New Dell PCs look like an old concept, but still cool

Over three years ago, I blogged about some really cool looking home theater PCs. I thought they looked terrific (still do) and they were a refreshing approach to something that might sit in your living room.

Looks like Dell is producing a very similar design with bamboo wrapped cases. They pack HTPC features like blu-ray drives and TV tuners and have pretty good prices. If these were cablecard compatible, I'd actually consider getting one.

BoingBoing Gadgets has all the details on them.

TiVo Summer Update (9.4) rolling out

Dave Zatz has the info on the new updates to TiVo HD and Series 3 software. The new features are summed up as:

• Play or Delete a Folder, all shows in a folder
• Browse the Guide Any Time, even during playback/downloads
• Jump Forward in the Guide 24hrs with a single click
• Find a Station in the Guide using the call letters (MSNBC, CNN)
• Toggle Closed Captioning On and Off with a single click
• Review Thumb Ratings

From the sounds of the new features, this sounds like the efforts of the latest TiVo beta are going live to customers over the next few weeks. A friend had been in on the beta and mentioned a couple of these new features to me and they all look like nice improvements on the experience.

I especially like the station call letter search because I recently changed cable providers and can never remember the station number and making closed captioning turn on/off easier is great. About once a week I'll be watching something and I can't understand what someone is saying on screen, so I'll turn on captioning for a minute to see it typed out, but often it takes longer to enable them and disable them than I even need the feature turned on.