Now blog Ritchie’s Room has gotten their hands on one for review, including a video. This is what they mean by gadget pr0n, I think:

There’s also an earlier video from NVIDIA showing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running on the Prime, but it is just a quick tease:

Soon… my precious…

Via Engadget.

Roku is expanding its open platform to support region-specific channels. Publishers of video, music, games and other Internet-delivered content can now reach their customers’ TVs directly through Roku. Content can be free, ad supported or paid. Those interested in developing for Roku should contact partners@roku.com

No word yet on which model(s) of Roku will launch in each country, or the pricing. But since they mention gaming it is safe to presume they’ll be similar to the Roku 2 products recently launched in the US.

Via Engadget.

The highlights are Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, Pandora, Napster, Flingo, and gaming. Yes, it seems like everyone is getting into the casual gaming on TV thing. They don’t have a full list of available channels, but the product images show Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, Vimeo, Revision3, Blip.tv, TMZ, TED, Howcast, Crunchyroll, The Economist, and more. And note that Vudu support is more than just Vudu Movies, it also includes Vudu Apps. So that’s a whole suite of apps in addition to whatever they support natively.

The other big trick up the NeoTV’s sleeve is smartphone apps for both iOS and Android. You can use your smartphone as a remote control and it appears there will also be some social media integration from the Smartphone interface, such as sharing what you’re watching on Facebook. If you’re interested in more, check out the product page.

The Netgear NeoTV NTV200 is available for pre-order at Amazon for $79.99. It looks like a decent little box, but they’re got a big mountain to climb if they want to knock Roku off their perch. This is a good product, but is it better than Roku? I don’t know, I kind of doubt it. And there is the question of whether Netgear will stick with it and keep adding channels and features. After all, they dropped their Roku-based box pretty quickly. Between Roku, AppleTV, and a Google TV platform about to be reinvigorated with the Honeycomb update, they’ve got their work cut out for them to carve a niche. Boxee, Popcorn Hour, and others have already struggled to do so.

Sidenote, I’m amused that I immediately recognized the image they’re using for their YouTube feature as Natalie from Community Channel.

Via Engadget.

While the name is a little strange, the hardware looks very cool. It is an Android smartphone that can become a tablet, netbook, handheld gaming console, or a media set top box. They unveiled the new phone as the just-ended IFA conference in Germany, and the phone itself is quite a little powerhouse. Dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 CPU, 1GHz RAM, 16GB on-board storage expandable by up to 32GB with microSD, 8MP rear camera and 3MP front camera – both with autofocus, Full HD 1080p 30fps video recording, SRS WOW 3D sound, microHDMI and microUSB, and a shockingly high-res display – 4.5″ 1280×800 WXGA. Just as a phone it is at the high end of the Android range. The specs are up there with the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Motorola Droid Bionic, better in some areas.

With the growth in power of smartphones they’ve reached the point where they can legitimately compete with tablets and netbooks, even low end laptops. We’re seeing dual-core CPUs of up to 1.5GHz, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G & 4G data, etc. The only limitations have been screen size, input mechanisms, and battery life. And to a lesser degree port availability. The phone needs to stay small enough to fit in your pocket and be comfortable in the had.

As I’ve said all over the net for the past few years, the smartphone can be the ‘CPU’ module for other devices. It contains the CPU, RAM, connectivity, primary storage, etc. If you want a larger display in tablet format you ‘dock’ the phone with a tablet sleeve. The sleeve has nothing but the larger screen and a battery. When docked the phone provides all of the brains, and the camera on the back of the phone is now on the back of the tablet. Depending on the design the front camera on the phone could also see through a hole or transparent section on the tablet bezel, or the tablet could have it’s own front facing camera. Connectivity is simple – microUSB for device support and microHDMI for the display. And this is exactly what KT has done.

Want a more productivity oriented system, something like a netbook or laptop, then there are two options. One is an Asus Eee Pad Transformer-style dock where the above described tablet docks with a keyboard base to form a netbook. This is elegant because you only have one larger display. And you could dock everything into one unit for a fairly compact carry – like carrying one netbook.

The other option is actually the one I thought of originally, and that KT is using. Simply another sleeve, a netbook this time of course, in which the phone docks just as with the tablet. KT is doing exactly what I’ve suggested in the past – you dock the phone where the touchpad is on most laptops, in front of the keyboard. The phone *is* the touchpad, and it could even be a small secondary display for custom controls for programs, etc. Imagine doing some editing work with your customized shortcuts available on command on the touchpad display (aka the phone). With modern touchscreens and a stylus it could act as a small digitizing tablet, etc.

What about when you’re done being all productive and just want to relax and frag something? Gaming on smartphones is huge, but most games have been fairly simple, largely due to control limitations. Sony has their PlayStation Phone, but that’s a compromise. You’re carrying around the slide-out controls all the time, and they’re a little cramped. What about a sleeve that turns the phone into a handheld game console that looks quite a bit like a PSP (or maybe an Atari Lynx)? Pop in the phone and take advantage of the CPU and display that a better than any dedicated handheld game system, with controls better than any phone.

Finally, a bit more conventional for today’s smartphones, you can use the phone as a streaming media STB. Connect it to your HDTV via the microHDMI and stream HD video from the phone, online streaming services, etc., right on your big screen.

A couple of blogs have posted videos of the Spider Phone being demo’d at IFA 2011. The first video is from AndroidPIT and the second is from Areamobile. AndroidPIT has several great photos of the phone and sleeves in their post as well.

KT is the only company I’ve seen announce the full suite of sleeves, with a very powerful phone at heart. Before this the closest we’ve come is the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet-slash-netbook and the announced Asus Padfone smartphone-slash-tablet. In fact, the Asus Padfone tablet design and the KT Spider Phone tablet design are very similar. If only Asus would combine the Padfone with the Transformer and give it a keyboard dock (perhaps the same one), we’d have two smartphone/tablet/netbook options.

