I was perusing the transcript of a Verizon webcast the other day (yes, I am that lame), and ran across two interesting and related points. First, Ron Lataille, Verizon SVP of IR, acknowledged that many young people don’t get wireline phone service when they move, but rather stick with just a cell phone. Not surprising in itself, but Mr. Lataille also suggested that starting a family seems to be a trigger point for converting from a cell-phone-only residence to one with a landline.I seem to be just past the cell-phone-only demographic, or at least among people living outside of NYC. However, I have to admit that if I had only had a cell phone a few years ago, that would have changed when I had my daughter. It’s not so much that I worry about the wireless infrastructure. Any phone system can go down with enough traffic overload. No, I worry about leaving my phone uncharged and then discovering that my power adapter doesn’t work. (It’s happened. Several times.) I also still worry about the issue of dialing 911. Until my cell phone is GPS-enabled, I want a landline the police can track my location on. (VoIP discussion, anyone?)
Who’s On First: Voice, Video, Data?
Deal of the Day: Half Price Harmony 880
Amazon has the Harmony 880 on sale for $155.49 plus a $30 rebate good through 1/29. The 880 retails for $250. Instead of macros, Harmony remotes group related functions into activities. For example: Hit ‘Play DVD’ and Harmony will turn on the TV, set it to the proper input, and power up the DVD player. The 880 has a color screen and internal rechargeable battery with docking cradle. As with all Harmony remotes, the 880 has access to a huge database of devices — before we moved, we had 6xx models controlling our Lutron lights and projector, in addition to the standard stuff. I currently use the 880 in the den to operate my TiVo Series3 and Xbox 360. Download network icons at Squareworld to setup soft keys for your favorite channels.
Hands On With Roxio Toast
My review copy of Toast 8 Titanium arrived this week. Unfortunately, my only Mac is still running 10.3.9… and is not supported. I expect to have this rectified (running Tiger on something) in the next few weeks. Until then, check out iLounge’s review of the TiVoToGo features. Jeremy seemed generally pleased with Roxio’s ability to transfer TiVo shows for burning and playback, though he took issue with conversion times and the 320×240 output (same as Windows TTG) when converting for the iPod and PSP.
Toast 8 Titanium lists for $100, though prices are coming in under $50 after rebate in many cases — it pays to shop around. If you buy in, be sure to download the TiVo DVD menu theme. I’m still holding out hope that the TiVo Transfer portion of the app will be given away by TiVo/Roxio at some point. Though, for those who want to save a few bucks, the unofficial TiVoDecode Manager is free and will transfer, decrypt, and convert.
TiVo Takes Out $50 Million Marker, Adds Board Member
The Yankee Group may be predicting that TiVo won’t be around in 2010, but apparently, Citigroup doesn’t share the same dismal outlook. According to an 8K filing, TiVo announced that they’ve negotiated a new $50 million revolving line of credit with the bank. The line of credit will remain in effect until TiVo terminates the arrangement, violates the covenants or January 25th, 2010, whichever one comes first.
In the filing, TiVo indicated that they have the option of going back and requesting an additional $50 million be added to the line of credit if they needed it, but for the time being, they have no plans to borrow any of the money from the new loan. The line of credit replaces a $15 million loan with the Silicon Valley Bank that expired last September.
The terms and conditions on the loan impose standard debt restrictions in how TiVo can operate their business, but two notable features of the loan are the restrictions that could prevent TiVo from entering into certain M&A negotiations and the formula used for the interest rate calculation.
TiVo already has a poison pill in place, that all but ensures the company won’t be bought out in a hostile takeover scenario. To add to this, they also have language in both their Comcast and Cox agreements, that allow either company to terminate their cable deals, if TiVo is acquired by another company. While the inclusion of this type of language isn’t unusual for a loan of this nature, it existence is further proof that TiVo isn’t interested in selling the company, unless it’s on their terms.
USB Memory Stick Giveaway
I’m doing a little house cleaning today and discovered a collection of USB memory sticks in need of a good home. Memory cards and sticks are often given out to press preloaded with vendor info. We’ve got two 256MB sticks courtesy of ShowStoppers, and 64MB each from Nortel and TiVo. Just leave a comment indicating … Read more
Time Warner Cable Out Of HD DVRs?
I’ve heard cable companies have occasionally been short on CableCARDs, but this is the first time that I recall reading about low DVR stock! An ABC affiliate writes: Time Warner is all out of high-definition DVR boxes. If you pick up a regular box and put your name on the wait list for a DVR, … Read more
Storing Stuff, Part 2
Given how cheap storage has gotten, it’s tempting to think that we’ve solved all of our problems around storing stuff digitally. In Part 1 I talked about how digital storage is going to change in the home. This post looks at how storage is changing on a larger scale.
There are currently two basic ways to watch recorded shows on your TV. Setting aside SlingCatcher for the moment and other Web-to-TV technologies, you can either watch a program stored on your DVR or access VOD content stored on remote servers. As VOD content grows and starts to include HD and mobile TV versions of shows, service providers will continually have to add storage capacity to keep up.
- Storage + Processing Power = Huge Energy Consumption and Lots of Heat