Dave Zatz: Two years after launching “Unbox” on TiVo (~$250), Amazon (AMZN) has finally rolled out HD video on demand. Early reports from various sources indicate excellent quality.
Mari Silbey: Adobe’s announcement to bring Flash to the living room is undoubtedly the biggest news out of this year’s NAB show. While much of the focus of the annual event put on by the National Association of Broadcasters goes to the business of producing content, there are always a few flashy tech demos in the mix as well.
Mari Silbey: Get used to it. We’re going to be talking about bandwidth caps for a long time to come. To sum up the latest happenings, Time Warner Cable sparked fresh outrage with the recent news that it would be testing consumption-based billing beyond Beaumont Texas.
Dave Zatz: Later this week, Digeo will unveil two interest-free Moxi HD DVR ($799, no fees) payment plans. While I would have preferred to see a straight up price cut, this may may reduce the sticker shock for some and/or make the device more accessible.
Dave Zatz: I was away on a business trip when Zeevee launched their re-branded “Zinc” multimedia front-end for Windows. However, CEO Vic Odryna was kind enough to still pass me a pre-release Mac OS X build to play with.
Dave Zatz: The embargo-phobic Michael Arrington, of TechCrunch fame, may have staged a “Crunchpad” leak to build buzz for his upcoming web tablet. I appreciate the economical and minimalistic hardware project goals. However, the relatively quaint notion of a single function Internet device may not fly in 2009.
Dave Zatz: I had pretty high hopes for my recent HP MediaSmart (EX485, ~$500) acquisition but, after a fun-filled day of disaster recovery, I’m second guessing my purchase.
Dave Zatz: Back at CES, EchoStar came clean with their Sling Media acquisition intentions in announcing the “SlingLoaded” platform – part DVR, part Slingbox.
Dave Zatz: Randall Bennett, who you may recognize from Engadget and CNET, has independently launched an online video show called TechVi. In addition to hosting a panel riffing on recent tech events, Randall landed his first interview early this week with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen.
Mari Silbey: It takes money to distribute video online – encoding, storage, management, and actual delivery – which makes short work of the dollars online advertising and download fees do bring in.
Dave Zatz: At CES, I spent some time checking out the promising Pogoplug ($80) – which is both a device and a service. The small Linux device, available next month, turns any USB drive into both local and remote networked storage.
Dave Zatz: The first half of Apple’s presentation was geared towards developers and hardware partners, introducing support for new payment and device connectivity options. Both of which had me drawing comparisons to Xbox Live.
Mari Silbey: Apple is making hay again with yet another news announcement: A very very tiny [iPod] Shuffle with 4GB of storage and a talking interface… Right off the bat I see a lot of things I don’t like about the new music player.
Dave Zatz: After reading my post wondering where Amazon VOD in HD is, multiple sources have confirmed for me that TiVo’s implementation is currently in testing. While I still don’t have concrete timing details, and suspect we’re waiting on Amazon.com at this point, I’m told video quality is outstanding.
Mari Silbey: GiiNii was perhaps the biggest surprise out of CES in January. The company seemed to appear out of nowhere with a brilliant line-up of CE devices including C-U-C-Me cameras, PixPlus Wi-Fi photo frames, and a touch-screen, Android-based handheld called the Movit Mini (think iPod Touch with an Android OS).
Dave Zatz: Meet the new BD-P1600 ($299.99), one of Samsung’s CES Blu-ray player announcements. This relatively slim piano black deck slipped into many Best Buys around the country over the last few days.
Mari Silbey: Last week Slacker sent me some accessories to try including a G2 dock, car charger, and arm band. They’re all available online for under $30 along with an FM transmitter (for the car) priced at $39.99.
Dave Zatz: CBS may have recently lost out on Hulu content, but they’re pressing forward with their re-imagined TV.com initiative. And, yesterday, they introduced a free TV.com iPhone app.
Dave Zatz: When one door closes, bust through a window? OS X users still seeking a Hulu fix after the Boxee run-in should download the new version of Plex.
Mari Silbey: I’ve been virtually absent from ZNF for the last two weeks, and my backlog of posts is growing out of control. So, in an attempt to catch up, here are a few related items I’ve found interesting of late.
Dave Zatz: If you collect as many gadgets as I do, it’s inevitable a percentage will outlive their usefulness. Which is why LifeHacker’s recent coverage of Best Buy’s expanded recycling program is nicely timed.
Dave Zatz: Roxio Streamer is a brand new app that hooks into their OS X Toast 10 software ($80) to transcode and stream transferred TiVo video, EyeTV recordings, and a variety of other media from Mac to iPhone or iPod Touch over WiFi.
