You are eligible for an early upgrade if:

• You have a TiVo Premiere series DVR (TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Premiere Elite)
• You are a TiVo retail customer (e.g., you did not get your TiVo box through your cable company.

The software isn’t being deployed just yet, but you can reserve your spot in the queue now.

What’s in this version:
1. Resolution Support for WXGA (1280×800), 1024×600 and 960×540
2. Added Exit Button on Menu option
3. Performance and Stability Fixes

The Exit Button, or lack thereof, is something a number of people had complained about so that should make some of you happy. And if you had issues with the app before, it might be worth trying again to see if the fixes resolved your issue.

Now, TiVo, while we’re waiting for the official tablet version of the app, why don’t you let us use this on our tablets? You have WXGA support now! 1280×800 is the resolution of nearly all Android tablets. And we know it runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich already, as it works on ICS phones. It would be better than nothing. Then later you can release one Android app that works on both tablets and phones, as developers should. (I’m looking at you Sling. You and your separate $30 apps for tablets and phones.)

Now, just to get this out of the way, the Android app is slated to get these features in ‘summer’. And the long-awaited Android tablet app should finally arrive in ‘spring’. TiVo, please, release one Android app that runs on all Android devices – the Android SDK supports it. It is silly when we get multiple apps for different devices. So, my fellow Android users, be patient.

One of the most notable changes is the new Browse UI:

There’s also a lot more usability to the app when you’re away from home. For S4 users you can see and modify My Shows, the To Do List, and the Season Pass Manager. S3 users can view (but not modify) their To Do List, and view & modify their Season Pass Manager.

You can also now create a WishList Search from within the app. And when you re-order you Season Passes you can continue to use the app without waiting for the list to finish re-prioritizing. And all of the images in the app are now ‘retina’ quality, just in time for the new iPad. Here’s the complete list of improvements:

What’s New in Version 1.9
New features for iPad:
-Graphical full-screen Browse experience that makes it much faster and easier to find new shows and movies
-Collapsible folders

New features for iPhone:
-Added new retina images for iPhone displays

Other new features for both iPad and iPhone:
-Added “Keep Until I Delete” option for shows in My Shows
-Added recording options for shows set to record in the To Do List
-Create WishList for shows that aren’t airing right now
-Added My Shows, To Do List, Season Pass manager capability in Away mode for Series4 DVRs
-Added To Do List/Season Pass manager capability for Series3 DVRs
-Make Away mode more resilient to network drops
-Can use app while Season Pass recordings are reprioritizing
-Added new icons to My Shows
-Add live TV padding notification when recording a live event on TV
-Added Facebook single sign-on for easier Facebook login

Multiple performance enhancements and bug fixes including:
-Guide scrolling ahead by days bug fixed
-Allow background music to continue playing while using the app

*For DVR Discovery issues, please make sure your router firmware is up to date or contact customer support if you are still having problems

Now, as an Android-only household, I can’t wait to see these improvements on my devices.

Firefox 4 and later, Chrome 6 and later, and Opera 10.60 and later have native support for WebM video. IE9 will play WebM with an extension. Android has had native WebM support since 2.3 Gingerbread. WebM is a combination of the VP8 video codec, which Google acquired when they purchased On2 Technologies, the Vorbis open source audio codec, and the Matroska container format. It is designed from the ground up to be optimized for the web, and Google has released all of the patents so it is free and open for anyone to use. And it really is a solid format.

But WebM has struggled to overcome the lead held by H.264, the most popular format for online video. H.264, which is a short way of saying MPEG-4 Part 10 or MPEG-4 AVC, is a patent encumbered video format. Using H.264 requires paying royalties through the MPEG LA, which is why Mozilla resisted supporting it in their products. But H.264 is so ubiquitous that they’ve decided they must support it just to remain relevant in the browser market. Without H.264 support they felt that they’d effectively be locking themselves out of the market.

One of the biggest obstacles for WebM is Apple. Apple has long been a strong backer of H.264 and that’s the native format for all of the iProducts, as well as QuickTime. Apple has not implemented WebM in any of their iProducts, nor in their Safari browser. And with the large and growing usage of mobile devices, and Apples strong share of that market, it pretty much forces content providers to use H.264. While they could provide both WebM and H.264, as YouTube does, most providers simply stick with just H.264 as it is effectively universal. Apple has a horse in the race – they’re one of the patent holders behind H.264, so they’re not keen on any royalty free alternative dethroning it. Microsoft is also one of the patent holders, which may help explain why IE9 lacks native support as well.

There is some hope as the W3C is considering making WebM support a requirement under the HTML 5 standards effort. It is considered beneficial to have one universal, royalty free format that authors could count on. But, of course, companies like Apple & Microsoft are resisting the standardization effort. If it goes through they’d be forced to either implement WebM in their products or stop claiming to be HTML 5 compliant.

