But what’s this on Amazon? A TCD746500? Yep, it is listed as a TiVo Premiere with 500GB, or 75 hours of HD recording. And it shows as “Usually Ships in 2 to 5 weeks”, so it may be about to launch. The price is $149.99, which slots in between the current 320GB model’s $99.99 MSRP and the Premiere XL’s $299.99. So perhaps this will be a new family member and not a replacement/upgrade of the current Premiere? Maybe, but I doubt it.

Personally, if this is really coming to market, I expect it to replace the 320GB model. There isn’t enough differentiation between 320GB and 500GB to keep both models in production. And the branding on the Amazon page is simply ‘TiVo Premiere’, just like today’s 320GB model. Having two units with the same branding with only the drive being different would seem to be too confusing for consumers.

I’ll note that in my post last week on TiVo’s pitch to cable operators I linked to TiVo’s one-sheet on the TiVo Premiere as offered to MSOs, and it has a 500GB drive. Perhaps they’re seeking to simplify their supply chain by just producing one 500GB model for both retail and MSOs? It could also be 320GB drives are getting harder to source, it has been a while since the Premiere first launched.

Based on the specs given this is a revised Premiere, and not based on the Premiere Elite – it still lists antenna support. But it could have other internal revisions, past models of TiVo have had minor board re-spins during their lifespans. Note that the images on the Amazon listing aren’t anything to go by. The front photos of the unit are a TiVo Premiere, the box is clearly from the 320GB model as it states “45 Hours”, and the rear image is of a Premiere XL prototype/beta unit – the “TCD7F8″ serial is a giveaway. (Pre-production TiVo units replace a digit with a letter.)

I’ve emailed TiVo to see if they have anything official to say about this 500GB TiVo Premiere. But I suspect Amazon jumped the gun in listing this. I did look for other sites and found some that also listed this – but on further investigation they all tied back to Amazon in some way.

Spotted via FaceBook.

• TiVo® Premiere DVR
• 1 year of TiVo service free
• 42″ Insignia™ HDTV
• TiVo® Slide remote
• TiVo® Wireless G Adapter

The sweepstakes ends 11/18/2011 at 8:59:59 p.m. PT, so don’t wait too long to enter.

I’ll tackle the second one first, Comcast. For this one I think people just aren’t paying attention. This was announced back in May, and ever since people have been asking when? Which doesn’t make much sense, as the announcement says when and where we’ll see it!

These statements by Comcast and TiVo relate to, among other things, the future integration, availability and promotion of Xfinity TV On Demand Service on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes in select markets with the first expected market to be San Francisco Bay Area early next year and availability in additional markets after that.

OK, so it is hidden in the fine print, but it is there. Elsewhere Comcast made statements that the first customers may see pilot deployments around the end of the year. So either way we shouldn’t expect anything until around the end of the year, and then it’ll be a limited deployment for a while I’d bet. Deploy to one area, shake things out, then expand. But as Comcast is bringing Xfinity TV On Demand to a number of platforms this isn’t an effort unique to TiVo. What’d be really interesting is if Comcast sold some kind of OTT subscription so non-Comcast customers could access Comcast OnDemand. That’d be radical.

And just in case you think Comcast might be backing out, they just mentioned this in a filing with the FCC:

We are working with TiVo on a solution to deliver Xfinity On Demand to TiVo CableCARD devices. We are aiming to start trialing the service later this year.

So be patient.

Now, what about Cox? The deal with Cox was announced way back in August, 2010 and since then both parties have been pretty much silent on the progress, if any. This has led to increasing speculation that the deal collapsed and both parties were just ignoring it. But that doesn’t appear to be the case. Thanks to a comment on InvestorVillage I was alerted to a comment posted on the DSL Reports Forums by a Cox employee in July:

As far as TiVo Premier goes, it is still an active project, but we don’t have a launch date to announce yet.

One comment from Cox in July not enough? Well on Tuesday TiVo responded to a comment on Facebook:

We are working with Cox to enable their VOD on the TiVo Premiere. As soon as we have more information on timing we will update the page!

