Disposable DVDs Rise From The Dead

It wasn’t a good idea in 1999 when we buried Circuit City-backed Digital Video Express (Divx). It wasn’t a good idea in 2006 when MovieKlub failed to launch. And it’s not a good idea now: DVD-D Germany Ltd’s ‘Einmal’ (German for ‘once’) – discs incorporate a self-destruct chemical coating to render them unreadable after a … Read more

Are the Days of Microsoft Points Numbered?

I recently listened to the March 31, 2008 EGM Live Podcast (download) where Garnett Lee interviewed Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Director of Product Management for the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. Among other topics, Aaron had the unenviable job of defending the concept of Microsoft Points (time index 17:40). Reading several articles today on Sony’s pending … Read more

TiVo Gets A Little Bit Social (On Facebook)

TiVo’s getting a little bit social (hey, it’s the thing to do) in launching “My TV” on Facebook. As you would expect, one can add, rate, and review all sorts of television programming. There’s also links to online scheduling (for us TiVo customers), but no integration with Facebook’s existing TV show favorites or a method to import your existing Season Passes, Now Playing list, etc. Interestingly, TiVo didn’t name the widget after themselves and clearly indicates one doesn’t need to be a TiVo owner to participate. Which is a smart marketing move. (via Gizmo Lovers)

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HD Bandwagon at NAB 2008

HDTV just never gets old. According to a friend at the NAB show, companies are still shouting HD from the rooftops. Or in this case, from their booth displays. Weather and traffic are in on the game. AccuWeather was showing off HD content for all types of displays and platforms. Here are some photos of … Read more

Comcastic Insecurity!

Dave Winer’s Internet service was recently shut down by Comcast without warning. Apparently, he’s in the top percentile of bandwidth usage and Dave feels that Comcast has singled him out as a criminal. While I don’t know how he’s using his Internet connectivity, I do agree that the way Comcast handles these matters isn’t very consumer friendly.

However, what interested me is that Dave was directed to the Comcast Customer Security Assurance and Legal Response team. Frankly, Comcast needs to tighten up their own security before making customer insinuations… Last week, we initiated a customer support chat to get our Comcast.net credentials. Despite providing our specific account number, phone number, and partial social security number Comcast reset the former resident’s email password and gave it to us. No social engineering required. Fortunately, this is a mostly unused account and I’m a pretty ethical guy. But the experience surely gives me pause.

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Where’s the SDV Tuning Resolver?

So it’s Q2 and I’m probably not the only one wondering where the SDV Tuning Resolver is. If you recall, this product will allow unidrectional CableCARD retail devices to tune switched digital video channels – which would otherwise be unavailable for viewing. It’s unlikely older CableCARD devices like first generation TVs with slots would receive … Read more

The New Playstation Store

The new PS3 Playstation store is a much needed improvement over the older store. The Old Playstation Store The old store (pictured left) booted slowly, was unresponsive, had tiny print and was almost unusable. It relied on a ‘mouse’ like interface with a pointer that needed to be moved around the screen with the PS3 … Read more

Question of the Day: Replace Car Stereo or Add Satellite?

Today’s question, via IM, wonders how to handle the death of a car stereo. Though, it’s not quite so simple — Both the CD player and line-in jack still work, so they’ve been considering a satellite radio add-on. They don’t have a problem with the monthly fee but, upon quizzing, it seems clear they’re not … Read more