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Loads of TiVo news from CES

TiVo announced a handful of long-awaited and interesting things today at CES. They are:

• TiVoToGo Mac client, finally! Dave Zatz has screenshots.
• Real and TiVo announced Rhapsody for music on TiVos.
• Comcast/TiVo partner device shown on the floor.

Remember that TiVoToGo was announced three years ago, and launched exactly two years ago. There has been talk of a Mac client for all of those two years, so it's great that the day is finally here, though it does come in the form of a $100 DVD-burning application and not a free download from TiVo. Also, remember it still will only work with Series 2 TiVos.

I'm happy to hear about Rhapsody's unlimited subscription streaming music service coming to TiVo. I always wondered why XM or Sirrius never partnered with TiVo but Rhapsody is a good fit (and no additional hardware needed). For people into music on Windows and Zunes and such, this will probably be a good option for streaming music on their home theater system, though I doubt it brings many customers to sign up with Rhapsody.

On the TiVo/Comcast front, I'm intrigued and can't wait to see what the device looks like and can do. These days, Comcast subscribers face the question of their $5/month buggy HD DVR versus an extraordinarily expensive Series 3 TiVo box. If Comcast releases some form of the TiVo OS to their DVR lineup, I can't imagine too many Series 3 TiVos will be sold. Of course, having TiVo shift to being a software company that relies on licensing deals is the way to go, especially since the many millions of Comcast customers would dwarf the current TiVo subscriber numbers. Making software for cable companies has to be a lot easier than building hardware and having to support millions of boxes in people's homes.

Overall, I'm glad to see TiVo moving forward with a lot of long-talked about stuff and still being able to surprise me as well.

by Matt Haughey January 8, 2007 in News

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