It looks like the Australian press have been getting their TiVo review units, and the reviews are starting to appear - so far, so good. One example is the review from PC Authority which gives it five out of six stars. They also put together a quick FAQ.

CNET Australia also has a review up.

At the end of May I mentioned that CNET’s Matthew Elliott had started using the Comcast TiVo software, and at the time he was having some issues with it. Well, he’s posted again in CNET’s Crave blog and he hasn’t been having a good experience. Comcast and TiVo still haven’t released the promised update for the poor performance. On top of that, Matthew suffered from a major recording gaffe which seems to be a bug in the software. And he’s experiencing frozen screens and other glitches. He’s starting to think about just going back to the standard Comcast DVR software and I can’t blame him based on what he’s experiencing. (Though I think he’d be better of just getting a TiVo HD.) TiVo and Comcast really need to get a fix out soon, they’ve been promising it for a long time now.

Ever since the Apple iPhone hit the market, people have been asking for a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. To date Sling has only expressed their desire to support the platform when it is possible to do so. But with the Apple WWDC kicking off this week, they’ve been showing off a bit of what they’ve been up to, and a number of blogs have coverage:
Engadget (video)
Gizmodo (video)
Zatz Not Funny (video)
PVR Wire @ TV Squad
Ars Technica
Macworld
NewTeeVee
Electronista
jkOnTheRun
The Mobile Gadgeteer
Crave
CrunchGear
AppleInsider
Mobility Today
Gizmos for Geeks
9 to 5 Mac
I4U News
Gear Diary
Download Squad
Unwired View
GottaBeMobile
Nerd Beach
Brighthand
Geek.com
SlingCommunity

And I’m sure there others that I haven’t spotted.

Dave Zatz posted this video to YouTube:

Note that this is a proof of concept, a technology demonstrator, and not the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that will eventually be released. This was an engineering project written for jail-broken iPhones to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that Sling could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. This allowed Sling to gain experience with the platform while waiting for the SDK to be released. The official SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will be written using the SDK and sold through the iTunes App store like other official iPhone/iPod Touch applications. At least that is currently the intent.

If you’re attending the Apple WWDC this week you can get a look at the proof of concept application first hand. Sling Media Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media.

CNET’s Brian Cooley just posted an Insider Secrets video all about upgrading your TiVo with a larger hard drive, using the Instant Cake CD from DVRupgrade. I’ve often recommended Instant Cake myself, and I’ve used it in the past for imaging hard drives for a TiVo. It really is a nice all-in-one solution for TiVo disc imaging and well worth the $20.

If you’re not up for doing it yourself, you can spend a bit more and buy a ready-to-run drive that you can just drop in. And if you’re using a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD you can use an external eSATA drive, like the My DVR Expander, of course. Or you can always buy a pre-upgraded unit to start with.

Unfortunately CNET doesn’t let you embed the Insider Secrets videos, but fortunately TiVo Blog spotted the same video re-posted to YouTube.

CNET’s Matthew Elliott just had the Comcast TiVo software installed yesterday and he’s blogged about his first 24 hours with the software at CNET’s Crave blog. Overall he seems happy with it, except for the performance. The slowness of the TiVo Comcast software is something that is oft mentioned, and both TiVo and Comcast have stated that they are working on updates which will improve the performance. I hope that Matthew sticks with it and gives them a chance to improve the performance, as he’s promised to blog about his further experiences with the software. If you’re interested in the Comcast TiVo software, it is worth checking out what he has to say.

The sixth D: All Things Digital conference (aka D6) is going on currently, and Tom Rogers was one of the speakers today. Naturally this has produced a flurry of coverage. Silicon Alley Insider has a pseudo-transcript of Rogers’ Q&A interview with Kara Swisher (see video below). CNET has some short coverage.

But the most exciting news comes via AllThingsD:

What about ease of use? TiVo wireless adapters are good, Rogers responds, acknowledging there’s nevertheless a multiset issue: You still need a second box. But we’re working on a whole-home model, he adds.

That’s a almost a throwaway line, but it is great news. It sounds like they’re moving beyond Multi-Room Viewing to a true distributed system. This isn’t too surprising, as we’re seeing multi-room solutions gaining traction with providers like AT&T U-Verse and various cable MSOs. I have to wonder if this is the ‘Series4′ OCAP/tru2way box Rogers has hinted at in the past, or a different product. I do hope TiVo doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and uses established standards like DLNA. That would allow DLNA-enabled platforms (like the PS3) to access the content and not just some TiVo-mate client box.

Here’s a couple of ‘highlight reels’ of Tom Rogers’ interview at D6.