TV for the ADD Generation

Being a glutton for punishment, I recorded a few of the demos and screenshots shown during Paul Kagan’s “Getting Personal” conference last week in conjunction with the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo. (I’ve gotten in trouble for posting “confidential” video demos shown at conferences before.) This one comes from Ensequence, showing off some interactive TV apps used … Read more

No Unlimited Data Plan for Canadian iPhones

Rogers has announced its (and its subsidiary Fido’s) long awaited Canadian 3G iPhone data plan pricing. Unlike AT&T and other carriers around the world, Rogers is not offering an unlimited data plan option. Rather it is tying rather stingy tiered data plans to tiered voice plans at considerably higher prices than charged in Europe and … Read more

DivX To Support The MKV Video Format

Good news web video fans. Hot off the presses Doom9’s forums, we learn that the upcoming release of DivX 7 is going to support the Matroska video format! Now I know that many of you are probably asking yourself Matroskwho?, but believe me when I tell you that this is a big deal for both DivX and Matroska fans.

A DivX / Matroska hook up will not only give web video creators even more options over how they want to present their content, but it will also ensure that consumers are able to take advantage of these advanced features with their favorite consumer electronic products. In the past, Matroska fans have had to go through a painful and complicated process in order to get their MKV files to play nice with their DivX hardware devices, but with the 7.0 release, it should be as easy as hitting play on DivX 7.0 gadgets.

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Track Stock Portfolio via Home Theater PC

You’ve had a long day at work, come home and want to see how your stocks and the market have been doing. Okay, maybe you don’t want to know at the moment given the current market conditions but bear with me… You sit down on you couch, fire up the HTPC TV and click on … Read more

Google Quietly Intros Media Server Gadget

Google’s quietly introduced a (Windows-only) media server gadget: Google Media server is about exposing content from your local compute(s) via UPnP protocol for devices on your home network. Google desktop is looking for content on you computer and network (if it is configured to do so). Google Media server uses Google desktop index. Of course, … Read more

Comcast is Going All-Digital

Todd Spangler at Multichannel broke the news this morning. Comcast is buying up to six million digital terminal adapters (DTAs) this year in an effort to migrate to all-digital broadcasts throughout 20% of its footprint in 2008. The DTAs are coming from Motorola (my employer), Pace and Thomson. DTAs work by converting QAM channels broadcast … Read more

Windows Media Center Extenders Compared

EngadgetHD’s Ben Drawbaugh recently abandoned TiVo in favor of a CableCARD Vista Media Center and has been evaluating the current crop of extenders. His ultimate advice: If you’re a gamer, stick with the Xbox 360 (despite the cost and noise). Otherwise, the quiet and relatively inexpensive Linksys DMA2100 ($240) is the way to go.

I Abandoned Metal Gear Solid 4 (for now)

As beautiful and cutting-edge as Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3) is, after making it past the laughing Octopus stage in the second act, I abandoned the game, at least for now. This surprises even me. I have been waiting for years to play this game, but the lack of a decent checkpoint system and endless … Read more