The Spider Phone has a few downsides however, at least from my perspective. The first, and largest, is that it is running Android Gingerbread. Gingerbread is a phone-centric OS and is not optimized for use on tablets, especially larger ones. It has been used on some tablets, but that was really a stopgap until Honeycomb was available. Honeycomb is the tablet-centric version of Android, but it lacks full phone support. So the right release for this would be Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which merges Gingerbread and Honeycomb and runs equally well on phones or tablets. In fact, that’s the version the Asus Padfone will be running. Since ICS isn’t due out until later this year, KT may have decided that launching with Gingerbread was expedient. But I really hope they have plans to upgrade to ICS once it is available. That would really unlock the potential of this hardware.

The other downsides aren’t as substantial, and may well be temporary. But the Spider Phone is currently only slated for the domestic market – South Korea – where it will launch in November or December. KT currently has no plans to release the phone in other markets. The phone is also a GSM device, and I really need something that’s CDMA/LTE for Verizon. (My employer’s corporate carrier.) So I probably won’t end up with a Spider Phone unless they bring it to Verizon in the US, but if they did I’d be sorely tempted even if it meant upgrading out of contract.

I’m just happy to see someone finally building the concept I’ve been pining for for several years. It is encouraging, as it means others may follow suite and that would increase my odds of finally owning such a system.

So, what I really want is something like the KT Spider Phone or an Asus Transformer/Padfone hybrid, available on Verizon with LTE support. Who’s going to build me my dream phone/tablet/netbook?

KT makes it seemingly impossible to link directly to press releases on their site, so here is the one for the Spider Phone:

KT reveals new smartphone All with one ; ‘Spider Phone’2011.09.02
? KT reveals ‘Spider Phone’ turning into various IT devices at IFA in Berlin, Germany
? Solving difficulties in high costs of buying multiple IT devices, complicated usage of each devices and managing data.
? It can also link with ucloud to provide N-Screen service.
? Expecting the device ecosystem cooperating with many manufacturers.

KT(www.kt.com), the leading telecommunication company in Korea, announces that the company unveils Spider Phone, a smartphone that can be turned into various IT devices at IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin) 2011 Consumer Electronics Fair in Berlin, Germany, from September 2 to 7.

Spider Phone can be connected with various different screens such as tablet PC, laptop and game kit etc. Those devices do not function stand alone, because they are not loaded with neither CPU, OS nor memory. However they do function with physical connection with Spider Phone.

Not only Spider Phone can provide mobile office environment linked with ucloud service but also connect with tablet PC or laptop, which enables to edit and manage documents. Additionally it can give a wide variety of game experiences for users through its 4.5-inch screen and well optimized keys to control the game kit comfortably and easily. Spider Phone will be launched this November developed by KT who started the project last November.

With the launch of Spider Phone, KT expects to solve many issues, including high costs of buying multiple IT devices such as a mobile phone, a laptop and a tablet. Also it can relieve the possible stresses of complicated usage of IT devices such as difficulties in managing data.

The company also stresses that Spider Phone can surmount the small screen problems of smartphone by combining with external kits. KT expects that Spider Phone will help the company and other manufacturers to enhance their global competitive edge based on the phone’s capability to expand into the N-Screen service easily and affordably.

Especially the key sources of hardware and software interface are disclosed, making any company manufacture external kits that can be connected to Spider Phone and ultimately helping promote the industry – Device Ecosystem.

KT plans to pave to create an environment where a single smart phone can control all information and devices around it by even linking with non-IT industry products such as health care devices etc.

Run by Android OS, the phone features a 4.5 inch wide WXGA(1280*800) high-resolution display to offer tablet PC and laptop-like experiences and a 1.5GHz Dual-Core high-performance CPU that allows fast document editing, web browsing, and video playing. Additionally it has large-capacity battery(1710mAh) and Full HD supported camera.

“Spider Phone is an innovative device that can impress the global smartphone market, and I’m sure it will draw a lot of attention at IFA,” said Kyeong-Soo Lee, Executive Vice President of Device Strategy Department, who supervised the development of Spider Phone. “KT has already offered leading companies in Korea to build a new device ecosystem together, and I hope we will get a lot of favorable responses at the event”

KT also presents the ucloud storage service along with Spider Phone at IFA. KT launched ucloud service which for individual users, in July last year, and subsequently ucloud servers, VDI(virtual desktop interface), CDN(Contents Delivery Network) and storage. DB and backup services are under open beta test.

KT’s cloud service features full line-up infrastructure, which cannot be found in any other local competitors’ services. Any service related to IT infrastructure is available, and IT infrastructure can be established over the net within five minutes, which would otherwise take a whole week when using IDC hosting service.

Besides speed, ucloud’s rates and performance are equally impressive. Cloud Harmony, a cloud market research firm, revealed that KT ranked first or second in five performance areas among 20 major cloud service vendors including Amazon and Rackspace.

? For more information

– In Won Lee : Deputy Director at PR Dep.(at IFA)
: +82-10-7221-0552, inona@kt.com
– Hyun Wook Jung : Assistant Manager at PR Dep.(at IFA)
: +82-10-9693-1009, hwway@kt.com
– Yoon Jeong Kim : Assistant Manager at PR Dep.(Seoul, Korea)
: +82-10-3010-2618, kate1@kt.com
: +82-2-730-6292(Seoul office)

Spotted via Engadget.

Researchers from Cornell’s Creative Machines Lab pitted two chatbots against each other in a talk-off, which rapidly degraded into a verbal sparring match. Though it did generate some great non sequiturs. I predict this is already being printed on T-shirts right now: “I’m not a robot. I’m a unicorn.”

Of course, the other thing it reminds me of is any number of comment threads and web discussions I’ve read over the years. On this flamewar made more sense than many of those.

