Zatz Not Funny!

Logitech Amps Up Panasonic HDTV Skype Calling

While HDTV Skype video chat isn’t entirely new, Logitech’s joining the fray – bringing their webcam expertise to Skype-enabled 2011 Panasonic Viera televisions. What looks to be the same fantabulous HD USB camera/mic array offered to (the very few) Logitech Revue Google TV customers will ship later this month as the Logitech TV Cam for … Read more

Battle Lines Drawn: Microsoft & RIM Vs. the World

It was free PlayBooks for all at the BlackBerry World Conference keynote presentation today, but that was hardly the biggest surprise of the morning. Taking the stage right after RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis was Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. That’s right, the CEO of Microsoft held court at a BlackBerry conference. Why? To announce a new alliance of course. RIM is now working closely with Microsoft to integrate Bing search at the OS level on BlackBerry devices. Eric Zemen, aka @phonescooper, captured the rather odd video (above) showing how the Bing-on-BlackBerry experience will work.

If there’s one clear conclusion to be divined from Ballmer’s appearance today, it’s that the mobile battle lines have been drawn. Microsoft signed an agreement with Nokia just last month to shore up its OS position with Windows 7. Now it’s supporting RIM in the mobile OS world in order to further its mobile search interests. Bizarre? Yes. But also very calculated. Microsoft was late to the mobile game, and now it’s aligning left, right, and center in order to combat Google and Apple in the space.

You can place your bets now on whether Microsoft’s mobile strategies will work. Certainly the company is taking a scatter-shot approach to the market, but that doesn’t mean one of those shots won’t hit.

In the meantime, here’s a sampling of some of the greatest tweets covering the RIM conference this morning – from the hilarious to the insightful:

TiVo, EchoStar, DISH Network Make Nice Nice (To The Tune Of $500 Million)

tivo-slays-dish

After decades of DVR patent litigation, the court’s most recent decision has forced EchoStar (SATS) and DISH Network into a $500 million settlement with TiVo. Above and beyond the court-sanctioned penalty of $100+ million paid in 2008.

As the story goes, TiVo approached DISH way back when to partner and dropped off an early DVR for evaluation. Well, a deal didn’t get done and that DVR was never seen (by TiVo) again. Yet the underlying tech was reverse engineered, finding its way into EchoStar’s own DVR offerings. And, thus, TiVo filed suit. It’s been a long and winding road. Including a sleep-inducing visit to the US Courts of Appeals by yours truly. While most other corporate entities would probably have settled sooner at a smaller cost, DISH/Echo CEO Charlie’s Ergen’s strategy appears to have been dragging litigation out as long as possible until they either caught a lucky break or TiVo ceases to exist. Heck, TiVo challenged the courts to do the right thing and wrap this up in a timely fashion. It didn’t happen, DISH/Echo were found in contempt (again), and here we are. $500 million isn’t the $1 billion (!) TiVo was posturing for. However, for a company that has very rarely found profitability by actually selling its own product, this is a huge windfall and the respective parties can finally put it to bed. Assuming the courts let them.

Some details of the settlement from a joint announcement:

PlayStation Network Still Down; Service Returning This Week

Since our last chat, Sony’s come clean. The PlayStation Network (PSN) outage, later classified as a response to an “external intrusion,” was a full on security breach — resulting in just about all our personal information taken:

We believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility.

With something like 70 million customers, the scale of the compromise is obviously quite large. Both governments and individuals alike have taken notice of what appears to be insufficient protection and a leisurely response by Sony. Reinforced by the two email messages I received from Sony about ten days after the breach, neither of which mentioned bringing law enforcement in to assist their investigation.

Well, it’s a new week… Sony’s finally reached out (to the FBI) for help and indicates that PSN will be be back online within a matter of days. Perhaps as early as tomorrow.

TiVo iPad App Updated: Channel Search & Free Space Indicator

Unlike the incomplete and stagnant Premiere, TiVo’s iPad app has seen regular updates since release. And the latest brings a handful of improvements:

What’s New in Version 1.2
-New channel search feature which allows you to search channels in the guide by channel number or station name (Ex: ESPN, etc)
-New fast channel indexes in the guide allow you to quickly jump to a group of channels by channel number
-New disk space meter in My Shows lets you see the percentage of disk space the DVR is using
-Fixes crashing/connection loss issues when waking the app from standby or resuming after multitasking
-Significant performance improvements

While TiVo’s couch-based DVR companion is amongst the most well rounded and visually rich, the interface can get a bit busy. The new channel search (bottom, center pic) is a prime example.

SiriusXM Shuffling Channels May 4th

Thanks to SatelliteGuys, we’ve suspected for a few weeks that SiriusXM (SIRI) intended to shuffle their channel lineup. And, the satellite radio provider has just unveiled the details:

We’re reordering our channels in a better way, to make it easier for you to find the programming you like and improve the experience for all our listeners. As a result, many of the channels you listen to will have a new channel number beginning May 4.

Both XM and Sirius radios will see many channels remapped in what appears to be the programming culmination of their 2008 merger. Well, not entirely… “some differences will remain between the Sirius and XM channel offerings due to technical reasons or agreements with content providers.” Visit www.siriusxm.com/channelupdate and choose your radio, XM or Sirius, to peruse the old and new channel positions.

In terms of programming itself, “a few channels will be combined, some content will be moving from our satellite radio lineup to the SiriusXM Internet Radio lineup.” But in return, we’ll receive a new station dedicated to weather in Pittsburgh and Minneapolis… cities that may not even share the same time zone. Hit the detailed FAQ for more info.

Is Netflix Really Bigger Than Comcast?

Netflix (NFLX) released its quarterly earnings earlier this week and, while the market was somewhat underwhelmed, subscriber numbers are impressive. In fact, GigaOm declares, “Netflix Now Officially Has More Subscribers Than Comcast.” Indeed, at first blush, Netflix’s 23.6 million subscribers does exceed Comcast’s 22.8 million. But what exactly does that suggest and is it a reasonable comparison? From a financial stand … Read more

Transformers 3 – More Planes, Transformers & Automobiles

Transformers: Dark of the Moon. It’s either a giant robot movie or the next Twilight film. Now we’ve got a full-length trailer that answers that question. Shia LaBeouf is back to periodically interrupt all the anthropomorphic car action with nervous stammering and John Turturro is back to finish the job of burying all the good … Read more