Virgin Media Releases iOS App with TiVo Support

Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2011 by MegaZone

Virgin Media TiVo

Hot on the heels of TiVo’s release of their updated iOS App in the US, and Virgin Media’s own release of an Android App with TiVo support in the UK, Virgin Media has now released an iOS App with TiVo support.

Via The Virgin Media TiVo Blog.

Posted in Apple, iPhone, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Blockbuster Looks To Profit From Netflix Backlash

Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2011 by MegaZone

Blockbuster Logo In the backlash against Netflix’s price increase, Blockbuster sees an opportunity. Yes, Blockbuster, they’re still around. (Thanks to a recent buyout by Dish Network.) They’re offering disgruntled Netflix customers a one-month free trial, with the offer good through September 15, 2011 at participating stores and their website. The offer is good on their one- and two-disc-at-a-time plans.

After the trial Blockbuster will offer the one-disc plan for $9.99/month and the two-disc plan for $14.99/month. While Netflix’s one-disc plan is $7.99/month, Blockbuster claims some advantages. Their deals with the studios gives them new release titles up to 28-days before Netflix and other services. And, for those who still have a Blockbuster brick-and-mortar store nearby, they offer in-store exchanges of their by-mail DVDs. So you can return your rent-by-mail DVD and walk out with a new movie, for no additional charge.

If you want to take advantage of these offers you can do so online or bring the tear-off from a Netflix mailer to a participating Blockbuster store.

Via TWICE.

Posted in Blu-ray/HD DVD, Dish Network, DVD, Formats, NetFlix | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Best Buy TiVo-powered HDTVs Launch July 31st

Posted on Friday, July 15, 2011 by MegaZone

Best Buy Logo During this site’s hiatus, back in July, 2009, TiVo and Best Buy announced a strategic alliance. Building on that, in May, 2010, TiVo and Insignia (one of Best Buy’s house brands), announced that they would be developing connected HDTVs using the TiVo UI. Now it seems that partnership will bear fruit on July 31st, according to information uncovered by Zatz Not Funny.

Note that these TV’s do not include DVRs! They are connected TVs, or cTV’s in Best Buy parlance, which use the TiVo HD UI, introduced on the Premiere, for their functionality. I don’t know if there is any Trojan Horse DVR functionality in there – say via an add-on module (Toshiba and others have sold HDTVs with this kind of sidecar DVR capability in the past), but we’ll see.

We really don’t know too much about the feature set of these TVs at this point. Will they support streaming shows from a TiVo Premiere (or Premiere Elite) in the home? We don’t know, but I hope they do. I guess we won’t have long to find out.

Two models are slated for July 31st – a 32 inch and a 42 inch set. And no TiVo subscription is required! I’m guessing Best Buy is footing the bill for the guide data service. Kind of like TiVo Basic on the old Pioneer and Toshiba TiVo/DVD combo units.

See the Zatz Not Funny post for more, including photos of the Best Buy source materials.

Posted in Blogs, HDTV, TiVo | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Latest Hak5 HakTip Runs Down Cellular Data Standards

Posted on Friday, July 15, 2011 by MegaZone

Hak5 Logo Today seems to be turning into video day.

The latest Hak5 HakTip covers one of my pet peeves – cellular data standard nomenclature, and the way marketing speak plays fast and loose with the standards. A prime example – T-Mobile’s HSPA+ service is not 4G. T-Mobile has no 4G network, no matter what they’re marketing department says. It is a 3G standard – you could call it 3.5G or 3.75G at best. Anyway, the video is a nice little rant on the subject.

Posted in Mobile Devices | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Liliputing Gets a First Look at the Toshiba Thrive

Posted on Friday, July 15, 2011 by MegaZone

Toshiba Thrive Since the Toshiba Thrive is one of the Android tablets I’ve been considering picking up for my own use, I was very interested in what Brad Linder over at Liliputing had to say about the review model he got his hands on. His full review is still pending, this is just the first look, but based on what he has to say, and what he shows us in the video, I think this looks like a good tablet. I still haven’t decided between this and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer though.

Posted in Android, Blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments