Inrix Travels from Smartphone to In-Car GPS

Ford got a lot of buzz at CES last week with new updates to its SYNC platform, but the most interesting announcement to me was word of an update to the SYNC Destinations app. Users can now enter a destination on the iPhone (or Android or Blackberry device later this quarter) and push it directly … Read more

Simple.TV – Television Without The Screen

Simple.TV is the retail DVR you wanted five years ago. And yet it’s still interesting enough to make my personal list of top product announcements coming out of CES 2012. Why? Because it’s a truly viable, inexpensive way to add digital video recording to your TV set-up without cable’s help. Maybe you remember the Replay … Read more

TiVo Demos iPad Video Streaming

Hm, looks like TiVo’s got their own Apple-esque version of “one more thing” going on at CES this week. In addition to discussing the next Premiere DVR software update and Comcast Xfinity On Demand deployment plans, TiVo is demoing DVR video streaming to their iPad companion app. Wow! They’re describing this using terms such as “conceptual” and … Read more

From CES, What's Next For TiVo

tivo-ces

I’m not physically present in Vegas this year but, as part of the CES festivities, TiVo remotely briefed on their ongoing initiatives. Of course, here at ZNF, we’re most interested in the status of the retail TiVo Premiere DVR line over MSO partnerships. And last week TiVo unveiled a massive system software update in addition to an Android companion app. But what comes next?

TiVo has another significant Premiere software update in pipeline, scheduled for a spring delivery. In addition to my conversations with VP Jim Denney, RCN seemingly corroborates the timing – targeting a May release of software version 21. Building upon version 20, it sounds like we can expect additional under the hood codebase unification to more efficiently support various TiVo platforms and partners. More relevant to TiVo customers will be continued performance improvements and fleshing out of the high definition user interface (HDUI).

In terms of specific functionality, parental controls will make a return to the platform. However, it won’t be in the form of TiVo Kid Zone. In fact, as I’ve been speculating for months, I’m not certain TiVo will invest in rebuilding, what I assume is, a niche feature for the HDUI. Then again…

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Vizio Takes On Apple TV

Vizio’s been talking up Google TV since CES 2011. Yet very little seemed to materialize last year and so 2012 looks to be the year they get serious… with the introduction of new Google TV-powered televisions, Blu-ray deck, and the “Stream Player” shown above. Building upon their VIA branding (as in Vizio Internet Apps ) and … Read more

Apple's iPhone… 5 Years Later

Back in the days when the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld overlapped, with Apple actually participating in their namesake convention, news out of San Francisco derailed the events in Vegas January 9th, 2007. While an iPhone announcement wasn’t entirely a surprise, given years of speculation and rumor, the elegant simplicity of both its hardware … Read more

CES TV News: Android, Mobile and 3D Sans Glasses

Here’s the thing about CES. Most of what we hear is stuff we’ve heard before. The big question is always whether this time it’s for real or not. In this year’s early announcements, we get news that Lenovo is launching a TV set with Android 4.0, Belkin is starting a line of accessories to give existing smartphones and tablets the ability to tune into the new Dyle mobile TV service, and Toshiba is on track to  bring its autostereoscopic 3DTV to American shores this quarter. Now, any bets on which products will actually gain traction in 2012? Personally, I’d keep my Vegas winnings tucked away for now.

On the Android front, Lenovo is releasing its Ice-Cream-Sandwich TV set in China, with no word yet on a US debut. Beyond that, however, we’ve seen no evidence that consumers care about Android access on their living-room flat screens. Google certainly hasn’t made a go of it yet with Google TV, and the TV app environment in general is still pretty lackluster. There are lots of apps, but mostly what people watch is Netflix. While experts predict the next three years will be big for connected TV sales, we still haven’t seen a shake-out among TV app environments. Consumers won’t show a preference until somebody demonstrates a TV marketplace with several notably superior apps not available elsewhere. (i.e. apps with really good content a la HBO Go) I doubt Android’s going to be able to do that in 2012.

Dyle TV is an interesting one. The Mobile Content Venture announced just last week that it would start delivering live TV to MetroPCS subscribers, and at CES, Belkin is introducing a line of accessories designed to make existing devices capable of receiving the Dyle mobile DTV service. Unfortunately, broadcast mobile TV services don’t have the best track record.

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Sony On The Proposition Of An Apple TV

With CES upon us, USA Today chatted with Sony executive Kaz Harai on wide array of home entertainment topics — including Sony’s foray into cloud services across various platforms and the, perhaps inversely related, decline of Blu-ray sales.

But what I found most interesting are their  “smart” TV intentions. First, Kaz is on target when stating both Sony and their competitors simplify messaging to convey the benefits of an Internet-connected platform. As, while I believe widgetized televisions are selling, I’m not convinced web feature, as currently implemented, see much use. Next, kudos to Ed Baig for this killer question, “Will there be an Apple TV?” To which Kaz reponds,

I’m on my product development guys to do the very best they can to deliver a compelling experience and have competitive product in the market, whether Apple is there or not.

There’s been significant speculation that Apple might enter the television space

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