Via Engadget.

(Try M-x spook sometime too, if you’re install has it.)

Description

TiVo Commander is an open source clone of the TiVo for iPad and iPhone app for Android.
It is capable of connecting to and controlling a TiVo Premiere device.

Features:
* A full remote control, with keyboard input.
* Browse all recorded shows. Watch and delete them.
* Search for shows/movies/actors.
* See credits for shows/movies, and suggestions for similar shows/movies.
* Record individual shows and add/modify/remove season passes.

TiVo Commander is open source software. It is NOT affiliated with TiVo Inc.

Screenshots:

Note that he’s serious when he says TiVo Premiere. I tried it on my TiVo Series3 and it won’t connect. And if it can’t connect you can’t even get past the settings screen in the app. I checked my Series3 and it doesn’t respond on the port the app is using, so that’s Premiere-only for sure. If you have feedback there is a discussion thread at TiVoCommunity.

If you have a TiVo Series3 or Tivo HD and you’re looking for an Android app, Tim Hoeck’s TiVoRemote is still in the market for $0.99. I’ve had this on my Droid pretty much since it was released.

I also just stumbled over another free TiVo remote app for Andorid, RCX for TiVo. The app is listed as ‘free – beta’, but seems to work based on user reviews.

Both of these apps are just remote control apps, they don’t have all the fancy features for the Premiere like TiVo’s official iOS apps or TiVo Commander, but they will work with the Series3 and up. Of course, if you’re a Virgin Media TiVo customer in the UK you can use their official TV Guide.

TiVo has stated they are working on an official Android app, but no word on when we might see it.

While looking in the Android Market I noticed a couple of other interesting, TiVo-related apps.
TiVo Music Server by Earl Magnus does pretty much what the name implies. It streams MP3 files from your Android device to your TiVo, just like TiVo Desktop does on your PC. It is a fairly new app and has some limitations (MP3s must be on the SD card/external storage, not internal, etc.) but it is free and seems to do what it promises. And Earl has a support thread on TiVoCommunity for feedback.

The other app is the $1.99 Zamar by JCIDSoftware.

Description

Your Media Library Wherever You Are
Take your media library with you, where you go!
•Stream your music
•View and download photos, display them through your TiVo on you TV
•Download your movies
•Remote control your TiVo

Use TiVo Desktop media server, or pyTiVo to stream your music, photos, and music. Remote control your TiVo, and auto-scan favorite channels

While it also claims to work as a TiVo remote, the really interesting thing is that it implements TiVo’s API for streaming media – but not as a server, as a TiVo does! So you can stream/copy content from TiVo Desktop or third party servers like pyTiVo/PyTiVoX (and I’m guessing Streambaby might work), which are normally used to send content to a TiVo. That’s pretty unusual, but if you have things setup for your TiVo you can take advantage of it with Zamar too.

TiVo Commander spotted via Engadget.

So you might expect me to have been one of the first to have jumped on the 3D HDTV bandwagon, but you’d be wrong. Oh, I fully intend to buy a 3D HDTV, but I’m waiting for the industry to shake out a bit. I’ll let them work out the kinks, mature the technology, and get prices down a bit more, then I’ll upgrade.

One of those ‘kinks’ that I’ve been waiting for them to work out is the idiocy of having multiple, incompatible systems for the glasses. Most vendors today use active shutter glasses, but the glasses from one vendor won’t work with a TV from another vendor, which means your friends with a Sony TV can’t bring their glasses over for movie night on your Samsung. OK, let me step back and give a quick overview of where we stand. Oversimplified, but it’ll suffice.

We see the world in 3D because each eye sees objects from a slightly different angle. The brain uses this parallax to calculate the distances and provide depth to what we see. But projected images, like conventional TV, all come from the same plane – they’re 2D. There is no parallax, and thus no depth. So the obvious solution is to provide a different image to each eye, each simulating a different angle, creating the illusion of parallax to provide depth. But that’s simpler to explain than to do.

Older 3D systems tended to be anaglyph, using different color filters for each eye – often red & blue, but there are a number of systems. The two images would be projected with matching color filters, and the filters in the glasses meant each eye only perceived the corresponding color projected. This system works well enough for B&W, but the nature of the system – colored filters – often wrecks havoc with the colors in a color image. And it isn’t that sharp, you get bleed through from the opposite eye’s image if the filters don’t block 100%, etc. Anaglyph is still used for printed materials, and sometimes for video, but it is really used mainly as a novelty these days.

Modern theatrical systems are almost all based on polarized light. The glasses are similar to quality polarized sunglasses, only allowing light waves moving in one direction to pass through. A simple way to imagine it is that you can give light a left hand twist or a right hand twist as you project it. So the 3D system does both – using left hand for the left eye and right hand for the right eye. Corresponding filters in the glasses allow only the matching twist through, so that eye sees only the image projected for it. These systems work fairly well, the only real drawback is that the glasses block some of the light, and so make things dimmer – but that’s easily compensated for by increasing the brightness of the image. Since the glasses are simple lenses and all of the work is done in the projector – or the TV – these systems are called ‘passive’. The advantage is that the glasses are simple, cheap, and light. They aren’t quite universally compatible, as there are different ways to do the polarization (mainly circular polarization vs. linear polarization), but most theaters, and passive 3D HDTVs, use the same system so de facto they tend to be.

On the other hand, most 3D HDTVs today use active shutter glasses instead. As the name implies, in this system the glasses are an active part of the system. Instead of each eye receiving a constant stream of light, filtered for that eye, active shutter systems alternate images to each eye. The glasses contain liquid crystal lenses (similar to the LCDs in a digital watch) which alternate between transparent and opaque – exactly out of phase. So the left eye receives the image while the right eye is blocked, and vice versa. This is sync’d with the image on the screen, so a left eye image is shown while the left lens is transparent, etc. The downside to this is that the glasses are complex, relatively heavy, expensive, and need to be recharged regularly. Oh, and each vendor has used a different synchronization system, making them incompatible, as above, but I’ll get back to that.

