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Lycos Loses ‘Home Court’ Advantage

It looks like TiVo, Netflix and Blockbuster will be packing their bags for Massachusetts, after they won the first of many legal scrimmages in their patent defense against Lycos. Lycos has asserted that all three companies have violated patents they own, on âinformation filtering technology.â? The two patents that are at the heart of the case are related to the recommendation services that the companies provide.

After Lycos filed their lawsuit against the trio, ChoiceStream (the company that created Blockbusterâs suggestion service) filed a separate lawsuit, to have the patents thrown out.

In their lawsuit against Lycos, they argue that the patents are invalid because of obviousness and prior art. Because Choicestream filed their own lawsuit in the Massachusettsâ court system, TiVo, Netflix and Blockbuster sought to have their case transferred there as well. Iâm not familiar enough with the legal subtleties to know why Lycos originally opposed the motion, but with Lycosâ headquarters in MA, the judge found the request reasonable enough and granted the motion.

Dragon’s Lair Arrives On HD DVD

Ah, Dragon’s Lair… The arcade game I had a love-hate relationship with as a child. The animation was amazing and unique, but the game ran me $1 for each 30 seconds of play. At some point I must have been mature enough to realize I sucked, either that or my mom stopped giving me money, … Read more

All Kinds of Sirius

Sirius unveiled a whole slew of new devices and services yesterday. Three in particular caught my attention:

Stiletto 2

I’m a gadget guy and I like portables, so the WiFi-enabled Stiletto appeals to me. I found the first generation slightly too large, so this 25% size reduction has resulted in a sleeker package. Both Stiletto models outshine my XM Helix in the beauty department, and more importantly, they offer a couple of home docking solutions. Interestingly, Steven Chalker, the only person I know who regularly used a Stiletto intends to sell it and stream Sirius to a TMobile MDA instead. (Was Zing was involved with v2? Surely not v3…) Expect the Stiletto 2, with souped up Altec Lansing headset, to ship this fall @ $350.

Dish Enables External DVR Storage

My buddy Jason woke up to a pretty exciting discovery this AM. His ViP622 HD DVR is now enabled for external storage via USB. While he hasn’t called in to verify the one time $39.99 activation fee, he does intend to expand his storage. There’s only so many seasons of Smallville one can fit on … Read more

$20 Million in Australian TiVo Advertising Deals

Now that TiVo has inked a deal with Seven to launch service Down Under, they’ve begun lining up a number of advertisers: At least 20 big companies have rapidly signed up with cheques of more than $1 million to become “foundation partners” with Seven in the TiVo service. Those fat cheques give the companies early … Read more

Dave’s New Ride: XM Everywhere

I finally got around to upgrading my car, though my driving is way down since I started working from “home.” But having recently picked up XM’s portable Helix, it was a no-brainer to add the $7/mo for a family plan unit. Let me tell you, it’s so much nicer to have built-in satellite radio without … Read more

More Time Warner DVR Fakery

Last year, Time Warner Cable brought us “Start Over” which allows one to start a television show from the beginning (while it’s still being broadcast) if, say, you’re running late. I guess Start Over is such a success (available in 23 states, 8 more by the end of the year) that TWC is expanding their … Read more

TiVo.Com Survey

I was chatting with one of my blogging buddies who mentioned I should check out The 4400. We had caught the first season on DVD and enjoyed it, but I heard or read something that implied the later seasons weren’t as good – and we moved on. However, he said he’s enjoyed all of them… So we’re going to give it a shot and before we miss more episodes, I headed on over to tivo.com for some online scheduling action.

As you can see from the image above, I was hit with a survey. Before getting into the nitty gritty of it, they asked why I was visiting the site. Apparently I gave the wrong answer because the survey abruptly concluded. Bummer.

So what could tivo.com use? We had an interesting suggestion the other day for some badge creation tools that hook into our units and display our top Season Passes and such. I think we could even go a little simpler by displaying our model(s) — though, they should be customizable. Everyone wants to brag about the size of their hard drive, right?