Coincidentally with the recent hubbub, StreamingMedia.com posted a video of Google’s John Luther and Matt Frost’s session on WebM at the recent HTML5 Video Summit in Los Angeles. It is an interesting look at just what WebM is, the goals behind it, and where the team is heading. Check it out:

Early in the presentation you may have noticed that they play a video for the audience, off camera. Based on the audio I believe this is the video they played:

I’d love to get a copy of their slides, it is an interesting presentation – for very geek values of interesting, of course.

Anyway, they’ve now launched an actual Embedded SlingPlayer, which you see here:

Actually, that’s one of two options, called the Launch Pad. That pops open the player in a new window, and it is designed for embedding within blogs and such with limited width – like this one – as it is 500×200. The other option is the Full Player, which is just what it sounds like, and is 768×800. You can get the code to include it in your own page from their page.

It is Flash-based, and should work in any Flash-enabled browser on any platform, including Linux – and likely on any set top boxes, gaming consoles, etc., which will run Flash. Go head, give it a try and leave a comment.

Starting with the next software update, 21.x, which is expected in the spring (late-April or early-May), there are a few things TiVo is willing to confirm. (I’ve touched on this release before.) Aside from general polish, more screens being moved into the HD UI, bug fixes – aka the usual – the biggest news is probably the long awaited update to two streaming clients: Netflix and YouTube.

The TiVo Netflix app is getting a complete overhaul – or, rather, a replacement. The new app is actually written by Netflix and integrated by TiVo, using TiVo’s Adobe Air-based SDK. It will provide a completely modern Netflix experience, on par with other devices. TiVo says it will be similar to the Netflix client found on the Insignia Connected TV with TiVo Design, but not exactly the same.

YouTube is also getting a new client, which will be radically different. The new client will implement the YouTube ‘lean back’ style interface, and is probably most similar to the version found on Google TV. YouTube created the ‘lean back’ UI especially for home entertainment implementations, where you ‘lean back’ as opposed to ‘leaning forward’ over your computer keyboard, so this should be a nice improvement.

I did ask about an update for the Amazon app, but it will not be part of the next update. TiVo recognizes there is demand for support of the free Amazon Prime streaming in Amazon Instant Video, but to implement it they need to work with Amazon. Currently they’re in “active discussions” with Amazon about the implementation, but they can’t yet say when it might happen. But know that it is on their radar. They did want to stress that the TiVo app does have access to the complete Amazon Instant Video library via downloads, it is only the streaming that is currently missing.

I also asked about Spotify support for the US. TiVo queried US customers about interest in Spotify last July, and the Virgin Media TiVo units in the UK got Spotify in November, but there is still no sign of it in the US. TiVo doesn’t have an official comment on this at this time, aside from acknowledging the interest. Personally I think it is on the road map but they’re not ready to talk about it yet.

Something else that is coming in the next release is parental controls in the HD UI. Until now customers who wanted to enable parental controls needed to switch to the SD UI, so this is likely a welcome change for parents. This did, unsurprisingly, spark a discussion on TiVo KidZone and the future thereof. At this time there are no plans to bring TiVo KidZone to the HD UI. There are ongoing discussions within TiVo about the future of KidZone in general, and what form it might take, if it remains at all.

I got the impression that KidZone was never a high demand item and the justification for devoting the engineering resources needed to bring it to the HD UI is difficult to make. We may see fancier parental controls instead of a special KidZone implementation. Or perhaps it is something that might be addressed via user-based folders (which we’ve seen teased in screen grabs in the past), by tying access to folders to the parental controls and only allowing the kids access to their own folder. But that’s just speculation on my part.

Looking further out I tried to get some info on the new SDK, but they’re not ready to discuss that just yet. They did confirm that it is Adobe Air with ActionScript 3.0 (at least for the initial release, it seems like other environments may be added in the future), and they are very serious about supporting developers. They’ve hired someone for a new position tied to the SDK, so it will have dedicated attention. I’m hoping it fares better than the old public HME SDK. This time around I think TiVo has more appreciation for the importance of third party apps.

We also discussed Jason Wong’s interview at last September’s IBC show. I’ve already covered the transcoder box and IP STB in previous posts. The other big item, to me at least, that Jason mentioned was DLNA support:“Yes, using DLNA and DLNA approved DRM like DTCP, but yes.” This sparked an interesting discussion. First of all, TiVo clarified that Jason’s comments were within the context of the European audience of the IBC show. European units support DTCP but not the entire DLNA standard.

