Zatz Not Funny!

New Slacker On-Demand Service Worth the Wait

I’ve been itching for the new Slacker on-demand music service to launch since last fall, and today the new app is (finally!) ready to go on the web, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and Android devices. The whole Slacker experience has been overhauled, but the biggest change comes in the new Premium service tier. For $9.99 a month (or FREE for a limited time at www.facebook.com/SlackerRadio), Slacker Premium customers can now access individual songs and albums on demand. While this may not sound revolutionary, it is when you consider how Slacker implements its on-demand service. With a radio front end, users can find artists and songs simply by tuning to a station and either saving favorite selections as they play, or filtering through station content to find music worth storing. Naturally you can also search for any specific song and play it immediately, but the bigger benefit comes from station-based music discovery. Ask me what song I want to hear, and I may stumble over an answer. But play something I like, and I’ll add it to my personal playlist in a heartbeat.

After using Slacker Premium in beta for the last few weeks, I can happily say that the new service was worth the wait. I’ve only tested it on a computer so far, but I’ll be trialling it further on mobile devices in the near future, and the iPad video demo looks promising. From my own experience, the app is easy to use, and the ability to play favorite songs ad nauseum is addictive. I’ve never been one to collect music, so just being able to access songs when I want without having to make a commitment to buy is compelling. Even better, I don’t have to go out and search for music. If there’s a radio station I like, I can see the top 50 artists and songs on that station and jump around or create my own playlists at will. Stations, albums, and individual songs are also all cacheable for offline playback.

I spoke with Slacker CEO Jim Cady last week, who had a few things to say about where Slacker has been, and where it’s headed.

Netflix Wins Strategic Licensing Deal with Miramax

As digital licensing negotiations heat up, it’s heartening to see Netflix pull another big win from a new deal with Miramax. Netflix announced the multi-year agreement today, which includes instant streaming of a number of movies in the Miramax library, from Academy Award winners like “Shakespeare in Love,” and “The English Patient,” to cult favorites like “Chasing Amy” … Read more

Kindle On The Fritz? Remove The Cover.

Here’s a weird one… Should your 3rd generation Amazon Kindle begin spontaneously shutting down, fail to reliably power up, sprinkled with a dash of page sync issues, the culprit is most likely your official Amazon Kindle Leather Cover. Apparently, Amazon has been aware of this issue since at least late last year… and the cover is … Read more

The Vulkano Flow Placeshifter Giveaway

In honor of the new Zatz Not Funny Facebook annex, we’re giving away our Vulkano Flow review hardware. If you recall, the Flow is the first placeshifter with a MSRP under $100. And mobile clients run almost 2/3rds less than their Slingbox equivalents. Overall, we found it a good value for those with non-HD placeshifting … Read more

Verizon FiOS TV IMG 1.9 Rollout Paused

The eminently valuable Verizon Idea Exchange is not only a rich resource for customers and employees, somewhat reminiscent of the TiVo Community Forum back when TiVo actually ~~cared~~ participated, it’s also a blogger gold mine. Unfortunately, the news I bring you today represents a little short term pain based on customer feedback. Yet, it’ll presumably result in a better long term experience. The FiOS IMG 1.9 nationwide rollout has been temporarily placed on hold. From Verizon Director Joseph Ambeault:

We are pausing for a moment to incorporate some customer feedback into 1.9 (e.g. SD Override wizard and improved contrast between the text and background)… we’ll be back in action shortly.

And…

We’re incorporating feedback we got from customers in the 4 markets that were already upgraded to 1.9. Just some minor tweaks as we get ready to roll to other markets in the coming months.

Anecdotally, based upon ZNF commentary, it does appear some users have had difficulty reading text within the toned down color scheme. But I have no idea what this SD Override wizard is, as I do my best to avoid SD channels. Not to mention that most televisions offer plenty of display modes to stretch or zoom content. But our audience is probably a little more savvy than the typical cable customer and it sounds like Verizon may have ended up with a number of confused or disgruntled subscribers who’ve received 1.9. Hopefully, they clear these issues and resume the rollout in short order. As I’m ready for the 16:9 guide and whole home streaming to/from each and every HD DVR.

DISH Network Embraces Whole Home DVR

DISH Network recently held their annual Team Summit for partners and retailers. Scott Greczkowski of Satellite Guys was in attendance… and came back with a treasure trove of info and photos. The most compelling story for us gadget loving consumers was the unveiling of Echostar’s new whole-home DVR solution, which will be composed of at least one … Read more

Netflix Enables iPhone, iPad Closed Captioning

While it may be arriving late for many, Netflix has just expanded video streaming closed captioning onto iOS devices with their 1.3 app update. There are limited display options, but subtitles are certainly a boon. And something I could have used yesterday at the gym when I forgot my headphones. Unfortunately, caption preferences don’t appear … Read more

Google TV Scheduled For A Summer Reboot

I’d like to suggest an update to this Google TV FAQ, as the schedule has clearly been blown (and by any or most objective measures, Google’s initial foray into television services has been a failure).

Expect many more applications after we open the Android Market on Google TV in early 2011.

“Early 2011” has obviously come and gone while Google TV has remained largely stagnent. Yeah, it provides a few nifty tricks, like that video overlay, and there’s tons of potential. But the interface remains a mess and a large percent of the web video we want to get at is blocked (by the providers). And then there’s all the apps. Rather, the lack of.

That’s the bad news. The good news, unveiled at Google’s developer conference this week, is what looks to be a significant reboot of the Goole TV platform this summer. Based on Android 3.1 (Honeycomb), and as reported by NewTeeVee, the new experience more efficiently directs folks to the features they’re seeking… including a full blown application Market. As you can tell from the screengrabs, the refreshed UI appears at once both more sophisticated and more streamlined. I only hope early adopters of original Sony and Logitech Google TV hardware and rewarded for their gamble with an update.