Month: November 2005

By Davis Freeberg

It looks like TiVo’s foray into the portable market could be held up by Hollywood executives who feel that the technology threatens their non-existant VOD revenues. Apparently, TiVo was supposed to ask permission from all of the studios before they released a product that causes the market to innovate. What’s so amazing about this latest chapter in the TiVo saga is that even though executives want TiVo to work with them, Hollywood has been fighting TiVo from day one. Techdirt points out that last year, when they wanted to implement TiVo to Go, they were forced to plead with the FCC to allow it.

In an interview with Variety earlier this week, a NBC Universal spokesperson said

“This unilateral action creates the risk of legal conflict instead of contributing to the constructive exploitation of digital technology that can rapidly provide new and exciting experiences for the consumer.”

This is simply more proof that Hollywood is scared to death of the TiVo effect. Since they haven’t figured out a way to “exploit” TiVo for their gain, they must instead come up with solutions like product placements and shifting the start of their programs to 9:04 pm instead of at 9 o’clock (heaven forbid that someone be allowed to watch a show on two networks in the same night ) Seems awful strange to me that they are telling Madison Avenue that the PVR is the best thing since sliced bread, while they are continuing to come up with ways to isolate their audience. In all fairness to Hollywood there were a few studios that did express some interest in supporting the product. In the Variety article Kevin Tsujihara of Warner Brothers came out and said “In addition to focusing on the legal issues, it’s also important to focus on the fact that consumers are saying this is the kind of thing they want.” While it’s encouraging to see that Warner Brothers is at least a little cool, I wonder if there attitude stays the same when consumers figure out how bad their Start Over service really is.

eHomeUpgrade | Windows Media Center PC in Your Car Dashboard Developing an in car Media Center PC should be top on the list for Microsoft. eHomeUpgrade has a story on a prototype put together by a tech-savy junkie that includes a very cool 7″ touchscreen and 802.11g wireless networking.

This in-car Media Center PC of tomorrow should do the following:

1. Synch wirelessly and by hard drive swap your digital media from your home Media Center PC.

2. Have a GPS system.

3. Have DVD playback for the kids and support multiple monitors in the back seat.

4. Be able to play television shows that you record at home.

5. And MOST important contain a gps tracking chip that cannot be removed without destroying the device inside the device that would allow you to track it should it ever be stolen.

6. The ability to plug into an XBox 360 for in car gaming.

I currently have a Pioneer in-car entertainment center (well actually my third Pioneer in-car entertaniment center as the first two were ripped off) that includes a DVD player for the kids and GPS. It is basically a piece of junk and an expensive piece of junk at that. Microsoft could totally own this market.

Where do I want to go today? Well, the real question is where do I HAVE to go today — and I guess that’s to Costco, but it sure would be a nicer drive with my mp3s in the front seat while my kids are watching their DVDs in the back.

My so-called online life: “Personally, I have 4 different IM clients currently on my desktop, 6 different email addresses where I recieve (currently) an average of 500 messages per day, several blogs to keep up, 150 blogs in my aggregator (often with several hundred posts per day to read), groups to follow (and that I run) on Upcoming and Flickr, and several different ‘vanity searches’ to do several times a day to determine where the buzz is at. Somewhere in between here, I have a life offline, but more and more I’m finding myself feeling naked without an internet connection wherever I go. I rely on these new communications mediums so heavily that picking up the phone and dialing is my last resort to finding information.”

Yep. Yep. And then there are podcasts to listen to and podcasts to record yourself, stuff to watch that’s been saved on your TiVo, digtial mp3 libraries to maintain, new technologies to try, etc. etc.

Whew!

Slashdot | TiVo Plans RFID-Aware PVR

by Davis Freeberg

In an interview with Reuters out this morning, Chairman of CBS, Les Moonies announced that they are in talks with Google Video to provide digital copies of their hit shows like Survivor, CSI & my favorite new show of the season, Threshold.

In the interview he also said that CBS is working with DirectTV to provide VOD copies of their shows to their subscribers. Previously, CBS has announced plans on offering their shows for 99 cents a piece via Comcast and DirecTV. While I can applaud DirectTV for trying to come up with a strategy to compete with Comcast’s VOD programming, It’s still not enough to ever make me a customer. DirectTV has consistently restricted their users from enjoying the true television experience. Whether it was getting rid of the home media support for the TiVo boxes or their decision to turn off Tom’s East coast feed, they’ve consistently restricted the abilities for consumers to enrich their television experience. My advice for Les Moonies is to make sure you watch your back.

