Digital Media Bytes: TiVo Q3 Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… Wall Street hits pause on TiVo: CNN Money Struggling TiVo insists the sun’ll come out tomorrow: USA Today TiVo beats expectations again: Forbes Earnings Call Transcript: Seeking Alpha Third quarter results press release: TiVo SEC 8-K summary: TiVo

Digital Media Bytes: PSP Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… PSP 3.01 software update released Buy PSone games online via Playstation3, view music animations, and disable UMD auto-start. Sony PSP Internet Video Guide Learn how to use PSP Video 9 to get YouTube and Google Video onto your system. DVR Playground PSP sales up Hardware sales up 280% and … Read more

TiVo Heads South Of The Border

Cablevision has entered into a relationship with TiVo to distribute Spanish-language DVRs to their Mexico City customers in the first half of 2007. No bundled hardware/service pricing details or technological specifics were given. (Which units? Will TiVo have an operations center in Mexico? Will TiVo software ultimately run on hardware Cablevision provides? etc.) When I … Read more

Mac Slingplayer Needs GUI Refresh?

There’s been a decent amount of discussion regarding the (beta) Mac Slingplayer’s non-standard OS X interface. For example, MacWorld writes: The Mac SlingPlayer software works essentially like its Windows counterpart, and that’s good as well as bad. The first public beta of the Mac software, released Tuesday, makes no attempt to hide its Windows origins. … Read more

TiVo’s Unreleased Holiday Video

Turns out that video on our TiVo boxes promoting free (with subscription) Series 2 units isn’t the only holiday advertisement they shot… The elves had a little too much egg nog and busted out this Christmas rap while the camera was rolling.

Dave Nabs Xbox 360 For $200 (Sort Of)

While I often live on the bleeding edge of technology, there are occasions when I’m content to wait. As a casual gamer, I didn’t pick up the Xbox 360 last year and I waited to try all three next gen systems before making a purchase. Now that I’ve some experience with the various consoles, I … Read more

Squeezebox Review: On My X’mas List

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I admit to feeling some trepidation when my Slim Devices Squeezebox review unit arrived. Since buying a house a year and a half ago, my stereo from early high school has sat unused in our basement. (Note the cheesy, Space-Invaders-like display on the screen and the layers of dust.)

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I popped open one of the tape decks and look what I found:

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So imagine my nervousness at trying to combine the archaic technology of my high school years with something as beautiful as the Squeezebox.

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I’ve contemplated upgrading my music options for quite a while now, but frankly I’ve been pretty happy with my iPod and the kitchen radio for listening to NPR. Satellite radio has a monthly fee, which I’m not willing to pay, and my music collection isn’t stellar enough to warrant buying an iPod dock with speakers.

Looking at the Squeezebox, I wondered not only if I could make it work with my stereo, but if it would even be worthwhile given my decidedly low-key approach to music.

Here’s the answer: Yes, yes, unequivocally yes. Can I have it for Christmas, please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Every new thing I tried with the Squeezebox just made it better — Starting with streaming my own music, then accessing the SqueezeNetwork and finally going full out with Pandora. If you want to skip set-up and some of the more gory details, scroll to the end for a list of pros and (very few) cons.

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TiVo Sells Ads After Recordings

We knew this was coming… In fact, Mari just covered a similar advertising service that will glue commercials onto Charter’s video-on-demand programming. TiVo’s “Program Placement” allows advertisers to buy slots for their commercials to play at the conclusion of a recorded program. This could be very lucrative for TiVo as it really creates a secondary … Read more