Xbox One Going Windows 10, Getting Background Music

Given Microsoft’s strategy to deploy Windows 10 across all computing devices, including computers and smartphones, I guess it’s not entirely surprising they intend to similarly unify the Xbox One onto the platform later this year. Whether or not this translates into a less crazy user interface remains to be seen, but it does seem highly likely that background music streaming will be one compelling benefit of migrating to the new operating system. It’s a feature I’m surprised we haven’t seen more – and something I periodically have appreciated from the WDTV Play and Amazon Fire TV.

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Amazon Bundles Kindle For Kids

kindle-for-kids

Amazon has launched a Kindle for Kids Bundle. The Bundle packages a third-party back cover (in your choice of five colors) and two-year SquareTrade warranty with an existing entry-level, touch-screen, ad-free Kindle … for the same price that Kindle alone would have cost (without ads): $99. Beyond its standard e-reading capabilities, Amazon is also pitching Kindle FreeTime features such as reading achievement badges. But I wonder if there’s much of a market amongst parents and their budding readers for a single function device like this? I’d handed down a former Kindle to a friend’s daughter, but Dad tells me it was pretty quickly superseded by other multifunctional tablet gadgetry. Hm.

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TiVo Redesigns Iconic Thumbs

By way of the Trademark office, we see that TiVo’s brand makeover continues. Whereas the earlier 2015 visual tweaks were logo-centric, and perhaps merely a test, TiVo recently passed 6 applications thru the USPTO showcasing significantly modernized rendition of their classic thumbs up/down iconography as an update to prior art filed way back in 1999. Use of these buttons, … Read more

Exclusive: TiVo Poised To Launch Cox On Demand

Via trusted sources, we’ve learned that TiVo is poised to launch Cox On Demand services… nearly five years after an announced partnership that many have assumed to be dead. So while the various players dicker over the capabilities and implementation of a CableCARD successor, TiVo once again strikes a deal to build a custom solution. I’m not sure what’s in … Read more

Plex Hits TiVo Next Week

By way of a TiVo media blast and discussions I’ve had with Plex representatives, we now know the rumors are true. Plex lands on TiVo Roamio, Premiere, and Mini hardware next week! And, fortunately, the Plex experience is not buried within the Opera TV Store, residing alongside Spotify and an also soon-to-be released iHeartRadio under Music & Photos. … Read more

Clearing Out The Cruft: Twitter Favorites

While I agree that tweets are largely ephemeral in nature, I appreciate my Twitter archive as a historical record and have no desire to join the ranks of the tweet-deleters. Yeah, I’ll delete the sporadic nonsensical, knee jerk, repetitive, or unfunny contribution. But I generally enjoy keeping my old stuff around. Exponentially so, as a blogger and since Twitter introduced native photos and video. However, Favorites, I just don’t get. I often star other’s tweets as an acknowledgement that I’ve read their 140 character note or as an ‘atta boy’ of sorts, if something is especially compelling — in which case, maybe I should have solely retweeted it to benefit my followers. Having these Favorite emoticon acknowledgements preserved for posterity seems like an exercise in noise, clutter, and perhaps misrepresentation. So I set out to delete the 8148 “likes” that I’ve anointed over the years.

No surprise: Twitter provides no mechanism to get this done. Fortunately, I stumbled upon Unfavinator which is the first and most important step in clearing the cruft.

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$50 Off Sonos Play:1 Two Pack

If you’ve been looking to expand your Sonos speaker collection or are just getting ready to ease into the addiction of top flight, whole-home audio, Sonos has got a deal for you. The smallest of the Sonos speakers, the Play:1, normally runs $199 a pop. However, as part of a limited time offer, Sonos is offering … Read more