In a seperate announcement, they have also teamed up with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to provide hours of interviews to web surfers. While they intend to keep the programming advertising free for the time being, they are clearly keeping their options open.

“Google Video in its current form does not position advertising along with content, and while the new version will at first remain ad-free, Feikin said Google will consider advertising at some point. “We’re looking at all the ways that it might be appropriate to add advertising,” she explained.

At the moment, publishers are permitted to include advertising in any form with the video they upload to Google Video. Feikin would not say whether or not publishers will always have that luxury. “Right now,” she said, “publishers can show whatever they want, including advertising.”

BuzzMachine: So bright From Jeff Jarvis: “Brightcove, Jeremy Allaire’s new video-serving company, had lots of big news today: investments from AOL, Barry Diller’s IAC, Hearst, and Allen & Co. They also made a deal with AOL to distribute its video there.”

Brightcove is one of the exciting new internetworks being created to distribute internet TV. I visited with Jeremy last April back when he did an interview with thomashawk.com.

Congratulations Jeremy to you and your team.

Best Buy XBox 360 Inventory Locator

Michael Gartenberg: The Xbox Live Arcade Experience, Xbox 360, It’s about the Games, and my favorite of course, Xbox 360, the Media Side. “As soon as you turn on the Xbox, you’ll get notice on your MCE. Just follow the directions and download the new version of the extender software and you’ll be good to go. How does it work? Rather well. Video is clean clear, the overall experience feels much more like the native MCE experience and I had no problem using online features like MTV.com and Newsgator over the Extender. HiDef content streamed (for the first time ever on a an extender) and it’s a real value add for Xbox owners with MCE machines. There’s no doubt that 360 is the extender strategy at MSFT for the time being.”

BBC News: Q&A; on the XBox 360: “Under the hood even bigger changes have been made. The raw processing power of the Xbox 360 is many times greater than the original console. Estimates of how much more powerful it is vary between two and 10 times as powerful. The power boost is due to the Xbox 360 having three processing cores to the original’s one.”

Microsoft Monitor: The Best Strategy to Get an XBox 360. “Here is our recommendation, if you want to buy an Xbox 360 tonight or tomorrow: Stay away from the small electronics stores because their units are probably already reserved, but your chances are good if you are willing to wait in line at a large store such as Best Buy or Walmart. In addition, you probably don’t even have to be at the store early in the morning and our Best Buy source told us that the launch should be comparable to a previous gaming blockbuster, the Sony PSP. “For our Sony PSP launch, we still had some units at the end of the first day,” he said.”

Seattle PI: Gates at XBox Launch. “The Bellevue Best Buy where Gates appeared clearly provided the best shot in the Seattle region of landing one of the consoles. I counted at least 275 console boxes stacked around the store. As noted in our story, many other stores received initial shipments numbering in the teens.”

Major Nelson: XBox 360 Commercials. “MajorNelson now has links to all of the 360 commercials including the “bang” ad previously released only for internet and cinema audiences.”

The Unoffical Google Weblog: XBox 360 Fanboy opens. And the empire gets bigger and bigger.

XBox 360 Fanboy: XBox’s Corporate Celebrities: “But the Xbox team have become what Dean Takehashi calls “executive rockstars.” J Allard and Peter Moore took the stage at Zero Hour in front of a crowd of screaming fans and Takehashi noted, “In 17 years of journalism, I’ve never seen somebody ask a vice president for an autograph.” It’s like Beatlemania for nerds.”

Associated Press: Gates: Xbox 360 Key to Microsoft Strategy. “Analyst Rob Enderle said the move to more closely link Xbox Live with Windows Live intends to bolster loyalty to Microsoft products. Microsoft “can tie that stuff together so that you as a customer become wedded to the Microsoft platform for everything you do,” he said.

Microsoft also is attempting to more closely tie Xbox 360 to the rest of its universe by trying to make it a conduit for other entertainment activities such as watching high-definition TV, looking at family photos and listening to music.

Xbox 360 can do some of those tasks itself, and it also can function as an “extender” that links to a PC running Microsoft’s entertainment-centric
Windows XP Media Center Edition.

“In the living room itself, Xbox 360 is our centerpiece and a product that redefines what goes on there,” Gates said.”

Alice Hill: Nearly 6,000 Xbox 360 Game Systems Available for Pre-Sale on eBay. “Here comes the avalanche of Xbox 360 news. Our favorite story: the shortage is making the Xbox 360 mighty popular on eBay. You can even see for yourself. We count over 6,000 units currently up for pre-sale auction – far better than the paltry 50 units per store doled out here in San Francisco.”

