Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Technology and the Future of the Comic Book In all the comic-themed panels I attended at this year’s Comic Con, digital distribution was an unavoidable topic, brought up by audiences, creators or outside observers, no matter the specific theme of the talk. Judge Denies Further … Read more

Unbagging Dave’s be.ez LAbesace

unbagging

It’s been some time since we discussed my mobile gear and never with the precision of jkOnTheRun or Engadget’s new Unbagging series – which inspired this post. So, without further adieu, let’s jump right in…

be.ez LABesace – I’ve always had something of a bag fetish, but until picking up the LAbesace, my primary gadget bag has been a backpack. I’m not sure what inspired me to go full-time with the shoulder strap, perhaps it was the more adult look. But sometime before CES in December 2008, I picked this up via Newegg site for sixty or seventy bucks. I had wanted the orange interior, but it wasn’t yet available in the US, so I went with green. And I’m man enough to carry a possibly Parisian woman’s tote. The LAbesace has a 13″ laptop sleeve and a hardened, domed area which nicely protects all sorts of things. Check out Engadget’s photo for a good look at the interior. The only thing the bag lacks is a little handle, which would be helpful getting it in and out of the car.

13″ Macbook – I wasn’t entirely sold on the need for a new laptop, but Best Buy’s Black Friday sale ($150 off) motivated me to pick up the 13″ unibody Macbook last November. More than OS X, I love the symmetry of the hardware and its humongo trackpad. In addition to the aforementioned Mac operating system, I also run Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 through VMWare Fusion. Although, I’ve had some third party memory problems – when installed, the Macbook doesn’t resume from sleep. Initially loading these virtual machines with the standard 2GB can be painfully slow.

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What’s Next For Roku? 5 Suggestions.

I love my little Roku box. The Roku Digital Media Player ($99, Amazon), which began life as the Roku Netflix Player, streams Netflix content (free for subscribers) and Amazon video on demand (VOD). Standard def was decent, but both are now available in HD (720p). Sure, it’s not Blu-ray but it’s good enough for many. … Read more

RCN Customers Get TiVo in 2010

Beginning in 2010, cable provider RCN will deploy TiVo as their primary DVR. While RCN has a smaller footprint than say a Comcast or Time Warner, this is pretty significant as the cable plant engineering requirements should be minimal… I believe they’re just re-purposing retail TiVo hardware with some RCN UI branding tweaks and charging … Read more

TiVo Enables Custom Video Podcast Feeds

I know I’m not the only one who’s been holding out for this… Today, TiVo will enable us Series3/HD owners to specify custom video podcast RSS feeds which aren’t found in their (growing) directory of web video. This is a welcome improvement over the TiVo Desktop 2.6 transcoding kludge. Although, it won’t reach its full … Read more

Digeo Launches Retail Moxi Mate and OS Update

It’s been a few months since the loaner Moxi HD DVR ($800, no fees, no ads) arrived and I’ve had plenty of time to evaluate TiVo’s first retail competitor in years. While Ben Drawbaugh (EngadgetHD) and I agree on many of the particulars, we come away with different conclusions. I quite like the Moxi experience. … Read more

Netflix Streaming to iPhone & Wii?

Multichannel News is out with a compelling Netflix report rumor: The company will soon offer the Watch Instantly video-streaming feature on Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices and the Nintendo Wii gaming console, according to an industry executive familiar with Netflix’s plans. We’ve seen the Wii pop up as a potential Netflix streaming video destination … Read more

Dave on TiVo’s Pause Menu Advertising

Regular readers know I can get a little cranky when it comes to TiVo’s advertising initiatives. So my quotes showing up in various AP-syndicated papers should come as no surprise. Unfortunately for TiVo, the reporter covering the evolution of television advertising called the week I was bombarded with pause menu mascara ad after pause menu … Read more