So, why do only a few vendors (like LG & Vizio) use passive 3D while the rest use active 3D with the expensive glasses? Well, active 3D is a higher quality solution for the home right now. See, with active 3D each eye sees the full image. So if you have a 1920x1080p ‘Full HD’ display, then each eye gets Full HD – just half the time. But with the displays refreshing at 120Hz or 240Hz, you still get the effect of full HD since the brain can’t tell the difference. It is still equivalent to 60Hz or 120Hz per eye. (Remember classic film is 24 frames per second and, in the US, classic TV was only 30fps (OK, 29.97).) On the other hand, passive 3D systems today use fixed polarizing filters on top of the screen which divide the image in half, line by line. So every even line is for one eye and every odd line is for the other. The end result is that each eye is only getting half resolution, so your 1080p set is only 540p in 3D mode. This is another one of those kinks I mentioned, and it will be resolved, which I’ll get to – but first, back to active shutters.

So, active shutter glasses are more expensive and complex, but provide a better image. That’s fine. But they’re expensive, with prices ranging from $50 to $200, while passive glasses start at a couple of bucks. The cost of active glasses wouldn’t be so bad, except for the compatibility problem and the stinginess of vendors. When you buy your shiny new 3D HDTV it may not even come with a pair of glasses. And when they do, it is generally just one or two pair. If you have a family with more people, or ever want to have friends over for a movie night, you need more glasses. Maybe your friends have their own 3D HDTV – great, they can bring their glasses. What, they have a different brand of TV? Oh, that’s too bad.

Different vendors have used different systems to keep the glasses in sync. There are IR- and RF-based systems, using different protocols. So while Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic, for example, all have used IR – they’ve used different IR protocols. Some vendors, like XPAND, have seen this as an opportunity and have been producing ‘universal’ glasses which implement multiple standards to work with multiple TVs, but it still means buying more if your TV came with vendor-specific glasses. Finally the main vendors supporting active shutter, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, and XPAND, have formed the ‘Full HD 3D Glasses Initiative‘ to produce universally compatible glasses across all members.

The new glasses will support RF and IR protocols. Of course, they’re not expected to be available until 2012, but they will be backwards compatible with 2011 model 3D HDTVs. Basically they’re going to cram all of the protocols into one set of glasses for backwards compatibility, though it sounds like going forward the vendors will be using Bluetooth as a standard RF system on their sets. So one day we may have one protocol across all of the sets, which would allow for simpler ‘universal’ glasses.

So that’s one kink worked out, or at least on the path there. So, time for me to start shopping for that 3D TV.

Actually, no. See, I don’t like active 3D. Sure, the image is great and all, but I don’t like the heavy, or at least heavier, glasses and the costs involved. I have a hard enough time remembering to plug in my PS3 controllers to keep them charged, I don’t want to deal with having to keep my 3D glasses charged. Or worry about them falling into the couch or getting sat on, etc. I think the RealD glasses at the theater are pretty comfortable, and you can even buy custom, designer, even prescription, passive 3D glasses if you want. I’m a big fan of passive 3D, in other words. But I’m not willing to sacrifice quality either, the kink I mentioned earlier.

Fortunately, that’s on its way to being resolved too. While current passive 3D systems use a passive, fixed polarizing screen on a conventional HD display, that’s not the only way to do it. One obvious solution – up the native resolution of the display. If you’re halving the resolution for each eye, the higher the native resolution of the display, the higher the resolution for each eye. A 4k native display would provide better than Full HD for each eye. But making such high resolution displays in large panel sizes is a very expensive option today.

There’s another approach though, as pursued by RealD in their RDZ system, add an active polarizer to the screen. This is kind of a hybrid between active shutter and passive 3D systems. The glasses are passive, but an active layer is added to the screen. Instead of an on/off shutter, it is a polarizer, that alternatively polarizes the full image left or right. While the glasses are passive, since each lens only allows the matching image through, one eye sees nothing while the other sees the image, just like with active 3D. But all of the complexity and cost is in the TV. The glasses are literally the same as used in the theater – if you need more just bring them home next time you go, instead of tossing them in the recycling bin.

Sets using RDZ are expected to hit the market in 2012 from Samsung, and there will probably be similar, competing systems. Personally I think this solution is the best of both worlds. You get the Full HD image quality with cheap, lightweight glasses. Cheap enough that you can have plenty on hand for friends, and not worry about breaking or losing a pair. And if you need prescription lenses (as my fiancée wears) you can have prescription 3D glasses made that you can use at home and in the theater. No more having to sacrifice clarity for 3D, or trying to wear two pairs of glasses. It is hard to justify the cost of a prescription pair just for the theater, even for a die-hard movie goer, but if you can use the same glasses at home all the time, it is easier to justify.

Oh, yeah, I left out ‘glasses free’ 3D systems. That wasn’t an accident; I’m extremely unimpressed with them. They work OK on small displays – cell phones, handhelds, etc. – though even there they have major limitations. But they have too many drawbacks. Glasses free systems work via two major systems – lenticular screens or filter slats. Lenticular screens are familiar to most people – you know those images that seem to move when you tip them back and forth? Those have a lenticular screen on top. Basically rows of linear lenses that create ‘slices’ of an image. so when you view at a given angle you seen only specific slices, as directed by the lens. If you ever see one of the images without the lens in place it looks like several images all sliced up into ribbons, interlaced with each other. And that’s exactly what the display is doing – it is actually displaying columns of left & right images interlaced, and using the lens to direct each one to one eye. The slat system works in a similar manner, but even simpler. There are vertical slats positioned in front of the display designed to simply block every other column of pixels from each eye. But in such a way that it blocks the odd columns for one eye, and the even columns for the other.

