I’ve written periodically of my flirtation with dumping cable for an Internet-only approach to my TV watching. I haven’t, however, pulled the trigger–mostly because cable still has a lot of live programming, such as news and sports, that I can’t replicate over the Net alone. That’s why I’m intrigued by Sezmi, a TV service that’s announcing [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, November 12, 2009
Clicker, the search engine for TV shows on the Web that was announced a couple of months ago at TechCrunch50, is now open to the public. I like the idea, the interface, and many of the features, although it’s still rough around the edges in places. The site’s mission is simple enough: It wants to help [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Roku’s little video player is one of my favorite ways to get movies and TV shows off the Internet and onto a TV: It’s cheap, inconspicuous, and ridiculously easy to set up and use. And the content providers–Netflix, Amazon, and Major League Baseball–make for a nice lineup of entertainment. Today, Roku is announcing that its lineup [...]
Continue reading...Saturday, October 24, 2009
The interwebs are abuzz (OMG!) with Hulu’s confirmed exploration of paid tiers and pay-per-view, in addition to the current ad-supported video content model. News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, as quoted by the Associated Press: Are we looking at it with a view of adding subscription services in there and pay-per-view movies? Yes, we are looking at [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, September 24, 2009
Last week I told you about Sling’s MediaCatcher, the device that’s ideal for viewing streaming videos on your TV, as well as MediaGate’s MG-800HD, the other gizmo for watching downloaded movies on your TV. (See “Stream Movies from Your PC to Your TV.”) This week I’ve got a score of spots where you can watch legal movies [...]
Continue reading...Saturday, September 19, 2009
A Q4 2009 release has morphed into a second half of 2010 launch as, I assume, ZillionTV struggles to find distribution partners, perhaps feeling threatened by local broadcasters which don’t appreciate the studio-backed over-the-top video set-top box encroaching on their turf. I also assume their business plan of a free box streaming ad-supported content will [...]
Continue reading...Friday, September 18, 2009
This is a long article. It’s technical and at times downright complicated. [I never knew I had attention deficit disorder until I started reading about media streaming devices. --Tech Edit.] I know some of you are going to skipit. At the same time, I get e-mail kvetching that I’m not writing enough about technology. So there [...]
Continue reading...Monday, September 14, 2009
I can’t remember if anyone onstage at Apple’s press event last week even mentioned the words “Apple TV.” It certainly didn’t announce any major news associated with it. But the product which Apple loves to tell us is a mere hobby is now a better buy. Apple has discontinued the 40GB model (the one I [...]
Continue reading...Monday, August 10, 2009
Roku, the Internet video box that’s simple and fun to use, with a near-impulse price ($99.95), has a new source of content: Major League Baseball. The Roku folks have signed a deal with the MLB to put live broadcasts of all games on the player, starting with the rest of the reason. The games are [...]
Continue reading...Saturday, August 8, 2009
[A NOTE FROM HARRY: I'm tickled to announce that we'll be republishing some of Dave Zatz's posts from his blog Zatz Not Funny here on Technologizer. Dave's a frequent commenter here, but I was a fan of his blog--which focuses on digital media--long before there was a Technologizer. Welcome, Dave!] I love my little Roku box. [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Alas, poor Apple TV. Its manufacturer likes to treat nearly everything it makes as both a technological breakthrough and sales blockbuster, but when it discusses Apple TV at all, it usually dismisses it as a “hobby.” As New TeeVee’s Chris Albrecht points out, the little white set-top box got nary a mention during Apple’s financial [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, July 14, 2009
I keep talking about dumping Comcast, but I’m beginning to think it’s more inevitable than death or taxes. (I recently tried to cancel my Comcast phone line, and they told me that doing so would raise my monthly bill by $4. Checkmate!) If I stick around with Comcast, I might as well enjoy it–and I’m guardedly [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Joost was supposed to be a major part of the future of TV. Instead, the streaming video service went from hot startup to a candidate for “Whatever Happen To?” lists surprisingly quickly. On Tuesday, news broke that it’s refocusing on providing white-label video services, losing its CEO, and laying off much of its staff. What happened? [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, June 25, 2009
Normally, I wouldn’t write here about ad rates for Web content. But as a consumer of Web-based entertainment and information, I found this kind of encouraging: Bloomberg is saying that The Simposons is making more money on ads in its online incarnation on Hulu than it is on broadcast TV. Um, that’s revenue per thousand [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, May 28, 2009
When last we reported on the odd relationship between the Hulu Internet TV service and Boxee media center software–part tango, part warfare–Hulu was doing everything in its power to foil Boxee fans who simply wanted to watch Hulu programming via Boxee’s TV-friendly interface. Today, the company launched a new product: Hulu Desktop. It lets you [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Back before I had an iPhone, I owned an AT&T Tilt phone. I ran the Windows Mobile version of SlingPlayer on it to watch my TiVo back home from my phone, courtesy of the Slingbox in my entertainment center. It worked wonderfully well over the AT&T network, and when I bought an iPhone 3G and [...]
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Monday, November 16, 2009
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