ti

TiVo and JVC copy-protection follow-up

There's still no word on whether the TiVo Series3 will be seeing a price cut in the near future. But in the meantime, it's worth visiting an issue that cropped up during our testing of the box back in the fall of 2006. At that time, we noticed that the Series3 analog-video outputs exhibited some strange behavior when connected to JVC A/V receivers via HDMI--essentially, the composite and S-video outputs wouldn't work when playing back recordings that were flagged as "restricted" by the content provider.

Both TiVo and JVC have since followed up on … Read more

Web news roundup: John McCain, Flip, Gmail, Amazon and TiVo, Ransomeware, Vodafone and MySpace

>> Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images. John McCain wants to give surveillance duty to your Internet service provider and to Web sites to crack down on child pornography. All questionable images would be flagged and sent to the authorities with your IP address. (CNET News.com)

>> Flip launches. Conde Nast's answer to MySpace and other social networks. The service, aimed at teenage girls, lets you create a scrapbook of sorts in the form of a flip book. Your flip book can then be shared on other services. (Mashable)

>> Gmail leaves beta. Lately … Read more

Amazon Unbox video downloads coming to TiVo

TiVo DVR owners will soon be able to watch movies and TV shows purchased or rented from Amazon's Unbox video download service. The new feature, being beta tested by a "select group of TiVo subscribers" according to TiVo's press release, will eventually be rolled out to more than 1.5 million TiVo Series2 and Series3 owners.

According to the FAQ page on Amazon, you'll choose the videos you want to download while browsing Amazon's site on your PC, but the videos will be downloaded directly to the TiVo. Once they're fully downloaded, they'… Read more

Get TiVo without a TiVo box

The moment many have long awaited has arrived: Comcast cable customers can get TiVo on the cable company's own DVR set-top boxes.

TiVo is now available as a software download, which means no new piece of hardware for current customers and no waiting around for hours on a technician.

It's the first time TiVo's been available on non-TiVo hardware. Motorola says its DCT6412 set-top box is one such model. Technical trials began in December 2006, and market trials will begin this spring, the companies said. What they're not saying is how much the service will cost. … Read more

It's official: TiVoToGo for Mac

Mac users that have jealously watched their PC-using friends put their recorded episodes of The Office or Lost on their laptops get a late Christmas gift this year: TiVoToGo for Mac is here.

Just in time for MacWorld and CES, the product will be released by Roxio on Monday, Jan. 8.

The Mac version of TiVoToGo will sell for $99 and have all the same capability as the PC version, but it's all in one box this time, said Jim Denney, TiVo's VP of marketing. Automatic transfers of shows to a Mac, PSP, iPod, or burned to a … Read more

$30 video cell phone in the works

A video cell phone for $30 or even less? Texas Instruments says it can and will be true with a chip it plans to introduce for emerging markets.

The chip, called "eCosto," combines the multimedia functions found in phones sold in Europe, Asia and North America into the same piece of silicon that handles the essential communications and processing functions for the phone. TI already produces a chip called "LoCosto" for emerging markets. It lets phone makers produce so-called single-chip cell phones, but the LoCosto phones don't include cameras or other extras.

The eCosto phones … Read more