It is certainly taking a while, but I’m not that surprised. IP-enabling OnDemand isn’t a trivial task. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out to be more work than Cox & TiVo expected. But I’m glad to see the work continues.

This is a bit free form since it was an off-the-cuff Facebook comment, but this is what I’d like to see from TiVo integrating with Facebook, and social media in general. It sounds like they’ll actually be covering a few of these bases in the functionality they’ve announced.

Let us *automatically* sync our Season Passes and Auto-Record Wishlists to Facebook and share them with friends – don’t make us maintain a separate list on FB.

Let us recommend shows to FB friends that they can accept and have it automatically setup a recording on their TiVo. You can have it set to manually approve recommendations, or auto-accept all of them. I see these slotting it just above TiVo Suggestions – they only record if nothing else is recording, just like TiVo Suggestions. They delete second – after all TiVo Suggestions are deleted these are deleted. And should have their own ‘Friend’s Suggestions’ group in the NPL.

Let us rate/recommend shows right from the TiVo and have it update our Walls. Even include comments – I could see this helping to sell a few Slide Remotes.

Not directly FB related, but how about integrating support for Miso? https://gomiso.com/ (I don’t use it, but I see a lot of Wall posts from people who do. If I could do it from my TiVo, I might.)

Let me setup special groups of friends, etc, such that our tastes influence each other’s TiVo Suggestions. Or maybe this would be yet another grouping – Hive Mind Suggestions, as it were. So say I have a bunch of anime fan friends, we pool as a group and then the shows they like are more likely to be recorded as Suggestions on my TiVo, and on their TiVos. Basically adding ‘weight’ to their thumb ratings above the general anonymous masses.

Going *way* out there, how about something like Sling’s still born ‘Clip & Sling’ functionality where we can mark a section of a show while watching on our TiVos, then post that clip with a comment. If uploading the video, or otherwise getting the clip, is too much, maybe it offers a link where they can have the same clip highlighted on their TiVo if they have the episode recorded. This would be useful for fans of s show who want to discuss it. Again, sell those TiVo Slide Remotes.

Offer an easy way to create ‘Record this episode’ or ‘Create a Season Pass’ links for people to use in comments – as well as on fan pages for shows, etc. Synergy, if you’ll forgive me.

Oh – Idea for a browser plug-in – ‘Send To TiVo’! When you see a video online that you like it’d let you tell your TiVo at home to download the video and have it waiting for you to watch on the big screen. It wouldn’t work with all videos, but most of them should work with today’s TiVos. This would be more useful as a plug-in for Chrome, Firefox, etc, as it’d work on any site, not just sites you convince to add some button for this, etc.

But the basic ability to update FB status and/or tweet about the show I’m watching (again, nice Slide Remote right here, waiting), while I’m watching it, would probably be what I used most.

So what about you? What kind of integration do you want to see between TiVo and social media? Or are you a curmudgeon who thinks social media is just a passing fad and TiVo shouldn’t waste their time on it?

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.

• TiVo® Premiere DVR
• Product Lifetime service
• TiVo® Slide Remote
• TiVo® Wireless G Adapter
• 42″ Insignia Connected HDTV
• 6 FREE months of Hulu Plus

In addition to the Grand Prize, 25 first prize winners will receive 6 FREE months of Hulu Plus.

Interesting that they’re giving away a TiVo Premiere and one of the new Best Buy Insignia TiVo-powered Connected TVs. Perhaps this lends weight to the rumor that the Insignia TVs will be able to stream content from the Premiere once streaming support is launched in general? They could give away any TV.

The sweepstakes is open to legal residents of the 50 US states plus D.C., and you have to enter by 9/22/11. So get to it, enter now.

Oh, and you need to actually enter the sweepstakes. It happens every time TiVo does this, people post comments on their wall as if that’s how you enter.

It seems a domain name squatter had grabbed tivo.co.uk before TiVo got it. Ted was in charge of the product launch and really wanted the domain name, but the squatter was asking $15,000 for it. TiVo was unwilling to pay such extortion, so Ted decided to try something a bit tricky to get the better of the squatter. He had TiVo’s web team create uk.tivo.com and told the squatter TiVo was no longer interested. Because of the high price TiVo would just go with uk.tivo.com and the squatter was welcome to keep tivo.co.uk.