So, in these systems you have the same drawback as today’s passive 3D – it halves the resolution. But, worse, there are very specific fixed points (or point in some cases) for viewing. While active and passive glasses systems work pretty much from any viewing angle the display supports, with glasses free systems you have to be in one of the ‘sweet spots’ where the effect works. Anywhere else and you may see nothing, or garbage, or 2D, it depends. Again, you know those cheap lenticular pictures? Know how as you tip them, as one image dissolves into the next there is a point where it is neither image and just a mess? The displays are like that, if you sit in the wrong place.

I’ll never say never, but to date I haven’t seen anything out or announced that truly resolves these issues with glasses free 3D. I’ve seen systems that will increase the number of viable points for viewing, but that’s just polishing a turd. You still have finite points and you still lose quality. Until someone comes up with a real breakthrough I think passive Full HD 3D will be the best option. I’m just waiting for it to arrive – and be priced reasonably, of course. I picked up my current set, a 61″ Samsung 1080p DLP, in late 2006, so it has plenty of life left in it. I can wait.

Press release spotted via Engadget.

As you can see in the graph from comScore Data Mine, Google’s Android operating system had astounding growth from May 2010 through May 2011 – 634%! In the past year Symbian has fallen from the top spot in the UK market to #3, behind Apple’s iOS and Android, dropping 10% to 22.5% of the market. Google’s Android, at 26.7% remains a hair behind Apple’s 27.1%, but is increasing as a much faster rate – 634% growth to 46% – and Android should be in the #1 spot soon, if not already. RIM, which has been taking a beating in the US market, surprisingly grew their share by 59% over the year, and if the trends continue RIM could knock Symbian into fourth place.

As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats, and the UK smartphone market overall is experiencing significant growth. A year ago 27% of mobile users used a smartphone, in 2011 that figure was 42%. Which helps explain how Android alone could add 4.7 million users in one year without gutting the other players. And also helps explain RIM’s growth, I’d think.

Microsoft, knocked from fourth to fifth place by the Android explosion, is not doing well, losing 32% of their share in a year. This is surely due to the decline in Windows Mobile use and the lackluster response to Windows Phone 7 to date.

Via Engadget.

Inevitably, whenever a new tablet comes out, we find ourselves asking, “Why would you choose this over everything else?” And to be honest, in a marketplace with so many forgettable options it’s not always an easy question to answer. In the case of the Thrive, at least, you’ve potentially got enough built-in reasons to count on both hands. It’s got full-sized USB and HDMI ports, not to mention an SDXC slot allowing you to make good use of one of the memory cards you’ve no doubt accumulated over the years. It comes with lots of useful apps — some of which cost money — which means if you’ll be up and running immediately (and so will any low-tech person you give this to as a gift). It runs Android 3.1 at a time when most tabs don’t. Oh, and it’s priced to sell. It starts at $429 for 8GB, making it stand out in a market that absolutely does not need another $500 or $600 slate. We say, get the 8GB version, pair it with an old SD card, and have yourself a party.

So if the features unique to the Thrive are useful to you, it isn’t a bad choice. But if not, there are slimmer, sleeker tablets with longer battery life that are probably better choices. Read the full review for all of the facts.

MissingRemote reports that the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 dual-tuner USB CableCARD box has passed CableLabs certification and will sell for just $129. Pre-orders start Monday, and it will ship in late June.

Also shipping in late June, the SiliconDust HD HomeRun PRIME will come in two models. The HDHR3-CC is a three tuner box selling for $249.99, while the HDHR3-6CC-3X2 is a six tuner box selling for $499.99. Both are available for pre-order now.

Still a bit more nebulous Ceton Corp, which recently finally shipped their much anticipated InfiniTV 4 internal quad-tuner CableCARD card, also announced a InfiniTV 4 USB model back at CES. Given that they’ve finally started shipping the internal model, and the competition is about to ship their USB tuners, I have to expect this will see the light of day sometime soon.

Just in time to take advantage of the newly updated tuning adapters. I’m sure PC-based DVR enthusiasts will line up for these products if they deliver on their promises.

Via Engadget.

“Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users’ connection speeds,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. “Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox.”

The initial roll-out“will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers”, but it is anticipated that it will be available to all subscribers by the end of the year.

Via Engadget.

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Both the Slingbox PRO-HD and SlingCatcher MSRP at USD$299.99, but the best deals I’ve seen on both are from PROVANTAGE – currently Slingbox PRO-HD for $241.70 and SlingCatcher for $240.47.

EDIT: And more coverage:
The Gadgetress
Engadget
EngadgetHD
jkOnTheRun
Gizmodo
Obsessable
TG Daily
TWICE
Silicon Alley Insider
TVPredictions
TechSpot
SlashGear
Multichannel News
ZDNet – The Mobile Gadgeteer
TheStreet.com
Electronista
Electronic House
Boy Genius Report
eHomeUpgrade
ZDNet – The Toybox
Obsessable – Product Page

Spotted via Engadget.

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.

I did miss a couple of minutes in the middle of their presentation when my cell phone dropped the call. I quickly switched to Skype for the rest of the call, lesson learned – use Skype for this kind of thing in the future. I don’t think I missed much though, when I got back in they were still covering the history and I’ve been following that since early days. I’ll listen to the recording to make sure I didn’t miss anything important. (Nope.)

One interesting thing, the NCTA repeatedly praised or mentioned TiVo when talking about CE companies that have worked with the cable industry to work out issues with CableCARDs and to develop the Tuning Resolver.

