Zatz Not Funny!

Microsoft’s Slow Road to TV Land

There was a lot of hype leading up to Microsoft’s keynote at the E3 conference earlier this week, with huge speculation that the company would launch a new live TV service on the Xbox. The announcement itself, however, was a bit of a let-down, at least for those of us in the US. After years … Read more

Watching HBO GO On The Big Screen

Coincidentally, last week, both Blake Krikorian and I worked out methods to move compelling HBO GO content from smartphone to television. Blake, who you might recognize as the inventor of the Slingbox and champion of the Crestron Android app, ultimately got it done via his Motorola Atrix… in conjunction with the multimedia dock. Like the … Read more

The $0 TiVo Premiere Returns

Last fall, we briefly saw TiVo experiment with a zero down Premiere. But that $20/month two year commitment, was ultimately superseded by the current $99 hardware fee that comes mated to a 1 year commitment (or optional Lifetime Service plan). But, TiVo’s giving it another shot this week via a Father’s Day promotion. At first blush, … Read more

20 Minutes With The Nook Touch & Review Roundup

Barnes & Noble may have slated June 10th for Nook Touch availability, yet shipments have arrived decidedly early — hitting both pre-orderers and retail outlets starting about the 3rd. I’m not sure why the $139 e-Reader has me so fired up, but it does. Perhaps it’s the vacuum of gadget news ahead of the E3 gaming convention and Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC). Regardless of reason, I’ve made several trips to the B&N with the sole purpose of checking out the 6″ Nook Touch.

First off, the (infrared) touch screen technology performs much better than expected and is surprisingly usable. Combined with B&N’s superior interface, the Nook Touch outperforms the similarly equipped Sony Readers. It should also come as no surprise that the touchscreen UI surpasses Amazon’s Kindle physical 5-way rocker, Menu, and Back buttons. In fact, the virtual keyboard is even an improvement. Without a cover, the new Nook feels great in the hand. The contoured soft touch rear and super light weight make it very comfortable to hold with one hand, and page turning can be accomplished via screen taps, swipes, or the narrow, elongated bezel buttons. Although the lightweight plastic also gives the Nook something of a cheapie feel compared to say Sony’s metal enclosure.

As far as rendering goes

Sonos Readies Nightstand Speaker System

Why thank you, FCC. Looks like Sonos is making good on their foreshadowing survey of last spring and intends to introduce a smaller, less expensive networked speaker system.

As regulars know, we’re big fans of the dead simple yet high quality Sonos whole-home music streaming solution. And what they’re calling the Play:3 looks like it could be a solid addition to my bedroom nightstand. The Sonos S5 houses five speakers and clocks in at about 9lbs, $400. If branding is a reliable indicator of speaker count, versus model generation or something else entirely, the Play:3 might include three audio drivers. More certain would be a lighter weight and lower price tag. Also, based on the dual labels, one can assume the Play:3 will be offered in white and black finishes. Additionally, like the S5, both wired and wireless connections (via a ZoneBridge) are covered.

Hands On Fanhattan iPad App for TV/Movie Browsing

Yesterday at the D9 conference a new player entered the content discovery market. Fanhattan debuted an iPad app for finding TV shows and movie titles online. Reminiscent of the old Comcast Fancast site (now Xfinity-branded of course), Fanhattan shows you where to find the videos you want so you don’t have to go trolling around the net searching Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, etc. It’s competing against several other content discovery engines – Clicker, GetGlue, Miso and more – but Fanhattan’s focus isn’t as heavily centered on social sharing as its established counterparts. In my opinion, that’s a strength for the new app. You can get social if you want, but if you just want to watch TV, you can do that too.

There are nine basic modules for TV and movie selections: watch now options, episode details, reviews, cast and crew info, video clips (if available) soundtrack details, fan gear, connect options (Facebook or email sharing), and similar content. You get to this information by tapping through to either the TV or movie main menu and then browsing or searching through different categories. Filter selections include the ability to browse by user ratings, top picks, release dates, and much more. You can also search for titles by keyword.

The Fanhattan interface is quite visual, and, being an iPad app, entirely powered by taps and swipes. I have a few nitpicks about the design, but overall it’s very effective.

GoogleTV Slingbox Client Enters Beta

Unveiled at CES in January, EchoStar’s Slingbox client for Google TV is nearly ready for its closeup. And, I have to say, it’s probably the most exciting new development out of Sling since we they were acquired.

Instead of relying on a large software package or proprietary browser plugin, the first “SlingPlayer for Connected Devices” rev is essentially a Flash-based website. Connect a Slingbox to your home entertainment gear and stream your content anywhere in the world you’ve got access to a web browser. Including that GoogleTV in the other room. Despite recent and frequent Adobe Flash negativity, it’s fairly ubiquitous and this is as close as clientless we’ll get in the placeshifting realm.

Angry Birds Landing On Roku

Sometime this summer, Roku intends to refresh their digital streamer hardware lineup… while simultaneously expanding the platform to support casual gaming. And their first partner is Rovio, a heavyweight in the space and creator of the immensely popular Angry Birds franchise. From the joint press release:

Roku will offer Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio video games; launch an Angry Birds video channel featuring Angry Birds animated shorts; and sell Angry Birds merchandise-all via the Roku Channel Store. The announcement today also marks Roku’s expansion of its successful Internet TV platform to include casual games.

Roku goes on to say they’re lining up additional gaming partners. Yet I wonder if anyone cares? For adults, I see casual gaming as a possibly nice-to-have enhancement (assuming Roku releases a quality remote control)… rather than a selling point that actually moves units. For example, it’s not clear to me that TiVo or Verizon have seen much success with similar television-based casual gaming initiatives. And while I loved Peggle on my iPhone, it just didn’t translate to the big screen via my Xbox 360. Perhaps there’s a market here for the younger crowd. Unless they all have iPhone Touches or pocketable Nintendo units.