Suddenly the squatter goes from seeing easy money to holding a nearly worthless domain. If TiVo wasn’t interested in paying him for it, who else was going to pay him big money? No one else was likely to start a company named ‘TiVo’ in the UK, after all.

That’s where Ted really got tricky. Behind the scenes he recruited Gary, one of TiVo’s early customer advocates, to approach the squatter as a user who was interested in launching a TiVo fan site for UK TiVo owners. Since Gary was already known as a vocal member of the TiVo community it was certainly a plausible story. Seeing a chance to salvage something from the blown deal, the squatter agreed to sell the domain to Gary for £500. He originally wanted more, but Gary explained he was starting a non-profit fan site and simply couldn’t afford to pay more, so the squatter took what he thought he could get. It was a far cry from the $15,000 he wanted from TiVo. In exchange TiVo gave Gary a free TiVo DVR with lifetime service.

Gary ran a fan site at the domain for a couple of months to complete the ruse and avoid abuse from the squatter, as he wouldn’t know he’d been had. To complete the process Gary told the squatter TiVo’s lawyers had come after him and he was being forced to turn over the domain to TiVo, making him look like the victim. Gary turned over the domain, which TiVo then used for their product launch as they wanted to all along. And the domain squatter probably thought he’d gotten away with making £500 off of a domain that he would’ve been forced to turn over if he’d still held it when the lawyers got involved, that he’d taken Gary for the money for a domain he couldn’t hold. In reality he sold the domain for less than he probably could’ve made if he’d asked for a more reasonable amount up front, TiVo saved money and potential legal fees, and Gary got a TiVo and lifetime service, which was worth more than £500 at the time.

I really can’t stand domain name squatters, so I think this whole escapade is just awesome. I’m really glad Ted and Gary shared this story, it isn’t the kind of thing you often hear about in corporate histories.

I wonder if the domain name squatter will read this and realize he was had over a decade ago. I kind of hope he does.

You can read the story in their own words at Facebook.

Although the launch itself seems to have a few glitches so far. The two new models are up on Best Buy’s website, the 32″ NS-32E859A11 and 42″ NS-42E859A11, but the prices given are $599.99 and $999.99 – when they are actually a much more palatable $499.99 and $699.99, respectively. And, interestingly, the online product descriptions don’t mention TiVo at all. In fact, they’re kind of weak, and don’t really cover the full capabilities of the product. They really need to be spruced up to better reflect the breadth of features available.

Furthermore, the packaging displays a ‘Mobile Code’ (a QR Code), which Dave Zatz helpfully has a nice photo of, but the page isn’t active. I scanned it and it resolves to http://bby.us/?c=BAEB1, which currently redirects to http://bby.us/TBD and an error not found. Someone at Best Buy is asleep as the switch, I think. Hopefully Best Buy will resolve these issues ASAP to avoid any bad first impressions or confusion.

The TVs themselves look like good values (at the correct pricing), especially the 42″ model. They’re fairly inexpensive for LED HDTVs (the industry calls LED-lit LCD sets ‘LED’ while ‘LCD’ sets have conventional backlighting – but both use LCD panels to create the actual image) and they are well stocked for connected TVs. The bundled apps include Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Insignia OnDemand (which is powered by Flingo), Pandora, Napster, Photobucket, Facebook, Twitter, and more. But the real app power comes from support for Chumby apps, which provide over 1,500 app options. It’s no iOS App Store, or Android App Market, but it is a much broader selection than other connected TVs offer. And Chumby’s Flash environment is open to third party app developers, so they can start targeting apps to the big screen. Since the work has been done to integrate Chumby apps with the TiVo platform for these TVs, I’m hoping this will trickle down to the DVR units as well. The addition of Chumby apps would provide a huge jump start to TiVo’s anemic app selection.