From my point of view there really wasn’t any new ground covered, but then I’ve been following OpenCable, OCAP, tru2way, etc, pretty closely for a long time. So I’d be a little surprised if they did cover something I’d missed. But it was a good overview of the situation and their arguments do make sense. They pointed out that there are only roughly 380,000 consumer electronic devices using CableCARD – that’s TVs, TiVos, PCs, etc. And the cable industry overall has over 65 million video customers in the US. So the total percentage if people using UDCPs who will have issues with SDV is pretty small. And all of those using CableCARD TiVos will be able to use the Tuning Resolver, and likely all of those with a PC using CableCARD. The big question will be those using CableCARD-enabled TVs – many of them do not have USB ports, which means no Tuning Resolver. Those units that do have USB ports will require a firmware update, so it comes down to vendor support.

Gary Merson of HD Guru asked why cable companies don’t remove the analog channels to free bandwidth for digital channels instead of using SDV. This would inconvenience those using analog cable without a STB, for example connecting it directly to an old TV. Well, I think those numbers really help explain it. While Gary made the argument that CableCARD customers are likely to be premium customers paying for higher service tiers, there are a lot fewer of them than there are subscribers using analog cable. Cutting off analog channels would inconvenience many more users than implementing SDV does. On top of that, cable MSOs would have to provide STBs to all of their customers, which would be an enormous expense. And basic cable customers don’t like STBs any more than premium customers do.

Also, under an agreement with Congress and the FCC, it is an all-or-nothing proposition. Cable MSOs are required to continue offering an analog basic tier, unless they eliminate all analog channels. Going 100% digital is an exception to the requirement. But that would be a radical change to many MSOs, and again a great cost.

There are other business reasons not to take that approach. With the digital conversion coming to broadcast TV in February 2009, providing analog service is a business opportunity for cable. Antenna users are faced with adding a converter box or other device (such as a TiVo) with a digital tuner, buying a new TV with a digital tuner, or switching to a new service – analog cable. Analog cable would allow them to connect directly to their existing TV without adding another device.

Gary also asked for some assurance that consumers who invest in new tru2way TVs and devices will not be faced with another upgrade in 3-4 years, as those who invested in UDCP CableCARD devices are facing. I think the NCTA’s response was reasonable. Cable MSOs are deploying tru2way-enabled STBs now, with Time Warner in the lead and Comcast currently in second place. Over the next couple of years this will be an investment in millions of STBs and hundreds of millions of dollars. So the cable MSOs are not going to be eager to make that investment obsolete. But they really can’t state “Tru2way will not be replaced in the next five years” or anything like that. Predicting the future in a technical field is risky business. And despite what some might think, the cable industry isn’t one large conspiracy and each MSO is free to adopt different technology and services, within the regulatory framework.

However, I guarantee that tru2way will be replaced, someday. Probably not in the next 5 years, maybe not even 10, but it will happen. That’s just how technology works. Something bigger, better, faster will come along and the industry will shift. The cable industry tried to bypass CableCARD by going straight to DCAS, but when they lost that fight they were forced to invest hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, in CableCARD infrastructure. That will discourage any immediate push for DCAS, as they’ll want to recoup their investment. But DCAS, or something like it, seems to be the next logical step down the road. And when that happens it is likely there will be some new features that are not accessible to CableCard/tru2way devices. However, as more devices are upgradeable in software and firmware it is hard to say. Perhaps there will be a generic DCAS module that could plug into a CableCARD slot and add DCAS support to those devices. I wouldn’t rule it out, especially as the cable industry would probably like that to keep their CableCARD STBs compatible. But I wouldn’t worry about any of this in the near term.

They did say that the Tuning Resolver is a high priority for the cable industry and that development is still on track for summer availability. As I reported recently, it looks like early July will be the earliest possible availability date.

Ben Drawbaugh of Engadget shared his horror story of having his cable MSO try to talk him out of using CableCARD and the installers not knowing how to handle the install, and I have to second that. While Charter didn’t try to talk me out of using CableCARD, and the installers who have come to my home has been polite and courteous, they clearly didn’t have enough training and experience installing CableCARD. When I had my first install, as a TiVo Series3 reviewer, I could understand it as I was the first person in the territory to have CableCARDs installed in a TiVo and there weren’t even many CableCARD TVs installed. But over a year later the experience wasn’t much different. And when I’ve had trouble and needed support, the support techs are also woefully confused by CableCARD. As of the last time I called the automated system still didn’t have an option for CableCARD in the menus. Fortunately I’m fairly educated on the technology and determined (aka stubborn), and I was able to make a contact in my local office who has been willing to handle my issues without my dealing with the standard support system. The cable MSOs really need to do a better job on the customer service and support front with CableCARD.

I think Ben was a little confused on DCR+. My understanding of the DCR+ CE proposal pretty much agrees with how the NCTA sees it. It would be today’s DCR with the addition of limited two-way support for specific services such as SDV, PPV, and VOD. But it would not be an open platform for expansion and future services as OCAP is. Of course, specs can evolve so other features could be added to DCR+. However, at this point I personally think DCR+ is DOA. Consumer electronics vendors such as Panasonic and TiVo are already breaking ranks and developing OCAP/tru2way support, and virtually the entire cable industry is investing in OCAP/tru2way. DCR+ just doesn’t have the support to make it.

The call was recorded, and if you really want to know about the history and current situation I encourage you to listen to it, especially if you’re a blogger who covers this arena. It will be available after 15:00 EST today through May 25th (I guess they keep them for a month). Call 1-800-475-6701 and enter access code 920821.

A lot of bloggers were on the call, I know HD Guru, Engadget, Zatz Not Funny (which has already posted about the call), Multichannel News, and others were all on there, so keep watching for their posts.

On the other hand I’ve been impressed by the previews of Android, and it already has more industry support than Palm OS – before it even releases. I’ve tried Windows Mobile and Symbian S60, but frankly I’d rather stick with even ragged old Palm OS than use either one. Android is the first alternative I’ve seen that has tempted me to switch. More than tempted really, at this point I’m pretty sure I’ll be jumping to Android this year unless something goes drastically wrong with the devices.