The discussion was over whether it makes sense for TiVo to support DLNA on the US units. My stance is that yes, it does – especially as a DLNA client. While it would be nice to have TiVo as a DLNA server, I actually don’t see it being as useful for most users. There aren’t currently a lot of devices that would act as a DLNA client for a DTCP-IP protected stream. Down the road a bit I think this will be more useful, as more cable MSOs implement this tech, thereby driving more consumer devices (like smart TVs) to implement the client side.

But going back to my original point, I think it would be useful for TiVo to implement DLNA client capabilities. Right now getting media onto a TiVo from local sources is a bit of a pain in the ass. You have to install TiVo Desktop, or one of the third party tools like kmttg, Streambaby, or pyTiVo, just to get your music, photos, and/or video onto the TiVo for display. But many devices already have built in DLNA server support and it would be plug-and-play if TiVo would only connect to these existing servers.

To me a huge issue is that so many modern smartphones have built in DLNA support. Any of the content you have on your DLNA-enabled smartphone could be streamed wirelessly over the local network to a DLNA-enabled TiVo. No need for HDMI or MHL cables, or docks, etc. Just connect to the local LAN and away you go. This is possible with most connected TVs, but that’s still a small market. TiVo could be the gateway for this content for many consumers; I think that would be very useful. Not to mention making it easier to display content from your PC, NAS, etc.

I think we had a good discussion about DLNA support and I’m hopeful TiVo will give some serious thought toward implementing it, at least as a client to start. But they are interested in gauging the demand from the market in general, so how about it? Is DLNA support, client and/or server, something you’d like to see TiVo add? And why?

It isn’t quite the same as Chrome on the desktop, yet, but it is certainly a nice start. It provides a better experience as a daily browser than the Android browser, IMHO – which isn’t saying the Android browser is bad, Chrome is just better. Especially on the larger tablet screen, where the Android browser, evolved on phones, shows its limitations. Right now Chrome for Android is only available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, which fortunately both my phone and tablet run, so it isn’t yet available to the majority of Android users but I expect that will change.

It has some nice features too, like syncing your bookmarks and open tabs with the desktop. If you have a device running Android 4.0 I strongly recommend checking it out.

Android phones:

Android tablets:

Kindle Fire:

iPhone:

iPad:

Windows Phone 7:

Web:

There is now a TiVo Platform SDK page up on TiVo’s site where prospective developers can sign up to receive more information. As the page states:“The TiVo Platform SDK enables third-party developers to build applications for TiVo devices, and for websites, mobile and tablet applications that need to interact with TiVo devices and services.”

I’ve signed up for more information. We’ll have to see if they give me a peek since I’m a blogger and not really a developer (I’ve done software development professionally, but not for several years). But I presume that at some point they’ll want to get the word out if they’re serious about attracting 3rd party developers to the TiVo platform. I’ve been saying for years now that TiVo really needs to create an ecosystem around TiVo to make it ‘stickier’ for existing users and to give prospective customers more reasons to make the jump. I had high hopes for HME (Home Media Engine) back in the day, and it got off to a good start. But then TiVo pulled back from supporting the public API for HME and the updates stopped. HME became an internal-only development tool for TiVo and their partners. A lot has changed in the intervening years, within and without TiVo, so I’m hopeful this time things will be different.

The Android app looks much like the most recent update of the iOS version, and includes pretty much the same functionality. The app works with TiVo Series4 (Premiere family) and Series3 (S3/HD) units, though some of the features only work with the Premiere:

• Browse the channel guide without interrupting the show you’re watching – View shows up to 14 days in advance
• Schedule TV show/movie recordings and ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings
• Browse your recorded shows list and play a show from the App
• Find exactly what you want to watch – Search across TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video & Blockbuster —and see integrated results on Demand to find what you are looking for
• Explore cast and crew while watching a show
• Comment about what you’re watching on Facebook or Twitter
• Use a TiVo remote control replica or our intuitive, gesture-based remote control
• Manage your ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings and your To-Do List – Delete and reprioritize recordings for your favorite shows
• Instantly schedule, search and browse for shows while you’re away from home

If you have an Android device running 2.1 Froyo or later, grab it now.

Note that this only works with TiVo Series3 (S3/HD) and Series4 (Premiere) units. It does not work with the old Series1 or Series2 units, nor any DirecTV TiVo model. The description does explicitly state that it works with RCN & Suddenlink provided TiVo units – and I’d guess it also works for Grande Communications and Charter customers, but it’d be good to have confirmation of that. Also, you must enable the Network Remote Control feature under Settings & Messages -> Settings -> Remote, CableCard, & Devices -> Network Remote Control. Or whatever the path is on your specific model and software revision – just look for it under Settings. If you don’t have it enabled, the app cannot connect to your box.