As far as the specs go, they’re both Energy Star rated 1080p sets with 120Hz refresh, with four HDMI inputs and one each DVI, PC/VGA, component, composite, and RF antenna inputs. Interestingly they lack a media card slot (no CF/SD), but they do have a USB port. I’m not sure if the USB port supports mass storage for media access, but I’ll note that TiVo DVRs with USB ports do not. Both sets include audio technology from Audyssey and SRS. They also include a slot for a card to support Best Buy’s Rocketboost wireless audio system, which interfaces with Insignia Rocketboost enabled wireless speakers, etc. Network connectivity is via Ethernet or the built-in dual-band 802.11n WiFi. Both sets come with a two-year warranty, which is rather good.

I’m a little disappointed that the remote control isn’t a TiVo Peanut and that it lacks QWERTY (given the connected nature of the device), but it looks decent enough. It is a more conventional rectangular remote with a combination of conventional buttons and TiVo buttons. There’s a TiVo button, as you might expect, as well as an ‘Apps’ button to jump straight into the apps screen, the obligatory thumbs up/down, etc. A bit more busy/cluttered than a normal TiVo remote, but it looks functional. It is also a universal remote, and supports both RF (Z-Wave, not Bluetooth) and IR. It can be programmed to control up to three other devices – such as your cable DVR, a receiver, and an audio source – via on-screen menus, without having to enter codes.

An interesting feature of these TVs is that they are designed to work with your existing STB. The TV’s themselves lack CableCARD support, and are not DVRs, of course. But that’s where the universal remote comes in. When you want to access linear content you basically switch to your existing STB, but can control it from the same remote. I was disappointed to learn that there is a very limited EPG on these sets, just three hours of OTA. I wonder if if it is even downloading the EPG or just using PSIP. The TiVo Search capabilities are limited to the broadband accessible content, unlike a conventional TiVo where they encompass broadband and linear TV. I was hoping for something where you would have the full EPG just like on a DVR, and maybe integration with STBs via IR blasters. But these TVs are really focused on OTT content, leaving linear content to your existing sources. With the network remote on the TiVo S3+ they really could’ve done some transparent integration, the TV’s UI could’ve proxied for the DVR completely.

The elephant in the room is interoperability with existing TiVo units, specifically the TiVo Premiere. And right now the answer is – we don’t know. We have a pretty darn good idea, but there is nothing official. Unofficially it is expected that when TiVo officially launches streaming from the TiVo Premiere, these TVs will be able to act as a client. That would allow these TVs to be used as extenders in other rooms, streaming from a central TiVo Premiere – or TiVo Premiere Elite. Dave Zatz reports his sources indicate that not only is TiVo streaming is under discussion – but also DirecTV RVU, which would allow streaming form DirecTV DVRs in the home. (Maybe the new DirecTiVo will also support RVU? OK, that’s a big leap to make.) We do know TiVo is used MoCA in forthcoming products, and DirecTV also uses MoCA for their whole home DVR (which some people incorrectly call DECA – that’s the adapter, the protocol is still MoCA). There’s no mention of MoCA in these sets, but a DECA (DirecTV Ethernet-to-Coaxial Adapter) or ECB (Ethernet-to-Coaxial Bridge, for the non-DirecTV systems), would solve that.

There is no MRV, of course, as the TVs lack local storage and MRV makes a local copy. All of the services included on the sets are streaming – note no Blockbuster or Amazon video support either, as both systems are primarily download to play. Best Buy says they’re looking to add additional services in the future, I hope that includes Hulu and support for Amazon Instant Video. I think they missed a trick by not including and SD slot. They could’ve used it as many Blu-ray players do for BD-Live content, as user-added storage. Stick in a blank SD card and download a movie, use MRV, etc. Maybe they can use the USB port.

The other nugget from Zatz’s report is that the TVs include an all-new, redesigned Netflix app. That’s something TiVo users have been asking for for ages, so I hope it trickles down to existing units. I suspect it is Flash based, like everything on this platform seems to be, so it may only come to Premiere owners.

As part of their press push, Best Buy also released some ‘B-Roll’ footage for video bloggers, TV spots, etc., to grab clips from. I thought it was an interesting curiosity, so I stuck it on YouTube to share with you all. Warning, it starts with a test pattern with a piercing ‘beep’, just for a moment.

