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Dave Zatz has the low-down on the new TiVo-badged 802.11g wireless adpaters. It's already for sale on TiVo's site, and should help those that complain about slow TiVoToGo and Mult-Room transfers.
Many of the comments on Zatz' site mention the new adapter doesn't support WPA wireless security, so if security is your utmost concern, it's probably best to go with a wired adapter, but for most folks with open points or simple WEP, it should work fine.
PCWorld published a list of the 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years that includes all the breakthrough, useful products of the past, with most emphasis on the last couple decades. The Walkman is number one, but a close third is a tie between TiVo and ReplayTV for revolutionizing the way we watch TV.
Pretty amazing news from the company that refuses to die: ReplayTV will be launching PVR software for the PC that will ship with Hauppauge TV cards next year.
It's interesting to see a full service, hardware/software company like ReplayTV move into a strictly software realm. I'm curious what it will do to their profitability -- you can only make so much money selling $50 software packages compared to selling $300 boxes, though of course it's a lot easier to focus solely on software. Partnering with Hauppauge is a great plan, as they are the leading seller of TV cards for the PC, so ReplayTV will have instant uptake among Home Theater PC builders. Time will tell if this is a good move for the future of ReplayTV.
Holy crap. I've seen DVR-related contests before, but never one like this. The new DirecTV DVR (their first without TiVo software running) seems to be locked down, and Weaknees, the company known for TiVo upgrades is willing to pay up to $25,000 for a hard drive upgrade solution [via BoingBoing].
There are a slew of DVR upgrade companies out there, but I never really sat and thought about how much sales a company like that could garner. With $25k up for grabs for an enterprising hacker, I suspect potential sales of upgrade drives for the device must be 10x that.
IMG_1484
Originally uploaded by jackmon.
The global TiVo tag on Flickr turns up some interesting stuff. There's this great halloween costume pictured above (the shoes really sell it) and there are of course images of upgrades, TiVos ignoring phone lines, messed up TiVos, Slingboxed TiVos, TiVo charging palms, and the dreaded green screen of death. The most fun is the other stuff people do with their TiVos. There are babies with TiVo remotes and even dogs. There are people hugging TiVo and licking TiVo. There are people acting out TV and including TiVo. There's TiVo at Disneyland and TiVo repair trucks on the road. There's even TiVo in the snow. Next Halloween, I'll have to try this.
And of course, this religious iconography is probably how most fans of TiVo picture it in their minds.
st. claire
Originally uploaded by rocket_la.
Through a totally random sequence of events where a friend of a friend met someone at a party, I ended up talking to Michael Cronan of Cronan Design. Michael is noted for coming up with the name "TiVo" and mascot concept that they're still using successfully in 2005. He was kind enough to take the time to answer my questions about the process that came up with "TiVo" and how the name has worked ever since.
Matt Haughey, PVRblog: Take us back to the very beginning of the project. Before TiVo had a name or mascot, how was the project described to you when you began? Did they have a pretty good idea of the total features or was it pitched as just a "tapeless VCR?"
Michael Cronan, Cronan Design: Mike [Ramsay, former CEO of TiVo -- ed.] invited me to his home one afternoon to discuss the project. I'd created the color-name series concept for the computers Indigo and Crimson for his group at Silicon Graphics, as well as worked with him on the Silicon Studio project, the school SGI established to train animators on their technology. The project code name was Teleworld.
It was initially a "smart house" concept; a robust disc drive that would control features and functions in the home, including entertainment. I thought that the entertainment component would be the popular part of the offering, the part that was the newest, most amazing idea. Others thought so as well. When they called me in officially a few months later to start work on the identity, it was all about TV.
MH: Wow, I had no idea it started out as a whole-home concept. I'm glad they honed in on TV, given how historically it's been difficult to market and explain to people. And now the "teleworld" name from the filesystem makes sense.
When did you start work on the project, and about how long did it take to come up with "TiVo" and the mascot?
MC: We started in spring 1997. We had roughly six weeks to create a name and an identity. It may be hard to believe, but we reviewed probably 1600-plus name alternatives, seriously considered over 800 names, and presented over 100 strong candidates to the team. This might seem like an arduous task but those meetings were filled with fun, laughter and confidence that we would get the right answer.
We work on many new products and services, as well as updating the brands of existing products and services. I've learned that something really new needs to be first a little familiar before consumers can recognize or understand it. That's why marketers use metaphors to help explain new products.
One of the ways to generate a winning answer is to find the right question to ask. Answering questions is relatively easy. Asking the right question is more difficult. This was the technique we used in coming up with TiVo. We spent the early meetings trying to place a cultural context on the product. Was it to be a revolutionary or evolutionary kind of product? Once I began to understand that it could change behavior on an essential level I began to pose questions like, "what would 'the next TV' be like? are we naming the 'next' TV?"
The winning answer was we were naming the next TV. I thought it should be as close as possible to what people would find familiar so it must contain T and V. I started looking at letter combinations and pretty quickly settled on TiVo. I also liked that "i" and "o" were a part of the name from the "in and out" engineering acronym. Additionally I thought "vo" had a nice connection to "vox" and "voce" from the latin for vocal sound and Italian for voice, vote and vow are part of the same root words. In a way, every selection one makes with TiVo is a kind of vote. It was all beginning to make some sense. We created a beginning lexicon of TiVo expressions to help create what we anticipated would be a TiVo culture. One of the expressions was "TiVolution". I liked the similarity of sound to the rock band DEVO and their devolution stance.
Once we'd settled on the name (see the answer to your next question) we began work on creating the identity. I wanted to provide a kind of identity that would become as recognizable as the mouse ears are to Disney. From that impulse I placed a smile under the word that would make a face out of the lettering and signal the happy attitude of the character. We were also thinking of the shape of a TV and so added the rabbit ears. I was driving one day and saw the little Darwinian fish-with-legs evolution character on a bumper and immediately realized that TiVo needed legs.
The next day I presented a little stick figure drawing and everyone started nodding, the TiVo identity became the TiVo mascot. From that concept we developed the extended look and feel of the brand, with color palettes and the elements to create the world of TiVo, "TV my way". Later we realized that the character would need to be refined to help the animators do their work. By then Paul Newby had come aboard and helped direct the refinements to the character. At one point in the review process TiVo got a little too skinny and I urged that he get a little thicker to help keep the TV metaphor clear.
ptpete writes in:
You can now subscribe to rocketboom on your tivo. It will be downloaded daily.
Here's the link to the announcement on TivoCommunity.
You can subscribe via the web or directly from your Tivo.
I think it's great to get some regular original internet content on the TV via Tivo.
Yeah, definitely cool to see TiVo doing this. It'll be great to see where they take this support for videoblogging. It feels a little bit early for this -- there's not a ton of great video blogs/vlogs/vodcasts out there, but this would certainly give people some incentive to create more.
A few days ago, a beta tester leaked images of TiVo's new online features. According to yesterday's USA Today, it sounds like the previously beta-only features are going live. TiVo has a page all about it.
It requires a system update to get these features enabled on your TiVo and it looks like this is the URL to sign up to be first in line to get it. [thanks, Todd]
