Zatz Not Funny!

Where’s Dave?

Yes, the blog has been quiet. And it’s likely my already low output will further decrease in the short-term as, after five long years…Eliana, our sweet, magical little miracle baby has arrived! Despite working so hard towards this goal and the vast majority of our circle having children, we’ve clearly only understood parenthood on an abstract level — no matter how good our time … Read more

DISH Wally Headed To CES

As originally revealed, Echostar has been prepping an unsurprising Hopper 3… alongside the mysterious new DISH Wally. And, mere weeks ahead of CES, details have started to trickle out. The single tuner Wally satellite receiver may be targeted towards small business, in addition to secondary rooms, and will run only $7/mo in rental fees. The non-DVR STB includes HEVC decoding … Read more

New Roku Activations Unlock Tons Of Free Premium Content

Giving or getting a Roku this Christmas? The streaming pioneer has lined up an impressive array of free trials. Some of the more compelling offerings: Hulu – 3 months free HBO Now – 1 month free Netflix – 1 month free Showtime – 1 month free CinemaNow – 3 movie rentals Some of the promos, like Netflix … Read more

Philips Hue Excludes 3rd Party Bulbs With Firmware Update

Philips just released firmware for the Philips Hue bridge that may permanently sever access to any “non-approved” ZigBee bulbs. We previously covered third party support in January 2015, when Philips indicated it was not blocked – and have since benefited.

The recent change seems to suggest any non-Philips bulbs from manufacturers such as Cree, GE, and Osram will not be supported in many situations, whereas “Friends of Hue” branded product are. At the time of publication, it’s unclear whether 3rd party bulbs will stop working immediately after the firmware update or if they may only become inaccessible after the bridge is reset. We’re also not sure if being “reset” means rebooted or factory reset. This appears to apply to both the round v1 bridge and square v2 HomeKit-compatible bridge after the latest firmware update is applied.

While I generally prefer my ecobee3 smart thermostat (upstairs) to my Nest (downstairs), the company appears to have suffered something of a manufacturing quality control issue that significantly reduces its key remote sensor benefit. Namely, a number of recently shipped devices feature misaligned ecobee sensor component to sensor window. Indeed, I had set up a sensor in my soon-to-arrive baby’s room … Read more

HBO GO Confirmed For TiVo

As we await the TiVo WWE app and long overdue Hulu refresh, a Google alert tripped several weeks back has seemingly confirmed HBO GO will also be on the docket. I’ve got no pretty marketing materials or photographic evidence to share with you, just an HBO GO config file … with 288 provider references to TiVo. And, thus … Read more

Bose SoundTouch Improves Spotify & iHeartRadio

A couple weeks back, I began acquiring Bose SoundTouch connected speakers to replace Sonos. I’m no audiophile and not really equipped to compare acoustic properties, other than to say both platforms sound good. Whereas the Bose app experience and linked music service offerings are generally and significantly inferior to Sonos… the Bose-bundled physical remote control to tune up to six pre-assigned stations or playlists and adjust volume is priceless — it pretty much trumps all else. (Which makes me sad given the beautiful new Sonos Play:5.)

My initial experiences with SoundTouch were somewhat frustrating given my currently preferred music streaming services: iHeartRadio and Spotify. The Pandora-esque iHeart stations I’d created were inaccessible and would error out while Spotify access was largely and bizarrely managed via the Spotify app. But I held out hope, given this product’s intent, that things would improve. And, yesterday, Bose delivered — resolving both my issues.

Let the deals begin!

I’m always on the hunt for a good deal, but this time of year is especially frenzied. So I’ve got my wishlist ready as I dutifully monitor my overflowing inbox and Slickdeals app while I access sites through ebates for some additional cash back. Some early catches… Amazon Fire TV Stick @ $25 – Cheaper than the Roku stick … Read more