Commercial TiVo Photo Displaying HME App

This is one of the first commercial HME applications I’ve run across… Web-a-Photo (who?) allows you to share, edit, and order prints of your photos online. Their free beta HME app, which must be installed on your PC, serves up those web photos on TV via TiVo. I can’t say I’m overly enthused about this … Read more

TiVo Goes To War

As many of you know, the next two weeks are critical in determining TiVo Inc’s future. If they are able to prevail in defending their “time warp” patent versus Dish Network, with court proceedings beginning today, TiVo should be able to work out royalty arrangements with other DVR providers – in or out of the … Read more

TiVo Series 2 Hardware Refresh

Several shopping sites have just posted listings for the mysterious new Series 2 devices (TCD649080,TCD649180) that feature dual tuner capabilities, Ethernet, and an 80HR or 180HR recording capacity at a list price of $249 and $349 respectively. No word on ship dates, however it seems the NTSC OTA tuner will be phased out well before … Read more

TiVo KidZone: The Experience

If you’ve been following along, you know TiVo was in Washington, DC this week to announce two new KidZone developments — the addition of Parents’ Choice Foundation for content suggestions and the ability of KZ to identify and record E/I programming. I got in touch with TiVo last week and reminded them I live in the area (and clean up pretty well). They were very cool in giving me the green light to attend what turned out to be an exclusive gathering of only a few dozen people including CEO Tom Rogers and Congressman Fred Upton. On behalf of the blogosphere, I thank you TiVo (and Thomas Hawk)!

When I originally learned of KidZone I was underwhelmed. After all, what do I care about parental controls — I don’t have children and I don’t have any immediate reproductive plans. Why aren’t these guys working on my VOD and Series 3? Having learned more and allowing this initiative to percolate for awhile, I’ve changed my tune… perhaps this is bigger than we thought. KidZone now strikes me a positive and powerful strategic move by TiVo of furthering Rogers’ goal of differentiating themselves from generic DVR offerings. With both public and political scrutiny of television programming recently, TiVo is using this functionality to command attention and align themselves with powerful allies (as in Congress). This kind of exposure will surely help in marketing themselves as a software solution to cable companies and in limiting customer defections. I’m not sure how many boxes KidZone will move on its own, but TiVo has picked up a new set of vocal evangelists by partnering with these various watchdog groups.

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TiVo KidZone: The Product

TiVo’s KidZone Road Show hit DC yesterday… An intimate group of about three dozen people, half of whom seemed affiliated with one presenter or another, witnessed two new KidZone announcements. First, Parents’ Choice Foundation has signed on as the fourth provider of children’s programming recommendations. Second, KidZone will identify congress-mandated Educational and Informational (E/I) television programming for recording.

At the moment I’m thinking this will be a three-part story. The first two portions will cover the people and the product in photos. I’ll offer my opinion of KidZone and describe how the technology works with the third entry.

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TiVo KidZone: The People

TiVo’s KidZone Road Show hit DC today… An intimate group of about three dozen people, half of whom seemed affiliated with one presenter or another, witnessed two new KidZone announcements. First, Parents’ Choice Foundation has signed on as the fourth provider of children’s programming recommendations. Second, KidZone will identify congress-mandated Educational and Informational (E/I) television programming for recording.

At the moment I’m thinking this will be a three-part story. The first two portions will cover the people and the product in photos. I’ll offer my opinion of KidZone and describe how the technology works with the third entry.


Tom Rogers, CEO
TiVo, Inc.

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TiVo’s New Pricing Summarized

There’s still quite a bit of confusion regarding TiVo’s new pricing, so here’s a brief summary… Lifetime Service New and existing TiVo units are eligible for Lifetime Service at $299 if activated by April 15. Lifetime Service will not be offered for sale after 4/15. Lifetime gift cards will be honored when redeemed as will … Read more

TiVo Series 3 HD Pricing and Timing

TiVo is running an American Idol contest over the next 11 weeks — each week you vote who’s going home. That’s all well and good… but the real interesting news is that in 11 weeks they’ll be giving away a Series 3. Though TiVo officially has up to four months beyond the sweepstakes to deliver.

So speaking of worshipping that false idol, we now have a little more info to base our speculation on. I’ll go first… Series 3 HD will be available 9/1 @ $800 a pop. What’s your guess?

Update: This is now a contest! Predict the Series 3 release date and cost to win a TiVo-branded wireless adapter. Details are in the comments.

Grand Prize: 1 Special Limited Edition TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder w/Product Lifetime Service
Average Retail Value: $1,500.00

Selected entrants will receive the the weekly prize by mail within thirty (30) days of the Weekly Sweepstakes end date and the Grand Prize by mail within four (4) months of the end of the Sweepstakes Period (exact timing subject to change based upon availability of Grand Prize, which is scheduled to be released for public sale in the second half of 2006).

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