On thing I want to call out, the app description says this is for your“Android phone or 7inch tablet”. That’s oddly specific. I don’t know why I wouldn’t work on a larger tablet, even if it isn’t fully optimized for them. Just as there are different versions of the iOS app for the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad there is probably a tablet-optimized version of the Android app. If you have a larger tablet and you give this a try, leave a comment about how it works for you. I’d also love to hear from Virgin Media TiVo users on whether this app works for you.

Some screenshots:

EDIT: TiVo published a video overview today:

Well, apparently TiVo took exception to this app, because it is gone from the Android Market. And, according to the creator in a post dated 11/29, this is due to a takedown request from TiVo on trademark grounds:

Late last night, TiVo sent a takedown request for this app to the Android Market, on trademark infringement claims. It was honored, and thus this app was removed.

Time will tell what happens to rectify this. If you have graphic design skills you could probably help me hasten that.

My reaction is simple – this sucks. TiVo has been promising an Android app for a long time now without delivering and it is really cool to have independent developers stepping up. This app is one of the best, which is why it has been so popular. It only works with the TiVo Premiere family and TiVo gives their apps away for free, so it isn’t like it is taking any revenue away from TiVo. If anything I’d think it might get more people to buy a TiVo since they can use their Android devices to control them.

As the author implies, the suspicion is that TiVo took issue with the use of their graphics. The application includes a very nice visual representation of the TiVo Remote, for example. But what does that mean for other apps, like VM TiVo Net Remote, which also use TiVo graphics? It is a shame that TiVo would go this route, but if this is the root of the issue then at least the solution should be simple – replace the graphics. An alternative is to use an original interface as TiVoNetRemote for Windows Phone has. Did EchoStar/Sling Media license the TiVo graphics for SlingPlayer? How about Monsoon Multimedia for HAVA/Vulkano?

I’ve reached out to TiVo to see if they have an official statement on the takedown – why it was done, and if they might be going after other apps as well. I’ll post their response if & when I receive it.

In the meantime there is a bit of good news, the app is still available for direct download. So you can sideload it on your Android device even though you can’t get it through the market. And I’m sure that even if this avenue goes away the .apk file will find new homes on the net, especially now that this has happened. But I recommend downloading it right now, just in case. You can always keep the .apk file around to install it later, if & when you need it.

I’ve posted about software available for US units before, here and here, and on TiVo’s blog, and these apps work with the VM TiVo; but now there is a 3rd party remote control app for Windows .Net specifically for the VM TiVo: VM TiVo Net Remote. It is much more feature-rich than the Python-based TiVoRemote that’s been out for US machines for a while.

I can confirm that it does work with US units, I connected to the Premiere Elite I have for review and it worked as expected. Except for the TV guide, nothing displayed when I selected ‘Show TV Guide’. The window expanded, but it was blank. This is probably hard coded for the UK devices. There is also a default channel list, but that’s stored as a text file that you can edit to match your lineup.

What’s really nice is that anything you type while in the remote window is sent to the TiVo. It makes text entry a breeze. There are also shortcut keys to navigate with:
Following Shortcut keys provide the following functions
CTRL+H - Home
CTRL+T - TV
CTRL+G - TV Guide
CTRL+P - Play
CTRL+S - Stop
CTRL+M - My Shows
CTRL+V - Pause
CTRL+R - Record
CTRL+L - Last Channel
CTRL+I - Info
CTRL+U - Thumbs Up
CTRL+D - Thumbs Down
CTRL+F - Skip
CTRL+B - Skip Back
CTRL+X - Slow
CTRL+LEFT - Rewind
CTRL+RIGHT - Fast Forward
ARROW KEYS - Left/Right/Up/Down
ENTER - OK
DELETE - Clear
+ - Channel Up
- - Channel Down
1 to 9 - Send corresponding Number
A to Z - Send corresponding Key when in a text search (Search TV, YouTube search etc.)

You can click on the image of the TiVo remote in the app to send commands as well, very much like using a Slingbox. The image of the remote is the UK version, but it is close enough that US users shouldn’t have any trouble.

Perhaps some US-based developer could contact the creator, Andy Wheeler, and work with him to create a localized version for the US. What’d really be nice is to see some of the features from the Android TiVo Commander app brought to other platforms. But that’s not to denigrate the work Andy has done. This is a brand new app – version 0.3 was just released on Sunday – and he’s been improving it quickly. He has a thread at TiVoCommunity.com for feedback.

Via the Virgin Media High Definition & TiVo Services blog.

But the deals are still good.

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Remember, Roxio is the only officially endorsed third party software for use with TiVo & TiVoToGo. And the only sanctioned solution at all for MacOS, since there isn’t a TiVo Desktop Plus for Mac. This is a limited time holiday sale, so act now.

