Flip Mino vs. Flip Ultra

The successor to Pure Digital’s Flip Ultra has now officially been announced. The new Flip Mino is on sale at the company’s site, on Amazon and at Walmart.com. As a happy owner of the Flip Ultra, I immediately started reviewing the specs to see if I should give in and upgrade. The biggest reason I … Read more

Fandango’s Alive & Kicking

Interesting factoid: Online movie ticketing service Fandango was responsible for over 16% of Sex in the City opening weekend ticket sales. While it didn’t surprise me to learn Fandango moved 10% of Star Wars Episode III tickets (it’s a geek crowd), the percent of Sex in the City sales is notable (as is the fact … Read more

TWC is Insane (and Anti-competitive)

Later this week Time Warner Cable will begin testing a broadband service cap of 40GB/month in Beaumont, Texas. Before I level my anti-competitive claim, let me say upfront that I’m not opposed to tiered pricing. Having some sort of threshold that separates the abusers, power users, and home businesses from “typical” consumer usage is fine … Read more

Pandora Launches Adobe Air Desktop Client

Free Internet radio service Pandora just launched an Adobe Air desktop client (Windows and OS X). At first blush, I wasn’t so impressed – the visual footprint is rather large, so why not just leave Pandora running in a Firefox tab? Kevin Tofel asked how it runs minimized (or hidden), and I discovered a nice … Read more

The Internet Gas Gauge

Now that Time Warner Cable is testing a bill-by-the-byte approach for Internet access, it’d be nice to have a simple way to measure individual Internet use. We’re taught to track the upload and download speeds provided by ISPs, but exact measurements there are hardly necessary. If my downloads are moving more slowly than usual, I … Read more

Hands On With WowWee’s Upcoming Bots

Last week while visiting Chicago with my new employer (Dash Navigation – more on that soon), I dropped by Capable Networks HQ. Capable not only runs the TiVo Community and Sling Community, they also run WowWee’s RoboCommunity – so I got some time with two pre-release robots they had on hand. Both Tri-Bot and Wrex … Read more

Phoenix Cox Customers Getting SDV 7/1; Free Tuning Adapter

Looks like we’ve finally found a cable company with the ability to communicate (SDV). Cox has been notifying Phoenix customers that certain channels will become switched as of 7/1. Impacted homes are offered the option of trading in their CableCARDs for a set-top box rental or waiting for the tuning adapter – no ETA, but … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Set-Top Box Death Rumors: Connected Home 2 Go Hauppauge HD-PVR FAQ: Brent Evans Geek Tonic DOCSIS 3.0, Lessons Learned: Connected Home 2 Go Helping out in New Orleans: Connected Home 2 Go