TiVo brings back lifetime subscriptions, plus gifting

I've been meaning to post this for the past few weeks, but TiVo finally brought back the lifetime service option:

through January 2nd, 2008 -- current TiVo owners can upgrade their Series2 to a Series3 or HD with lifetime, or simply upgrade the service on their current S3 / HD -- equipment aside, the service will set you back $399

They also added a way to give a lifetime service TiVo as a gift. The gift+lifetime option is great because one thing that has prevented me from giving anyone in my family a TiVo is that it means another $12-16 month payment for them. It makes for a very expensive gift, but it's a much better way to just give someone TiVo and not have to worry about how much extra cost it will entail for them down the road. [thanks Jon!]

TiVo finally comes to Canada

After years of waiting, it looks like TiVo is finally coming to Canada. There is also an official TiVo mini-site about Canada.

This has been a long time coming with reports going back over two years that this was "coming soon" following almost four years of hacking together some solutions for home-spun guide data.

It looks like the offering isn't HD, just the standard dual-tuner 80 hour box but after many years of waiting, at least it's better than nothing. (thanks, Iain!)

Washington State students offered cheap TiVo in dorms

This is a pretty cool story out of Washington State. As part of the campus housing TV services, students will have the opportunity to buy a dual tuner 80hr Series 2 TiVo plus a full year of service for only $125. That's almost half the cost of the same box and service contract directly from tivo.com.

It's a bit of an extravagance for college, but back when I was in college I remember everyone would rush home for Simpsons and Seinfeld and having something like a TiVo would have been incredibly convenient for watching on my own free time (it'd also be a great way to procrastinate before a test).