So I’m happy to see T-Mobile confirm they will have Android-based phones available in 4Q2008. Personally I use AT&T, but since they’re both GSM odds are any phones available for T-Mobile will also be available for AT&T, or at least in a non-subsidy-locked model that I could use. I want a GSM/HSPA smartphone with a decent touchscreen and a good physical keyboard, like my Treo, but with an OS that isn’t five years out of date like Palm OS or clunky like WinMob and Symbian (IMHO, of course). Yeah, I’ve tried RIM too, I’ve never liked any of the Blackberry designs and find the OS to be kind of clunky too, and I prefer something more open.

It’s been a while since I was eagerly anticipating the release of a new product family, I just hope Android doesn’t disappoint.

Picked up from Engadget.

Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time.

Will the Catcher ship in ’08? All indications point to this happening in 2008.

The SlingCatcher hardware, which first appeared at the 2007 CES and was shown again at CES ’08, will provide a way of watching your Slingbox from another TV, as opposed to the SlingPlayer software, which requires a computer and fast network connection; it can also bring online video to a television. See Engadget’s post or the Crave post at CNET for the full user email and Gregg’s reply.

Check out more of Mark’s recent writing at Mark_TV and TidBITS.

For the past year and a half I have received many referrals from readers, for which I am very grateful. I don’t recommend TiVo for the rewards, but I’d be lying to say it isn’t nice to get something by way of thanks. I’ve been recommending TiVo since early 2002, when I got my first box, long before there was a TiVo Rewards program. And the termination of the program won’t change that either. I recommend TiVo because I genuinely feel it is a good product and worthy of my recommendation. TiVo Rewards was nice while it lasted, but I always viewed it as a fringe benefit. I’ll miss it, but I’m grateful for the time it was available and there are no hard feelings on my part.

But, since the announcement, I’ve seen posts from upset people at TiVoCommunity, like this winner:

Is TiVo offering us anything in compensation for removing this program? I assume not and hope to find a lawyer who would like a class action suit. It is very disgusting how a place offers something, gets you hooked, and then says you’re loosing that feature with nothing in return.

Words fail me. Other than to say this kind of attitude exemplifies the things wrong with our society. I’d say it lowers my opinion of humanity, but I’ve been online since 1989, so that’s no longer so easy to do. I’d almost be disappointed if some dimwit didn’t whip out the ‘class action’ call over this. I’m waiting for someone to compare TiVo to the Nazis. Still, it gets a deep sigh and a shake of the head.

And there there are articles such as “TiVo shuttering Rewards program, screwing its best customers” at Engadget. It contains the following:

This won’t matter to the vast majority of TiVo customers, no no, this decision only screws the company’s staunchest word-of-mouth advocates. You know the kind, the alpha geeks obsessed enough with the company’s products to others spend their time zealously recommending it to friends and family in the hopes of spreading the premium DVR experience (and earning some points while they’re at it).

You know, I kind of vaguely resemble that remark. OK, not so vaguely, I pretty much define“alpha geeks obsessed enough with the company’s products to others spend their time zealously recommending it to friends and family in the hopes of spreading the premium DVR experience”. Yet I feel distinctly unscrewed. Why should I feel screwed? I got points for something I was doing anyway, recommending TiVo. And I should feel screwed because now I can’t earn points, just like it was before they introduced TiVo Rewards? Why? Oh noes, TiVo isn’t giving me free stuff anymore! Those bastards! I bet they killed Kenny too!

There is a word for someone who recommends products only for a reward – shill. And while I have been accused of being a shill, more than once, I kindly disagree. I’ve gotten TiVo a bit upset with me more than once due to things I’ve posted. If I think TiVo got something wrong, I say so. When I disagree with TiVo’s approach or implementation, I say so. TiVo is definitely not perfect, I just think they’re the best DVR on the market today. And I’d even qualify that to say TiVo is not the best choice for everyone, and for some users one of the alternatives will be the best choice. I speak my mind, whether or not what I say is what TiVo would like to hear. I think that’s important – no one ever improves if they’re only surrounded by yes-men.

Bluntly, I question the sincerity of anyone who would say they’d stop recommending TiVo because TiVo Rewards is terminating. That sounds like the only reason they were recommending TiVo was to earn rewards, and that’s the wrong reason to recommend anything. If it isn’t worth of your recommendation without compensation, then recommending it for compensation shows a lack of integrity. It also means you’ve recommended something to others that you don’t actually believe in, which is dishonest. You’ve lied to those you recommended the product to by making them believe you support the product when you were in it for the rewards. In short, you’re a shill. If you genuinely believed in the product you wouldn’t stop recommending it just because you stopped earning rewards.

The fact is, the termination of TiVo Rewards doesn’t change the product. If it was worth recommending before, then it is still worth recommending. And if it wasn’t, then it isn’t now. Whether or not you recommend something should depend on your opinion of the product, not on how many rewards you can earn by pitching it. (I treat affiliate programs for the site the same way. I get pitches for a number of programs, but I only use those for sites, software, etc, I personally use or would recommend. If I wouldn’t shop there I’m not going to send others there just because they give me a cut.)

This is all just business. I talked to TiVoPony by phone on Friday and confirmed that TiVo is developing a new loyalty program, which will launch later this year. As part of the switch they are terminating their relationship with their current rewards program administrator. That requires closing out the program, which is why everyone needs to redeem their points before the program officially closes out. There isn’t any malicious intent or conspiracy, just changes in the business. There has been some crazy speculation on why TiVo is doing this, a lot of it giving TiVo far too little credit for intelligence. TiVo certainly knows how the program has performed, and what their return has been. As they’re switching to a new loyalty program (and no, I still haven’t been able to pry details out of TiVo), they must feel the new program will provide them with better results. They’re not throwing out the entire concept of a loyalty program, they’re going to try something different.