Gizmodo: XBox 360, SOLD to the Boy in the Stained Shirt. “I currently have 5,000 of them in my basement and at the rate they’re going on Ebay, I can expect a tidy return on my money in the next few years. I mean look at this: a box that will sell for $199 next Christmas is going for $2000. Buy low, sell high, I always say.”

Label Life: Xbox 360 can download music, movies too. “Microsoft expects to sell $1.5 billion worth of Xbox 360 hardware and software in the first 90 days, including about 3 million consoles. Microsoft executives have said previously that they hope to sell 10 million consoles within 12 to 16 months.”

Joystiq: Joystiq’s massive Xbox 360 launch weekend blowout: the aftermath. “Whatever it is you’re looking for, chances are we’ve got you covered.”

Joystiq: Vox populi: Xbox 360 campers explain themselves. “Mike – college student: “I’m waiting outside of target greatland in the rain, for xbox 360, gonna wait about 7 more hours, and basically it’s because I’m addicted to Madden, and it looks completely insane on that system, the graphics, gameplay. I’m just gonna sit out here, and then probably just play it until I can’t play it anymore. Gonna get one game, and then play the shit out of it.””

Smash My XBox 360: “After we collect $430 in donations, we will take that money to a local unspecified retailer, which opens at 12am on the launch date. We will purchase the Xbox 360, and destroy it in front of the other Xbox fanboys who are already waiting in line. We will try to be at the very front of the line. The whole thing will be shot on film, and displayed on this site. This is only a social experiment, for the entertainment of the donors, and visitors of this site.”

hiptechblog.com: Even Paris Hilton Has Got A Xbox 360: “So much buzz around Xbox 360, please do bear with me! Along with some other stars (Black Eyed Peas, Snoop Dogg, etc) at the Hollywood Kick Off for the Xbox 360, Paris Hilton has gotten her hands on a Xbox 360!”

Gamespot News: Two 360s taken in Virginia armed robbery. “A Stafford, Virginia, Electronics Boutique store was the scene of an armed robbery this morning. According to sources, the perpetrator made off with two Xbox 360 systems, forcing the store manager to hand them over at gunpoint.”

Kotaku: XBox 360 Last Minute Buyer’s Guide. “Wal-Mart, where the devil himself shops for socks, is a pretty decent place to pick up a 360 if you don’t have
a preorder. Our sources are saying around 50 units per store total, but bear in mind those numbers tend to vary depending on the overall sales of each store. Wal-Mart’s the genital-crushing colossus of American retail, however, so Microsoft isn’t going to short them.”

MacWorld: Merrill Lynch: Users Likely to Prefer XBox360 over PS3. “The investment banker said Sony’s PS3 is an impressive machine, but the costly components inside could raise the price of a PS3 to around US$500 when it launches in the spring of 2006. By then, the Xbox 360 could be selling for US$249, Merrill Lynch estimated.”

The New York Times (bugmenot): New Xbox Goes on Sale at Midnight. Good Luck. “Microsoft is “trying to turn this into the Cabbage Patch Kids,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. He said he expected Microsoft to constantly publicize stories of stores that were sold out to inspire press coverage and water-cooler talk of when the next shipment would arrive. “It’s brilliant marketing.”

Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog: Microsoft’s Moore on XBox Supply. “”I’ve seen all of the conspiracy theories. Somewhere in Roswell, New Mexico, we have a hangar where we’re stockpiling it, creating false shortages. No. We are doing everything we can. … We’ve got people working 24-7, literally thousands of people that are trying to get as many units to retail as we possibly can. It’s a video-game console launch, demand always outstrips supply on day one and our goal is to try and catch up as quickly as possible. Put that conspiracy theory of holding back to create false supply shortages for demand ? Put it to bed. It’s ridiculous. … No, we’re not withholding inventory in any way. We wouldn’t be spending the money we’re spending on 747s as we’re currently doing, to bring them in all over the world as fast as we possibly can.””

Associated Press: Kid Get’s Jacked for New XBox. “A 17-year-old boy who was one of the first in this city to buy one of the much-anticipated new Xbox 360 video games was assaulted and robbed as he left the store, police say.

The boy was attacked by two males around 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, when stores nationwide began selling the new Xbox system. The attackers took the game valued at about $450 and fled on foot.”

Recognizing Deven: How Riya Recognition Works More on how Riya’s Photo facial recognition software works.