The Uverse users site is running a poll to see what feature people most want added to the service (AT&T’s IPTV offering). With a whopping 109 votes in (okay, that’s probably a decent percentage of Uverse users…), the winner is whole-home DVR.
Content Sluts
Joost Screenshot Are the big media guys turning into content sluts, willing to throw their content anywhere they might get an audience? The big Joost/Viacom announcement makes me wonder. Not that Joost isn’t potentially a wonderful service (I haven’t tried it), and not that big media shouldn’t spread its content far and wide, but it’s … Read more
Picture of the Day: Touchscreen Blues
Air Canada & The Touchscreen Blues
XM & Sirius To Merge (Maybe)
The rumors have been going on (and off) for a couple of years, so today’s XM/Sirius announcement doesn’t come as a huge shocker. They’re hoping to seal the deal by the end of the year. Though, we’ll see if regulators (and shareholders?) allow it to go through… HD Radio is advertising heavily here in the DC area (home of the FCC and Congress) which actually should help XM/Sirius make the argument that they aren’t competing against each other, but rather they are competing against AM, FM, and now HD… plus Internet radio.
While a joint satellite radio company should be able to share a variety of expenses and thus cut costs, they also get to share debt and the challenge of attracting and retaining subscribers. If the merger comes to pass, current Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will run the company with Howard Stern as CFO.
TiVo Lowers Service Fees & Rebates
TiVo is still trying to find that sweet spot between upfront hardware costs and recurring monthly service fees in attracting customers and eeking out a profit. In the last 18 months, they’ve instituted a cancellation fee, experimented with a variety of rebates and online deals, killed the Lifetime service option and generally confused folks with multiple purchase options.
So where are we now? I have no idea and my head hurts… The Winter rebate for standard def units expired yesterday ($180), and the replacement rebate is $30 less ($150). However, service fees have gone down as well: $16.95/mo with a 1 year commitment, $14.95/mo with 2, and $12.95/mo with 3 years. Can this be applied to existing hardware? Someone make the call and let us know.
Jumbotron On-Demand?
Photo courtesy of David Silbey and his T-Mobile Dash
I was at the Villanova/Georgetown b-ball game today contemplating how I could reasonably write off the tickets as an expense for tax purposes, and I started thinking about how Comcast could get more out of its Jumbotron. If there was a way to plug the Jumbotron display into a cable network, Comcast could then broadcast that out on-demand to college campuses. Dumb graphics, half-time show coverage and all.
More interestingly, maybe cable operators should do something equivalent to ESPN’s Full Circle coverage of certain events like last year’s Duke vs. UNC games. Instead of having different ESPN networks covering different aspects of the game, have different on-demand channels showing different game-related content. One station could have the game at 3/4 screen with the rest of the display dedicated to dynamic player and game stats. Another station could syndicate one of the college’s own radio commentators over the broadcast video feed. Another station could feature different camera angles.
Free March Madness Webcast Returns
Awesome, the NCAA and CBS SportsLine are serving up March Madness On Demand (again) online and for free! Sure, glued to my laptop may not be the ideal way to watch days of basketball but I’ll be able to view specific games that my local affiliate doesn’t broadcast (if necessary). Starting March 5th, the site … Read more
The Perfect Phone
My headline is a fantasy… There is no perfect phone. My favorite phone for purely email and voice has been the Blackberry 8700, but as a guy who runs a decent amount of multimedia, Windows Mobile is my preferred OS. (Though it frequently drives me crazy.)
I’ve been using the 6700 on Sprint since last summer and it’s time for change. The thing weighs a ton, no longer holds a charge, and I find the hidden keyboard too wide for comfortable thumb typing.
To borrow a term from Gizmodo, I’d like to build a Windows Mobile “Frankenphone” using the best features of the Dash, Blackjack, and 700w:
Dash
- Form factor
- Standard USB Connection
- Windows Mobile 6 Update
Blackjack
- 3G Connectivity
- Jog Dial
- Extra Battery
Palm 700w
- Software dialing enhancements
- Touchscreen
- 3G Connectivity