Right now I’m interested in a TiVo Premiere Elite for my main room and two TiVo Preview units – for the bedroom and my front room. If these TVs get TiVo streaming support, I’d seriously consider them. But it depends on how well the streaming works. If I can stream all my recordings and downloads from the main unit that’d be an easy choice. But I’d like to see some way to access Amazon and Hulu – this household no longer has a Netflix account but we do have Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus accounts. If the Preview provides access to those, but the TVs do not, it’d make the choice less clear.

While there is no confirmation, or refutation, of the July 31st launch date, but his sources indicate pricing for the 32″ 1080p LED HDTV will be $599 and the 42″ 1080p LED HDTV will be $999. Those prices may sound high, but these are LED HTDVs, and for LED models those prices are pretty reasonable. And, if they’re accurate, they’re probably MSRP – and who pays MSRP? Dave also believes he’s found the specs: 1080p, 120Hz LED LCD, dual band 802.11n wireless, 4 HDMI ports, 3 speakers. Not bad.

Shortly after making his post, Dave was contacted by a tipster who provided a number of photos of the 42″ model’s packaging. The photos confirm most of the information, and provide even more. The new branding is ‘TiVo Design’, which seems like TiVo’s version of ‘Intel Inside’. The remote is, unfortunately IMHO, not a TiVo peanut, but looks like a button farm brick.

The TV’s have no DVR, as we knew, just using the TiVo HDUI from the Premiere to access OTT content and for the guide. There will not be a subscription fee to use the service.

But what is really interesting are the included apps. This is a TiVo-powered TV, so you might expect expect services like Photobucket, Pandora, Netflix and YouTube, and they’re there. But so are Twitter, Facebook, Napster, CinemaNow, Insignia OnDemand, and Chumby apps. Best Buy owns Napster & CinemaNow, and of course Insignia, so these aren’t much of a surprise. But what makes these interesting is that the work must have been done to integrate then into the TiVo UI for these HDTVs. And if that work has been done, doesn’t it make sense to leverage it for the standalone TiVo units like the Premiere? We’ve heard mention of Twitter and Facebook apps in conjunction with MSO deals in the past, but this looks like it will be the first public appearance of such apps.

And, to start a rumor:

• TiVo has talked about apps as part of their new platform.
• Chumby’s app development environment is Flash.
• TiVo’s new platform also just happens to use Flash for apps.

Could TiVo jump-start their app library, as well as their developer base, by adopting Chumby’s app environment for their platforms outside of the Insignia TVs? It would certainly give them a shot in the arm. They’d benefit from the established library of apps, and the combined platform would provide a larger user base, which is more appealing to developers.

Certainly something to think about.

I suspect this may be more viral marketing (getting users to talk about a feature they already plan to add, especially as the work is being done in the UK) than an actual poll of interest. Still, it can’t hurt to let them know if you want it, if indeed you do.

I’ve been increasingly missing blogging, and I slowly started getting things together for a relaunch several months ago. I decided that if I was going to start blogging again, first I wanted to make some changes, as well as adapt to the changes in online trends from the past few years – like social networking. So there are a few things I wanted to point out.

First, and most obvious, I’ve upgraded most of the software – new version of WordPress, new plugins, etc. I also took the opportunity to create a new theme for the site, based on the ‘TwentyTen’ default theme. I know a number of readers disliked the old green-on-black look, so I hope the new minimalist look is more to everyone’s liking. I’ve also upgraded to a new caching system, W3 Total Cache, to improve performance, and I’ve installed WPTouch to provide a better mobile version of the site.

One of the more notable changes is that I’ve switched to using Disqus for commenting. I felt that it was a more powerful system, and it is used by large sites such as Engadget, but also smaller sites – like this one. But it gives you one place to manage your comments from multiple sites, track other users you want to follow, etc. A small tip – all of the old site comments were imported into Disqus. If you have a Disqus account I discovered you can ‘claim’ them by switching your Disqus account email to whatever email you used on the comments. Once linked they’ll stick with your account even if you change the email again.

