From where I sit, Meta Quest marketing continues to falter. They increased the Quest 2’s price point from $300 to $400 at the same time existing customers largely tune out or abandon Horizon Worlds – their VR centerpiece, promoted via a Super Bowl ad that ran a reported $13 million. To further poison their own … Read more
As Xperi is decoupled from its intellectual property business, to sidestep “channel conflict,” the company continues to crank away on their Roku-esque aspirations by turning the TiVo Stream platform into a television OS. Revealed two years ago, and arriving only a year late, the company’s first partnership is poised to begin producing Vestel televisions “Powered … Read more
In conjunction with Roku launching their line of white-labeled Wyze smart home paraphernalia, the streaming pioneer also released the requisite corresponding set-top “channel” — while it’s not the more holistic approach we were anticipating, the Roku Smart Home Cameras app is certainly good enough as an initial attempt moving in the direction of Apple TV … Read more
As prices continue to climb, it feels as though we’ve entered a new chapter of video streaming. One in which many of us will be more selective in what we subscribe to and at what frequency. Here’s a breakdown of some recent price hikes: Service Monthly Increase Effective Date Disney+ $3 (38%) 12/8/22 Apple TV+ … Read more
The full-size 4th generation Amazon Echo is on sale for $50 — at 50% off, this is an all-time low. The full Echo features way bigger sound than the Echo Dot. In fact, I previously bought a couple to use as speakers with Fire TV. Originally I had a pair, uh, paired to a Fire … Read more
While Spotify no longer manufactures hardware, they continue to unload Car Thing inventory at steep discounts. Given generally stronger European consumer protections, I suspect they’ll continue to support it for quite some time. As such, a number of my Twitter buddies have been picking up this automotive accessory … for their home offices. You see, … Read more
For several years now, ecobee’s been trying real hard to expand beyond the smart thermostat with a video camera, contact sensors, and wall switches. And, as you can see above, a doorbell is up next. As to why one might choose an ecobee video doorbell, over any of the numerous existing offerings, we’ll likely have … Read more
Last week, Roku boldly entered the Smart Home space with an initial product offering “developed in partnership with Wyze.” And, boy, do the business considerations and implications fascinate me. We’ll never have a full accounting of the relationship (although I’m quite looking forward to Roku’s quarterly securities call), so I’ll just go ahead and assume both … Read more