Mari Silbey: Although we’ve seen some minor attempts by cable operators to let subscribers place-shift their TV programs – witness Comcast’s Any Room initiative – for the most part cable TV customers are stuck watching their shows in one place. Today several news outlets are reporting that the big cable companies have a plan in the works to change that.
Dave Zatz: I sort of figured this day would come… Based on my perception of the licensing/royalty complexities and content providers fear that a current web video catalog piped to the television competes with live broadcasts. Hulu has shown their true colors – spawned of big media and beholden to big media.
Dave Zatz: In choosing a broadband card and service, most modern 3G hardware should be fine. Assuming you can get a good deal (which you usually can), the key factors in making a decision are access, coverage, and contract terms.
Dave Zatz: With improving sales and increased consumer awareness of network-sourced content, perhaps AppleTV will graduate from “hobby” status later this year. At the very least, Apple’s showing a bit of life around this initiative by distributing a customer survey.
Dave Zatz: CES is a huge event, so it’s no surprise we might have overlooked a few hidden gems… such as the Mobile Manager for Netflix demo-ed at CntrStg. As you might expect, given the app’s name, Mobile Manager for Netflix allows you to manage your queue(s) and see the discs you have at home.
Dave Zatz: One of the most frequent requests I received while employed by Sling Media came from small businesses and higher-end home owners looking for more enterprise-esque video monitoring with placeshifting features, but at reasonable prices. While Sling hasn’t yet acted on this demand, video analytics firm Cernium answers the call next week with the release of Archerfish.
Dave Zatz: We knew Amazon Video on Demand was headed to Roku’s media streamer ($99) early this year. And now, via their forums, we have word that the service has entered private beta.
Dave Zatz: Earlier this week, I received Rogue Amoeba’s periodic email newsletter. Among other things, I learned they’re pretty far along on Pulsar – an OS X app that allows you to stream XM or Sirius online radio stations.
Dave Zatz: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings previously and repeatedly seemed to indicate they’d never introduce a pay-per-view video download model or higher tiers of video streaming. However, it looks like that topic has been reopened for discussion. In a customer survey going around, Netflix wonders if we’d pay an additional $10 a month to stream “HBO original series and movies.”
Dave Zatz: While I’m not quite ready to speculate on Sling Media’s future retail presence and hardware initiatives, in light of recent defections, we do have a few clues as to their current mobile strategy.
Dave Zatz: We’ve finally seen some definitive proof that Sirius XM will begin charging for online streaming ($3/mo), Pandora has brought audio advertising into their web player/experience, and Apple, along with their studio partners, is implementing variable track pricing. Obviously, there’s also a sizable contingent of people who feel free to help themselves. In light of this, I’m wondering what folks think is a reasonable cost for music.
Mari Silbey: Chances are reasonably high that you’ve never heard of FrameChannel. Wireless photo frames are still new in consumer adoption terms, and the idea of a content provider for these frames is a bit counter-intuitive. (Aren’t you just supposed to put your own pics on them?) Nonetheless, FrameChannel is expanding rapidly.
Todd Barnard: Some of the most influential people in social media recently attended a DiSo meeting to discuss the future of how their users’ activity will be published. One of the points discussed during the event was that activity streams are not just generated by people but that machines can also broadcast what they’re doing.
Dave Zatz: The biggest story of CES, given our focus here at ZNF, was the unveiling of Yahoo’s Internet TV platform. Of course, just as meaningful as the technology itself, are the multiple heavy hitting partners signed to deploy it beginning this spring.
Dave Zatz: The Boy Genius is out with his top ten iPhone annoyances. While several can be filed as minutiae that won’t bother most folks to any great extent, I’ve yet to meet the perfect handset. The iPhone is no different, possessing a variety of quirks and limitations.
Dave Zatz: The Boxee team, flush with cash and excellent exposure, is seeking feedback on the prospect of directly embedding their experience into a hardware platform.
Mari Silbey: Tech specs are still fuzzy, but what we do know is that this is a POTS-based cordless phone system with a touchscreen for Internet access and integration with Verizon wireless and VoIP phone services. It’s meant to act as a digital photo frame, note board, family calendar, and widget station all at once.
Dave Zatz: Roxio Streamer is a brand new app that hooks into their OS X Toast 10 software ($80) to transcode and stream transferred TiVo video, EyeTV recordings, and a variety of other media from Mac to iPhone or iPod Touch over WiFi.