Gizmo Lovers has also joined the modern world of social media, and is represented on Facebook and Twitter. (We need 16 more followers on Facebook before they’ll let me have a nice short link.) New posts made on the site will automatically be mirrored to both, if you prefer to follow the site that way. (The twitter feed at the bottom of the site is my personal account. Mirroring the site’s Tweets on the site seemed kind of redundant.) Of course, the RSS Feed is still around. You may also notice that Gizmo Lovers has a custom short link URL now too – giz.lv, supported by Bit.ly Pro. I registered that several months ago when I first got serious about relaunching, all the cool kids are doing it.

Since I stopped posting, the TiVo Lovers LiveJournal community has gotten pretty quiet. I used to manually cross-post TiVo-related posts to the community, but I won’t be doing that any more. Instead I’ll be letting the software do it for me! I only intend to cross-post TiVo-related posts to the LJ community though, not all posts, to remain within the intended purpose of the community. (I may cross-post administrative posts, like this one, from time to time.) If you’re one of the handful of people still using LJ, and you want to see all the posts, there is still the ‘tivolovers-blog’ RSS feed account. Yes, it dates back to when the blog was TiVoLovers.com, before the switch to GizmoLovers.com.

Of course, there always has to be a glitch. One of the changes that occurred during the hiatus was that I migrated my domains over to Google Apps. Which means I’ve basically retired my old Gmail.com personal address, and migrated all of the various Google services I use to my Google Apps account. One of the last things I did before making my first public post was to open a new AdSense account under my Google Apps account. Unfortunately Google doesn’t provide a simple way to migrate an AdSense account. It is a real grab bag depending on which service you want to migrate, and AdSense is probably the worst.

When I saw it was active I switched all of the ad blocks on the site over to the new account, and started posting. Of course, just a couple of days later Google disabled the new account because it duplicated the old account. So now the AdSense ads on the site aren’t working. I’ve jumped through more hoops, closing my old account completely and that is supposed to allow them to re-enable the new account, but I’m still waiting on that. So that’s why you may see weird yellow-ish boxes on the site right now – those are artifacts of the missing ads. (I’m not going to complain if you use an ad blocker, but it would be nice to have some return from the site…) Hopefully Google will re-enable the account soon.

Aside from that, I’d love some feedback on the new site. Especially if you have any problems with it. Use the contact form to drop me a line. And if you are having problems, please include as many details as you can – platform (Windows, Mac OS, Android, etc.) – including version, browser – also including version, the nature of the problem (any specific error messages would help), etc. There have been a lot of changes under the covers, so I expect there may be some kinks to work out.

I still have some work to do. I plan to overhaul a lot of the existing content. A number of the pages are stale, a lot changes in two years. I’ll be working on that bit by bit.

Oh, and I probably should say one thing – I don’t plan to post as much as I did before the hiatus. I expect to be posting fairly regularly, but a lot has changed in the past couple of years and I don’t expect to be able to spend the hours a day I used to on research and posting. I’ll cover that more in my ‘what happened’ post when I make it, but I will say that one of the big changes that happened during the hiatus is that I’m currently engaged to be married, the wedding is slated for February. So life is a bit different now, in a very good way.

To those of you who stuck it out, thanks for hanging in there. And for those of you who may be reading for the first time, welcome, and I hope you find the site worth your time.

Quickly playing with it, there were a few glitches, but it is a new application and will hopefully evolve. It would be nice if it could pull in your existing Season Pass list from TiVo, right now you have to manually enter the shows you watch into the application – there really isn’t any integration with your TiVo account. But this is definitely a step in the right direction for TiVo, IMHO. As I said recently, I think TiVo needs to do more to exploit social networking and the community of TiVo users. This is a good start, and I think the next logical step would be to port this application to the Google OpenSocial platform which would allow it to work on MySpace, LiveJournal, Orkut, Friendster, Plaxo, LinkedIn, and many other social networking sites (pretty much everyone who isn’t Facebook, which has decided not to join the party) – TiVo could even use it on their own site.

I’d love to see more integration between applications like this and TiVo accounts so that information can be shared to make it easier on users and to allow advanced functionality. Even integration into the TiVo itself, for example, being able to flag a program while watching it so it reminds you to comment in the application, or being able to recommend a program to friends in your network right from the TiVo. I guess we’ll have to see where they go with this. In the meantime, check out the new My TV app.