We propose a method to realistically insert synthetic objects into existing photographs without requiring access to the scene or any additional scene measurements. With a single image and a small amount of annotation, our method creates a physical model of the scene that is suitable for realistically rendering synthetic objects with diffuse, specular, and even glowing materials while accounting for lighting interactions between the objects and the scene. We demonstrate in a user study that synthetic images produced by our method are confusable with real scenes, even for people who believe they are good at telling the difference. Further, our study shows that our method is competitive with other insertion methods while requiring less scene information. We also collected new illumination and reflectance datasets; renderings produced by our system compare well to ground truth. Our system has applications in the movie and gaming industry, as well as home decorating and user content creation, among others.

The video below illustrates the system and several examples. It looks like something even a novice could use without much practice.

Via jwz’s blog.

Like most of the other apps, TiVoNetRemote works with the TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and the TiVo Premiere family via the Network Remote Control feature. Also like the other apps, it includes a keyboard for easy text entry, like the TiVo Slide Remote. If you have a Windows Phone that’s been upgraded to 7.5, or you buy one of the new 7.5 devices, and you have a TiVo, it is worth checking the apps out. And there is a free trial version if you can’t bear to part with two bucks.

App screenshots:

Via WMPowerUser.com.

Roxio is the only official endorsed third party software for use with TiVo & TiVoToGo. And the only sanctioned solution at all for MacOS, since there isn’t a TiVo Desktop Plus for Mac. Here are the discounts once last time, for your convenience:

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Note that since I originally posted those links Roxio Creator 2012 and Roxio Creator 2012 Pro launched at the end of August and they also have a $20 savings.

Enjoy!

Taking this a giant step further, at the CTIA conference which kicks off this week, Myriad will be demonstrating their Alien Dalvik 2.0 software. This allows Android apps to be run on other platforms – smart TVs, non-Android mobile phones, e-books, automotive systems, avionics, and tablets – including Apple’s iPad. In fact, they’ll be demonstrating Android apps running on an iPad at the show.

Alien Dalvik 2.0 is the first step towards creating a single app standard and marks yet another key milestone for Myriad Android innovations. Alien Dalvik 2.0 enables the majority of Android apps to run unmodified using Android Package (APK) files. This in turn allows app store owners and publishers to quickly transcend multiple platforms and screens, leveraging existing software and middleware, all without compromising performance. Furthermore, Alien Dalvik 2.0 enables developers to create once and use many times, while allowing operators, OEMs, and even enterprise to streamline app rollout – taking the headache out of platform fragmentation and content management.

Read the full press release for more. They haven’t released any videos of Alien Dalvik 2.0, but here’s one of the original Alien Dalvik release running Android apps on a Nokia N900:

Amazon today launched three new Kindle models, the base Kindle, the Kindle Touch (also in 3G), and the Kindle Fire. The existing Kindle Keyboard (and 3G) and Kindle DX remain available for now. You can compare the different models by clicking on the image to the right.

The base model, known simple as Kindle, has a 6″ 600×800 sixteen shades of grey E-Ink display with 2GB of memory, 1.25GB user available. It measures 6.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.34″ and weights 5.98 ounces. It has 802.11b/g/n networking and USB connectivity. It does not have 3G. It is 30% lighter and 18% smaller than the old model, but a lot of that savings comes from not having a keyboard. Text input requires using the D-pad and buttons to scroll around and on-screen keyboard and selecting one letter at a time. It is really a read-only device. It is available at two price points – “with special offers” (aka advertising) for $79.00 and without for $109.00.

The Kindle Touch has the same 6″ 600×800 sixteen shades of grey E-Ink display, but, as you might have guessed from the name, it is a touch screen. As such the Kindle Touch does away with the D-Pad and buttons and relies on the screen for input.

The Kindle Touch also adds audio with built in speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack, which allows for music playback, audio books, and text-to-speech. It measures 6.8″ x 4.7″ x 0.40″ and weighs 7.5 ounces. Connectivity is via 802.11b/g/n and USB. Total storage is 4GB with 3GB user available. It is also available at two price points – $99.00 with special offers, and $139.00 without.

If you need connectivity on the go there is also the Kindle Touch 3G. It has all of the features of the Kindle Touch, with the addition of 3G support. It uses HSDPA, with a fall-back to EDGE/GPRS, on AT&T’s network in the US. It is slightly heavier at 7.8 ounces, but everything else is the same. It is slightly more expensive – $149.00 with special offers and $189.00 without.

Of course the big story of the day, the one everyone was anticipating, is the release of Amazon’s new ‘Android Tablet’, the Kindle Fire. There has been a lot of speculation and hype about this, and a lot of high expectations – and a lot of people may be disappointed. This is not and iPad competitor, let alone an iPad killer. I wouldn’t even call this an Android Tablet, because that implies a lot that is not true about this device. This is not an Android tablet, this is a media access device closely linked with Amazon’s ecosystem, that just happens to be built on top of Android. It is not aimed at the iPad, it is aimed at the Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor.

