Well, CES is just under five months away. I know that seems like a long time, but I’ve learned from experience that you do not want to wait until, say, November to try booking a hotel room. Not unless you’re made of money or want to stay on the other side of town and take a taxi to the show each day. Which is its own special hell, imagine literally thousands of people lining up for the taxi queue at the end of the show day, every day. You want to wait four hours for a cab? Be my guest. (Actually, tip - take one of the free shuttles to a con hotel, any one, and catch a cab there. Much quicker, but it still sucks.)

After five years running at CES I’ve decided on two important guidelines:
1. Book early.
2. If the hotel isn’t on a monorail stop, I’m not interested. (Seriously, since the monorail opened things are much better. Best way to get around.)

As you might have guessed, I just got around to registering for CES 2009 and booking my hotel. Once again I’m at the Sahara. Not the swankiest joint in Vegas, but it is on the monorail (and conveniently the other direction from the LVCC than most of the other hotels, which means most people are trying to pack into trains going the other way), the rooms are fine for me (I’m a man of simple needs - a clean room to crash in), and it is inexpensive. I’ve stayed at the Sahara the past couple of years. The Imperial Palace is also on a monorail stop and cheap, and I stayed there a few years ago, but frankly it was kind of nasty. The hallway carpeting was sticky and there was a funky odor. Ick.

This time around I’ve registered as Press/Blogger, though I have to see if Gizmo Lovers passes muster and they accept me. We’re no Engadget or Gizmodo, but I’d like to think we qualify. I’d like to be able to attend some of the press-only events that I couldn’t get into last year.

I’m looking forward to covering CES once again in January.

Another Blu-ray sale at Amazon, this time save 40-45% on select Blu-ray titles. And by select, they currently mean eight titles: Pan’s Labyrinth, Shoot’ Em Up, Rush Hour 3, Ocean’s Thirteen, Syriana, The Fountain, Mr. Woodcock, and Lady in the Water.

I’ve been really busy lately, so I didn’t cover the announcement a week ago that VUDU is bringing ‘adult entertainment’ to their box via a partnership with AVN (Adult Video News). That could boost interest in VUDU’s box, and could provide some competition for the adult-only FyreTV.

Now they’re following up on that with a deal they’re calling ‘99 for 99′. A rotating selection of 99 titles available to rent for just $.99 each. That blows away Amazon’s weekend sales, which generally only have an handful of titles for $.99, when they have any for that little. EngadgetHD has VUDU’s press release.

The Revision3 train continues to roll on TiVoCast. Today they’ve added Systm:

Systm is the Do It Yourself show designed for the common geek who wants to quickly and easily learn how to dive into the latest and hottest tech projects. We will help you avoid pitfalls and get your project up and running fast.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> Systm

And here’s an odd one. On the TiVoCast web page Wine Library TV is listed, not to be confused with Wine Library Reserve. But if you try to follow the link for Wine Library TV you get a 500 Server Error (at least you do as I write this). And it isn’t in the list on the TiVo itself. So perhaps someone jumped the gun and put it on the online listing too early, but it will be coming soon? That it is a mistake is reinforced by it being out of order in the list - the list is alphabetical, but it is at the bottom under Zipidee Action Sports.

In any case, keep them coming TiVo!

An article in today’s Australian IT which is mainly about high HDTV sales from retailer Harvey Norman and the boost from the Olympics contains a little tidbit about TiVo in Australia which has to put a smile on the faces of TiVo and Seven Network.

[Gerry Harvey] also revealed the TiVo digital recording device brought to Australia by the Seven Network had been a surprise hit.

Seven launched TiVo as a direct free-to-air counter to Foxtel’s IQ device and gave Harvey Norman exclusive rights to sell the product for the first six weeks.

Seven is supporting the TiVo with ads in high rotation during the Olympics.

“We have sold more than three times what I would have expected — and again, I think the Olympics have been a factor.

“I didn’t think TiVo would be a big seller. Sometimes you just never know.”

Selling more than three times that was expected sounds like good news to me. I’m looking forward to seeing some hard sales figures for TiVo in Australia eventually. I’ve seen various mentions in journals and blogs and the general reception from those buying them has been positive. The DVB-T platform seems to be working well, which gives some hope that TiVo will re-enter the UK market (where DVB-T is also used, commonly called Freeview) and also additional world markets where DVB-T is used.

TiVo’s fiscal 2Q09 ended July 31st, so it is time once again for their quarterly conference call. TiVo issued a press release today to announce it.

ALVISO, Calif., Aug 13, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced today that it will release financial results for the second quarter ended July 31, 2008 after the market closes on Wednesday, August 27, 2008.

TiVo will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its second quarter financial and operating results and guidance outlook for the third quarter at 2:00 pm P.T. (5:00 pm E.T.) on the same day. To listen to the discussion, please visit http://www.tivo.com/ir and click on the link provided for the webcast. The webcast will be archived and available through September 4, 2008.

I plan to listen in as usual.