Remember the point of the program is not really to reward loyal users, but to drive business growth by rewarding loyal users. Don’t confuse the ends and the means. Maybe they weren’t getting a good return on the current program. Or maybe they feel the new program will simply provide a better return. Either way it would make sense to terminate the current program. There is no reason to be angry, or feel ‘screwed’, unless you were using the program for the wrong reasons.

So I’m fine with it, and I’m hopeful that the new loyalty program will be interesting. I look forward to seeing what form the new program takes. I’m going to get my parents a TiVo, as I promised, only now I’ll get them one of the new lifetime TiVo HD bundles. instead of a Series3. I might pick up a TiVo HD for myself, I’m sure I’ll get an HDTV for the bedroom eventually. And I’ll be doing some giveaways on the site for those who leave real comments on the blog. (Hint.)

Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

Toshiba will cease all production of HD DVD by the end of March:

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

I’m thrilled to see the end of this war, doubly so to see Blu-ray finally carry the day. I’ve been calling the war for Blu-ray since before either product shipped, and I was sorry to see a war develop in the first place. Now that the war is over and we’ll have one format going forward I look forward to more Blu-ray title releases and player advancements. There are definitely a few Universal & Paramount titles I look forward to picking up on Blu-ray.

I’m also hopeful that Toshiba will join the BDA and devote their product development expertise toward producing top-notch Blu-ray players. Toshiba’s HD DVD players were decent hardware, and it gives hope that they’ll be able to produce some nice BD decks. I do think they’ll join the BDA, since the alternative is to sit out the next-generation disc market completely. And while Toshiba may have a healthy DVD business, I can’t see them yield the high-def market to the competition without any response. They’re statement seems to indicate they plan to remain a player:

“We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop,” said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. “While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”

Of course, there are still some unanswered questions. Will those who invested in HD DVD players recently get any compensation? (I’d guess no.) How many HD DVD owners will return their players before the return window closes? Will we see a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360? Would Microsoft consider bundling Blu-ray into a new model of the 360 now that there is one format, to compete more directly with the PS3? (That’s probably a stretch – but I think a BD add-on drive will happen.)

Press release picked up via EngadgetHD.

EDIT. Engadget Japan is at the Toshiba press conference. From the Q&A session:

Q: Any plans to adopt Blu-ray?
A: No plans at all, not at this moment.

Q: Are there no plans for next gen optical disc at all?
A: We don’t have any plans to announce at this time.

Of course, keep in mind that just yesterday Toshiba was stating that no final decision had been made to exit the HD DVD market. So not having any plans at this moment likely means just that – they haven’t decided exactly what they will do going forward and won’t have anything to announce until they’ve had time to formulate those plans.

Interesting to see their figures for HD DVD players sold – since it is quite a bit short of the ‘one million’ figure that the HD DVD camp oft repeated previously:

Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell?
A: 600,000 players in the US — 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide.

EDIT 2: I see that, sometime today, Engadget edited their post and it now reads:

Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell?
A: 600,000 players in the US and 300,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 1,030,000 units worldwide.

It looks like they updated it to list the 300,000 Xbox 360 drives *in addition to* the 600,000 standalone players, and not as part of that 600,000. Which puts the total just over the one million mark.

This was my fifth CES in a row (and I’m already thinking about next year), so maybe I’m getting a little jaded, but I was a bit disappointed this year. There didn’t seem to be any ‘hot’ item, something that everyone was talking about, some new idea that fired people up. For example, a couple of years ago a lot of people were talking about Sling Media when they launched their first Slingbox. I don’t think it was just me, since I had similar conversations with a number of people on the show floor, the monorail, etc – and it seemed to be a common sentiment. Sure, there was a 150″ TV, which was impressive, but it is really just a bigger TV. You kind of expect bigger TVs each year. Pioneer’s 9mm thick Kuro was also impressive, but it isn’t something we’ll be able to buy for a few years, if ever. So this year seemed to be more evolutionary and predictable. The only real surprise news was Warner’s Blu-ray announcement, which certainly got a lot of buzz throughout the show.

Sure, there were some cool announcements, and specifically relating to this blog, and my interests, we had TiVo’s web video announcemnt, several Sling Media announcements, etc. But it just wasn’t as big as past years with the TiVo Series3 being unveiled or the initial announcement of the SlingCatcher. Oh well, you can’t have big news every year – there’s always next year.

There was one item that I didn’t expect to inspire my techno-lust to the degree it did – the Optimus Maximus keyboard from Art. Lebedev Studio. I’ve been watching the development of this since it was first shown as a concept several years ago, and it seemed to be perpetual vapor ware. CES was my first chance to see it in person, and I expected it to be nifty, but not to be as cool as it was. Photos just don’t do it justice, the keys look great, and they really ‘pop’. The colors are bright, the graphics are sharp, and if I had $1,500 to spare I’d probably buy one. Of course, since my main personal machine is a laptop, it would be a little silly. But it is just so cool in action. Even simple things like the case of the characters displayed on the keys changing when you press shift inspires my techno-lust. I can see this kind of tech spreading as the parts become cheaper.

But the real highlight of CES for me was getting to meet people I’d only seen online previously. I got to meet Ben Drawbaugh and Steven Kim of Engadget/EngadgetHD, Charlie White and Curtis Walker of Gizmodo, and, of course, Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny (and Sling Media). There were a few people I was hoping to see that I didn’t manage to catch in the chaos, but it is nice to get to meet some folks in person. Maybe one of the years some company (like Sling perhaps?) will throw a little gathering for tech bloggers. I don’t mean a press event, but sponsor a gathering just to get everyone together in one place to finally put faces to the names. (And if someone has done this, damn, I didn’t know about it.)

I’m already looking forward to next year.