The State of TiVo
One thing about being a TiVo owner: You are never quite sure if things are getting better or getting worse.
Overall the lunch was very enjoyable and I found Stephen to be remarkedly candid. It is important to note that our lunch was a casual one between bloggers and although Stephen was very candid with us that his opinions are his own. He was not meeting with us in any official TiVo capacity and his opinions should not necessarily be seen as anything other than his own. Still, his efforts to meet us for lunch (on his time off on paternity leave) are serious indicators that TiVo very much does in fact want to be a part of the online conversation. Stephen spoke enthusiastically about his employer and with the passion that is the mark of a strong blogger. It was very evident to me that there is not much more in life that he loves than talking about how great a company that he works for. – Thomas Hawk
I think that TiVo has not done enough to keep my interest in their technology. I think that they can still do something about improving the situation, but then they have to be committed to really supporting third-party developers. They need to do much more than throwing their SDK over the wall and hoping that something will come of it. So what does this mean for the Galleon media server which is based on HME? As the lone developer of the project, its been interesting and fun playing with the technology sofar. However, the hope was that the technology would go somewhere and that TiVo would communicate with third-party developers about their roadmap. Although Galleon is developed as an open source project, it would have been nice if it opened up some commercial opportunities. So, I’m sad to announce that I’ve decided to reduce my development efforts on the project. I might still release some bug fixes, but these won’t be as frequent as the releases in the past. – Leon Nicholls
This is definitely one of those days.
Rave-MP STYLE: ARC2.5
I had neglected to mention that after all this time, I finally picked out an MP3 Player: the Rave-MP STYLE ARC2.5.
At this point, some of you may be wondering why when I just bought a Treo 650 a few months ago. Basically, it all stems from PlaysForSure. Our system signed up recently with NetLibrary. And while there are ways around using a PlaysForSure player, they just aren’t very practical.
I was not at all thrilled at having another device to carry. But for what it does, it seems to do them pretty well. And it is small enough not to get in the way. I will have it with me on the plane as I have four books and a whole lot of music downloaded on it. This week will be a good chance to try it out.
Treo 650
I finally decided to take the plunge and trade up from my now-venerable Treo 300 for a shiny new Treo 650. I had followed all the concern over the memory issue, but it wasn’t a big factor for me because I didn’t have that many contacts or that much database driven software. It does use memory quicker than the 300, though, so I was glad to see that software like the Adobe Reader for Palm OS allowed for use of the memory card, and the Lexar SD Card I chose has proven to be useful. I think the biggest changes from me are the higher resolution 320×320 screen and the 9.5x faster processor. The only soft reset I have experienced at all was caused by of all things Big Clock. Until that works itself out, Today seems like a more than adequate replacement. Anyway, I am far from exhausting all the possibilities of this thing yet so expect some more posts over time.
TiVo Their Way
As long-time readers around here know, I have been enthusiastic about TiVo for a while. Unfortunately for TiVo they have been a source of controversy of late and it does not appear to be going to let up any time soon. My humble recommendation: get TiVoToGo out as soon as possible. Before the Duke Nukem Forever comparisons lose their humor.
Digital Convergence Collision Course
Since I wrote the entry yesterday, I have become aware of two different products.
First off, there is the Hauppage MediaMVP. Check out the features and the pricing.
Then find out more about the forthcoming Prismiq Media Player/Recorder. The article includes a statement by a Prismiq executive.
We’re on a collision course with TiVo. I like TiVo, and we want more companies to offer this functionality, not less, to expand the market… better to see it in 20 million homes than just 10. – Brad Kayton
