Gizmo Lovers Blog | TiVo, Slingbox, Android, Blu-ray Disc, and whatever other tech I feel like blogging about…

TiVo Helps Turn the Lights On for After School: TiVo, Afterschool Alliance Join Forces to Empower Pa

Posted on Friday, September 29, 2006 by MegaZone

A press release I just caught on U.S. Newswire.

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TiVo Fans Host TV Tasting Parties Across the Country to Share What Makes TiVo So Special

Posted on Thursday, September 28, 2006 by MegaZone

After years of bringing people together in living rooms across America for Super Bowl parties, Oscar parties, and countless viewing parties of every kind, TiVo is offering its fans the first opportunity to share their passion for the invention they credit with changing their lives with their wider circles of friends and family at official TiVo Tasting Parties. At these parties, which will be held in cities across the nation on Saturday September 30,th TiVo subscribers will offer a Taste of TiVo — fun-filled parties for their friends who have heard of the TiVo service but never experienced it for themselves. To date, more than a thousand TiVo subscribers have signed up to play party hosts.

Posted in Press Release, TiVo | 5 Comments

Slingbox gets new siblings

Posted on Thursday, September 28, 2006 by MegaZone

Sling Media, maker of the placeshifting Slingbox device, on Wednesday released three new gadgets for watching TV remotely: the Slingbox Pro, Slingbox AV and Slingbox Tuner. Each product targets a different segment of the TV-watching market–home-theater enthusiasts; DVR or cable set-top box owners; and basic-cable subscribers.

I know I just posted about these yesterday, but it looks like they officially launched today. Dave Zatz has had one to play with for a while. He reports that the major changes are higher resolution (640×480) and higher bitrates (up to 8000Kbps). MacOS support is in beta and should release in the next 30 days, with Symbian support coming later this fall.

Now, where is that PalmOS support? How about the long rumored Sling Catcher?

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New Slingboxes are out

Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 by MegaZone

The Slingbox is popular with many TiVo users. The TiVo does time-shifting, and the Slingbox does place-shifting, making for a good combo. It looks like the second generation of Slingbox products is hitting the streets. Dave Zatz, at ZatzNotFunny, reported finding one of them at his local Best Buy. They’re diversifying their product line, and there will be three different boxes now – the Slingbox A/V, Tuner, and Pro. The AV is similar to the first generation product, controlling an external source – like a TiVo. The Tuner has an internal analog cable tuner. The Pro can control up to 4 devices, and appears to include HD input. The new packaging also indicates that, in addition to Windows (including Windows Mobile) and MacOS support, Symbian support is on the way. (Now if they’d only support PalmOS I might buy one to use with my Treo.)

PVRWire also has a report. And Engadget has pictures of the packaging, which includes a feature matrix:

Feature	Pro	Tuner	AV
Widescreen support (16:9)	X	X	X
High quality programmable video compression	X	X	X
Watch/control from any PC/Mac/laptop	X	X	X
Watch/control TV from select mobile phones	X	X	X
TV/analog cable tuner	X	X	-
Pass-through connections for seamless integration into current A/V configurations	X	X	-
Connects to set-top box (digital cable, satellite, DVR)	X	-	X
Remote control of A/V devices	X	-	X
Connect HD component devices	X	-	-
Connect & control up to 4 A/V sources	X	-	-