As a generic Android tablet it would be fairly limited. It measures 7.5″ x 4.7″ x 0.45″ and weighs 14.6 ounces. It has a 1GHz dual-core CPU, an unknown amount of RAM, a 7″ 1024×600 color LCD touchscreen, only 8GB of storage that is not expandable (no microSD), and 802.11b/g/n. It has no cameras, no HDMI, no GPS, no 3G/4G, and no Bluetooth. And it is based Android 2.3 Gingerbread, not Android 3.0 Honeycomb. But, as I said, that’s not what this is. The user interface looks nothing like Android, it is a completely custom UI designed for Amazon’s services. There are no home screens, no widgets, no notification bar, nothing you’d expect from Android. Instead there is a ‘bookshelf’ interface that shows you books, media, and apps.

Yes, there are apps. There is no access to the Android Market, but, unsurprisingly, you can acquire apps from the Amazon App Store. It is all part of Amazon’s end to end integration. You buy your books from the Kindle Store, your music from Amazon’s MP3 store, and your videos from Amazon Instant Video. And yes, the free Amazon Prime streaming videos are supported. You only need 8GB of storage because you have unlimited storage in Amazon’s cloud for all content you acquire for Amazon – another way they encourage you to stay on the reservation.

If you want a tablet to use for productivity and general computing on the go, this is not the device for you. Buy a full fledged Android tablet and install the Amazon App Store, the Kindle App, the Amazon MP3 App, etc. You’ll have access to the same content, just not the integrated Amazon UI.

If you’re a heavy Amazon content user and you want a high-end portable media player that only costs $199.00, check out the Kindle Fire. It will be available November 15, 2011 and pre-orders are open now.

But do note that, while it bears the Kindle brand, it sacrifices most of the advantages of the other kindle devices. Since it uses a color LCD display instead of greyscale E-Ink battery life is measured in hours – 8 hours of reading or 7.5 hours of video – instead of the 1-2 months for the other devices. And it suffers from the same screen glare and washout issues as any other LCD device, so you won’t be able to view it in direct sunlight like the other Kindles. This is not your ‘read a book at the beach’ device.

The Kindle Fire looks like a great device, well designed for what it is. Just don’t expect it to be something it isn’t.

Along with the Kindle Fire, Amazon announced a new web browser, Amazon Silk. Silk is different from most other web browsers in that it has a split architecture. It lives on both the Kindle Fire and in Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Instead of directly pulling all of the content to the device and rendering it there, browsing requests go through the EC2. Content is pulled into the cloud and processed there before delivering and optimized result to the device. Since it is running through the cloud Amazon can also do clever things like cache commonly used content and even use aggregate behavior data to pre-fetch content it expects you to load next. If you’re looking at the front page of CNN they know which pages most users look at next and can pre-fetch that content to have it staged in the cloud for fast delivery.

Amazon is touting this as a new idea, but it isn’t really. Way back in the late 90s Palm used this kind of proxy pre-processing system to digest content for display on their early wireless devices, to accommodate their limitations. More recently Opera Turbo, the Skyfire browser, the Bolt browser, and probably others used similar systems to speed up page loading, provide Flash content to iOS devices, etc. But Amazon’s Silk benefits from their massive EC2 infrastructure, and their likely-to-be-huge user base which will provide them with the data they need for optimized caching and pre-fetching.

The existing Kindle models have also been repriced – the Kindle Keyboard is $99.00 with special offers and $139.00 without, the Kindle Keyboard 3G is $139.00 with and $189.00 without, and the Kindle DX (which has a 9.7″ screen and 3G) is $379.00.

The Amazon homepage announcement is below:

All Products – 10% Off – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Toast 11 Titanium and Save $20 Instantly – $79.99 – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Toast 11 Pro and Save $30 Instantly – $119.99 – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Popcorn 4 and Save 50% Instantly – $24.99 – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Creator 2011 and SAVE $20 Instantly – $79.99 – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Creator 2011 Pro and SAVE $30 Instantly – $99.99 – Expiration – 10.15.11

Buy Easy VHS to DVD (PC) and Save $10 Instantly + FREE Shipping – $49.99 – Expiration 10.15.11

Buy Easy VHS to DVD (MAC) and Save $10 Instantly + FREE Shipping – $69.99 – Expiration 10.15.11

Note that since I posted those links Roxio Creator 2012 and Roxio Creator 2012 Pro launched at the end of August and they also have a $20 savings.

You’ll be able to use the app to share what shows you’re watching and your ratings with your friends on Facebook. They’ll then be able to use those ratings in the app to discover content, see what their friends are watching, and maybe check out those shows themselves. You’ll be able to discuss your shows, movies, etc, with Facebook friends – whether they’re TiVo subscribers or not.

I know a lot of people are going to think this is pointless or something they won’t use, etc. And that’s fine. No one has to use this if it isn’t something they want. But I think this is a good move for TiVo and I’ve been suggesting that they do something like this for years. (Actually I’ll dig up a comment I left on Facebook a while back and make that my next post.) I want to see TiVo integrate with social media like Facebook and Twitter to allow users to share what they’re watching, which shows they like, etc. I think it increases the value of the TiVo platform and the ‘stickiness’ which helps keep users engaged, and also helps draw others to the platform. If they do it right I think this will be good for TiVo and TiVo users.

I have one minor disappointment with this announcement – it relies on the external app. While I’m still waiting for the promised Android version (and trying to remain patient…), I’d really like to see these features built into the TiVo. With the HW in the Premiere and the Flash app platform I think they’d be able to do an overlay. With the TiVo Slide remote it would be pretty easy to send out a quick Facebook update or Tweet right from the screen. I hope we see this kind of thing in the future. But, in the meantime, support via the app is a good step forward, IMHO.

The updated iOS apps, with the new Facebook integration, will roll out later this year.

The full press release is below:

TiVo Integrates with Facebook® Platform to Define the Future of Social TV

TiVo iPad and iPhone Apps to Add Deeper Facebook Integration Layering Friends’ Recommendations and Real-Time Viewing Activity over TiVo’s Smart Search, Browse and Suggestion Features

Alviso, Calif., September 22, 2011 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs), announced in conjunction with f8, Facebook’s developer conference, that it will update its popular iPhone and iPad apps to include additional integration with Facebook® to increase Social TV functionality. Facebook’s newly announced Like and Watch integrations with the enhanced Facebook APIs which will allow people who use the TiVo® service to further connect with family, friends, and subscribers around the entertainment they love to offer an added layer of recommendations further enabling TiVo lovers to enjoy brilliant TV from the world’s only smart DVR.

The improved Facebook integration creates a social guide for people to expand their typical entertainment choices by discovering new programs through the recommendations of their Facebook friends. TiVo users will be able to discover programs their Facebook friends endorse with the Like feature, or view what shows their friends are currently enjoying with the Watch feature and immediately schedule a recording or watch live based on those recommendations. And because the TiVo iPad and iPhone apps are linked to the TiVo DVR, TiVo users can feature the program they’re watching to their friends and subscribers on Facebook with a flick of their finger.

“When we launched the TiVo apps for iPhone and iPad earlier this year, we did so with the goal of expanding the ways TiVo lovers can interact with people, the web, and the entertainment they’re viewing while they watch TV. With this improved Facebook integration, TiVo users can discover things to watch from the new social guide, and can feature their entertainment experiences and choices with their friends,” said Jim Denney, Vice President and General Manager of product marketing for TiVo Inc. “Through full integration with the set-top box, TiVo is defining the future of Social TV by offering a new way for people to connect and interact on the second screen in a way that is fully integrated with their actual TV watching experience.”

The TiVo App retains its unique and easy-to-use interface and lets people peruse TiVo’s hallmark search, browse and recommendation functions, without disrupting what they are watching on the big screen. As people connect and interact with the Social TV features on the TiVo app, they will have more robust access to suggested programming provided by their networks on Facebook.

The improved integrations will launch on the TiVo app later this year. The TiVo App is available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

The TiVo App for iPhone supports all high definition TiVo DVRs, including TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Series3™, HD and HD XL.* Series2 and non-TiVo users can still sample the TiVo experience through the apps Guest Mode. Users can browse, search and scroll through program and channel guides and experience the simplicity of the TiVo interface. A valid TiVo user account is required for full functionality.

For more information on the TiVo app please visit www.tivo.com/ipad.

*TiVo Series3™, HD and HD XL DVR users will enjoy the app’s guide, scheduling, remote control, search and explore features, but these users should anticipate a smaller set of features and capabilities than TiVo Premiere users.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

# # #

About TiVo Inc.

Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.TiVo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.TiVo.com

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, specific TiVo products and timing of distribution of those products. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “will,” “intend,” “estimate,” “continue,” or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include delays in development, competitive service offerings and lack of market acceptance, as well as the other potential factors described under “Risk Factors” in the Company’s public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2011, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended April 30, 2011, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company cautions you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Lifted right from their post:

• Aardvark: Aardvark was a start-up we acquired in 2010. An experiment in a new kind of social search, it helped people answer each other’s questions. While Aardvark will be closing, we’ll continue to work on tools that enable people to connect and discover richer knowledge about the world.
• Desktop: In the last few years, there’s been a huge shift from local to cloud-based storage and computing, as well as the integration of search and gadget functionality into most modern operating systems. People now have instant access to their data, whether online or offline. As this was the goal of Google Desktop, the product will be discontinued on September 14, including all the associated APIs, services, plugins, gadgets and support.
• Fast Flip: Fast Flip was started to help pioneer news content browsing and reading experiences for the web and mobile devices. For the past two years, in collaboration with publishers, the Fast Flip experiment has fueled a new approach to faster, richer content display on the web. This approach will live on in our other display and delivery tools.
• Google Maps API for Flash: The Google Maps API for Flash was launched to provide ActionScript developers a way to integrate Google Maps into their applications. Although we’re deprecating the API, we’ll keep supporting existing Google Maps API Premier customers using the Google Maps API for Flash and we’ll focus our attention on the JavaScript Maps API v3 going forward.
• Google Pack: Due to the rapidly decreasing demand for downloadable software in favor of web apps, we will discontinue Google Pack today. People will still be able to access Google’s and our partners’ software quickly and easily through direct links on the Google Pack website.
• Google Web Security: Google Web Security came to Google as part of the Postini acquisition in 2007, and since then we’ve integrated much of the web security functionality directly into existing Google products, such as safe browsing in Chrome. Although our previous sales channel will be discontinued, we’ll continue to support our existing customers.
• Image Labeler: We began Google Image Labeler as a fun game to help people explore and label the images on the web. Although it will be discontinued, a wide variety of online games from Google are still available.
• Notebook: Google Notebook enabled people to combine clipped URLs from the web and free-form notes into documents they could share and publish. We’ll be shutting down Google Notebook in the coming months, but we’ll automatically export all notebook data to Google Docs.
• Sidewiki: Over the past few years, we’ve seen extraordinary innovation in terms of making the web collaborative. So we’ve decided to discontinue Sidewiki and focus instead on our broader social initiatives. Sidewiki authors will be given more details about this closure in the weeks ahead, and they’ll have a number of months to download their content.
• Subscribed Links: Subscribed Links enabled developers to create specialized search results that were added to the normal Google search results on relevant queries for subscribed users. Although we’ll be discontinuing Subscribed Links, developers will be able to access and download their data until September 15, at which point subscribed links will no longer appear in people’s search results.

Aardvark is the one I’ll miss the most, because it is the one I used the most. I asked a couple of questions, but I’ve mainly been answering other users’ questions since the very early days of the service. I don’t know, I kind of get a kick out of having random questions pop up in Google talk. Looking at my history I answered my first question on July 6, 2009 and my most recent, number 443, on August 22, 2011. Coincidentally they both involved TiVo. I could see something like this getting built into Google+, asking your circles for answers, etc.

Google Desktop I still have installed, but I haven’t really used it in ages. I installed it mainly out of habit. I have to agree with Google, with most of my work in the cloud I just don’t really need the features of Desktop.

Fast Flip… I never got this. Did anyone really use this?

Google Maps API for Flash – I’m not sure I’ve encountered a Flash app that used it, and I’m not a Flash developer, so I don’t care.

Google Pack is something else I still have installed. But I won’t miss it. I use Google Pack just because it makes installing a few apps on a new machine easier. I have Skype, RealPlayer, Adobe Reader, Google Picasa, Google Chrome, and Google Earth. I don’t use the Pack version of Google Apps because they’re actually the Gmail versions. Since I use the full, hosted Google Apps I use the special versions downloaded from there. Losing Pack just means a little more work when first installing these apps on a new box, no big deal.

Google Web Security has been spread around into other products, so it isn’t really a loss. Having the features transparently embedded elsewhere is better.

Image Labeler – I’d never even heard of this before now.

Notebook – I vaguely remember hearing of this, but I never used it.

Sidewiki – This I still have installed, but it is more force of habit. It was something that I thought was kind of curious when it launched, and I played with it for a bit, but it never caught on. It felt like a waste writing notes when it seemed like no one else was using it, and since no one else was using it there were rarely other notes to read. I expect to see more commenting hooks into Google+ that will probably catch on more than Sidewiki ever did.

Subscribed Links is something else I’d heard of, but never used myself, so I won’t miss it.

I can’t argue with Google phasing out these products and services and putting the resources into more important products, or into new ideas. I’m glad Google takes risks with projects like these, trying new things to see what sticks. If something is successful it gets beefed up into a more complete product. If it is partially successful then the pieces that work get recycled into other projects. And if it just doesn’t catch on enough to justify continued effort, then it is a learning experience. Google doesn’t need everything to be a smash hit, but they need to keep trying things because no one can say what the next smash hit product will be.

So what do you think about the cuts? Leave a comment!

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