Breaking News: TiVo v EchoStar

I just got off a plane in Minneapolis and will be tied up most of the day, but learned that the US Court of Appeals has rendered their decision (on testimony I attended). I haven’t had a chance to peruse the document, but here’s a cut & paste of the conclusion:

In sum, because of a failure of proof of literal infringement, we reverse the judgment of infringement of the hardware claims with respect to all of the accused devices. We remand for any further proceedings that may be necessary with respect to those claims. We affirm the judgment of infringement of the software claims with respect to all of the accused devices. Because the damages calculation at trial was not predicated on the infringement of particular claims, and because we have upheld the jury’s verdict that all of the accused devices infringe the software claims, we affirm the damages award entered by the district court.

The district court’s injunction was stayed during the course of these proceedings. The stay that was issued pending appeal will dissolve when this appeal becomes final. At that time, the district court can make a determination as to the additional damages, if any, that TiVo has sustained while the stay of the permanent injunction has been in effect.

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A Post-CES Jawbone Trade

bt-headsets.jpg

As I mentioned recently, the Jawbone folks ran a smart marketing campaign at CES: Trade in any Bluetooth headset for a Jawbone. Only problem was, I left my new Blueant Z9 (above left) at home because I haven’t been happy with it.

Fortunately, I worked out a post-show trade and I’ve been using the Jawbone for a few days (with my iPhone and MacBook Pro). I’m very pleased with the incoming and outgoing audio quality (and volume) and, despite the bulk, it’s comfortable. The Z9 handles multiple paired devices better, but clear conversation is more important to me – I’ve finally found a worthy successor to the rock solid Plantronics Voyager 510 (above right).

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Dr. DivX Saves The Day

Those who’ve been reading ZNF since my early TiVoToGo tutorial days should remember my fondness for the Dr. DivX video conversion utility. I’m not sure what led the DivX folks to kill the original app, but every now and then I find a use for the re-released open source version. At work, we’re hooking up … Read more

BitTorrent Gets More Industry Support… In Norway

Eirik Solheim alerted me that Norwegian Broadcasting is embracing BitTorrent: As one of many ways to reach people with our content we have decided to do an experiment and make one of our most popular television series available through BitTorrent. The files are MPEG4 H.264, 1024×576 25fps, 3 Mbit/s. No DRM. Spreading brand awareness online … Read more

Dave Dumps HD DVD

Yep, I’m putting my money where my mouth is – my HD DVD player is listed on ebay and my Netflix account has been updated (above). Toshiba may have purchased a $2.7 million Super Bowl ad spot, but that’s the last gasp of a dead format. In this next-gen optical disc battle, HD DVD “bought” … Read more

More Bad News For Moxi?

Word on the street: Digeo’s suffering ain’t over yet: Although I can’t get anything official from Charter, it’s well known that they are now pushing a Motorola DVR instead of the Moxi and that they (most likely) won’t be buying any more Moxis. While Charter isn’t the only MSO deploying Moxi, I do believe they’re … Read more

The Eye-Fi Has Arrived

The FedEx man just surprised me with my next review item… I’ve been pretty fired up about the Eye-Fi ($99) for awhile, so I’m looking forward to checking it out. As opposed to owning one of the very few camera models with built-in WiFi, this little guy is hardware-agnostic and should work with any camera … Read more

Weathering The Writers Strike, Take Six

Moman is fresh out of DVR-ed HD content and wondered if I (or any ZNF readers) have any suggestions on how his family might weather the remainder of the writers strike. Unfortunately, things will get worse before they get better. Even if a deal is struck soon, it’ll be months before we see fresh content … Read more