 21.5″ iMac. The fact that I don’t want a larger screen shouldn’t imply that I don’t want larger processing power.

ZNF regular Greg Glockner suggests my response is one of a fanboy. However, I imagine a true fanbois would be one who thanks Steve Jobs for his insight and makes a purchase without evaluating his computing needs. I had a buyer lined up for my current 13″ model at half of what I originally paid, never minding those Snow Leopard and 2GB upgrades (bringing me to 4GB total). But I can’t justify the ~$600 out of pocket expense for marginal improvement in processing power… especially when I could find a similarly equipped Windows laptop for much less. Then again, Apple’s portable laptop hardware is generally more thoughtfully designed than the MS contingent.

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The TiVo Premiere Software Updates

As you may have surmised from my CableCARD misadventures, I’ve decided to go ahead and purchase a TiVo Premiere. However, I am well aware of the reported performance and stability issues related to the new HD UI. The most common and disruptive behavior appears to be DVR lockups, requiring a hard reboot (aka pulling the plug). While many … Read more