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TiVo is attempting to expand its knowledge of its customers with the purchase of a television advertising-effectiveness firm.

The DVR maker announced today that it has agreed to acquire TRA, a company that has developed a database to link the ads people watch in the home to what they actually buy. According to TiVo, TRA currently works with 45 brands and 27 television networks to track advertising effectiveness. TRA's service is matching customer transactions to ads in 1.5 million homes.

"With this new level of unique audience insights and analytics, TiVo will be able to provide insights … Read more

Tired of your cable company's crummy DVR box? The gold-standard replacement has long been, and probably always will be, TiVo.

A typical refurbished TiVo runs $79.99, but while supplies last, Ben's Outlet has the refurbished TiVo Premiere HD DVR for $49.99 shipped. That's one of the lowest prices I've seen for the hardware.

Ah, but the service -- that's where they get you. TiVo charges $14.99 per month (down from the previous $19.99 per month, at least) and requires a one-year commitment. Alternately, you can pay for $499.99 for lifetime … Read more

Today we're rocking out in the cloud to take our minds off our mobile bills:

Verizon has completely restructured nearly all of its phone plans with something called a Share Everything Plan. The plans will give you unlimited text and unlimited voice. As for data, you have to pay for how much data you want a month. Then you have to pay another fee for each device that will use that pool of data.

Verizon is encouraging you to have multiple devices that can all share from the same plan, but it can make your bill more expensive if you're an individual. … Read more

Forget picking up your laptop or tablet to make purchases while watching TV, TiVo users can do it with their remotes.

A new partnership with PayPal will give TiVo users the ability to explore interactive ads and buy products directly through the interface using their PayPal account.

How it seems to work is you'll pop into an ad, buy a product using your PayPal account through a secure transaction, and the item will be shipped to the address registered with PayPal. The products will come either directly from the advertiser or a merchant that takes PayPal.

TiVo is currently working with advertisers to create PayPal-enabled TiVo ads and Showcase campaigns beginning with the fall 2012 TV season.… Read more

It's another day, and a new patent infringement suit sprouts up in the technology world.

Now that Oracle v. Google has wrapped up all save for an appeal, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will be kept busy not just by Apple v. Samsung and Yahoo v. Facebook, but now also Cisco Systems v. TiVo.

Cisco has slapped the living-room entertainment company with a lawsuit over patent infringement regarding digital video recorder box technology.

Similar to another case that recently went on at the federal courthouse in San Francisco, this lawsuit, filed in San … Read more

At the 2012 NCTA Cable Show, TiVo announced the eventual availability (again) of a TiVo IP set-top box for viewing content on secondary TVs and a new streaming box for use with mobile devices.

The TiVo IP set-top box (yes, that's what it's being called for now) works as an extender for a TiVo Premiere Q DVR. Connect the box to a secondary TV and to your home network, and you'll have access to live and recorded TV, video-on-demand services, or other broadband-delivered content through the main DVR.

Presumably it'll tie up one of the Q's tuners to access live TV, but with four tuners in the Q, you should be able to hook up multiple IP set-top boxes throughout your home. … Read more

TiVo's been on a roll with keeping its promises lately (though I probably just jinxed it by saying that). First, it updated large sections of the HD interface in January, and then it actually started rolling out Comcast Xfinity On Demand support, and now comes a software update with shiny new apps for Netflix and YouTube.

Well, new to TiVo users anyway; they're very similar to the apps you'll find on other streaming-media devices.

Each one takes several seconds to launch and connect. However, they're no worse than the previous versions, and you get much more … Read more

If the inability to access video-on-demand (VOD) channels has kept you away from TiVo (and not its service fee), you may soon have to find another excuse. At least if you're a Comcast Xfinity subscriber.

An automatic software update will be pushed to TiVo Premiere users in the Bay Area starting today and over the coming weeks adding access to the Xfinity On Demand library. Additional markets across the country will get access in the coming months.

You can sign up for notifications on the rollout on TiVo's site.

The week is just getting started, and we already have a new patent infringement lawsuit on our hands.

The twist this time is that it is a counter suit from TiVo against both Motorola and Time Warner Cable.

A little over a year ago, Motorola filed a lawsuit against TiVo over patent infringement related to digital video recorders -- some of which focused on patents stemming from as far back as the 1990s.

Now, TiVo has filed counterclaims with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Motorola and Time Warner Cable (one of Motorola's customers) infringed upon the … Read more