Obama team urges delay in digital TV transition [Associated Press]
There are even more questions today about whether the planned digital television transition will occur on February 17th. Though that date has been planned for several years now, President-elect Obama's transition team has requested that Congress vote to delay the transition in the wake of the revelation that the federal governement's digital converter box coupon program is halting coupon distribution. With the president-elect weighing in on the digital transition, the chances that either the transition date is delayed or that the coupon program is given addition funds have increased.
Whatever happens with the digital transition deadline, if your televisions are connected to Insight, you can relax. You're already prepared for the digital transition, even if the federal government and millions of over-the-air television viewers still are not.
TiVo Googlizes the Television [NYT Bits Blog]
TiVo's message at the Consumer Electronics Show is that channel surfing is on its way out. The company has unveiled the newest version of its set-top platform that has updated searching for video content on the Internet. Looking for the popular show "Heroes?" Just key in your search to the TiVo box, and it goes looking for the latest episodes of the show on Hulu. The set-tops search Amazon and YouTube for video also. TiVo's spokesman argues in this article that as the amount of online video available to television viewers proliferates, the usefulness of a powerful search application for the television increases.
I agree with that opinion but I also believe that there will be many, many people who want to sit down on the sofa, kick their shoes off, and do some simple surfing.
The Cost Of Not Being Online [Techdirt]
Techdirt links to an interesting study from the United Kingdom about the cost of not being online. Yes that's right, the cost of not having a connection to the Internet. The study, conducted by Post Office Broadband, found that online households saved an average of £70 (around $100) per month in the cost of goods and services. Those households that weren't online missed out on those cost savings. While there's a cost to having a broadband Internet connection, it's very possible that households connected to the Internet are saving more than they're spending on their connection.
The actual cost of broadband has been stable or even going lower in the last few years. At the same time, speeds have been increasing. Factor in the savings and you have to ask yourself, "How can I afford NOT to have a broadband connection?"
Ultra Thin TV’s at CES [CableTechTalk]
CableTechTalk has video of new televisions from Samsung and Panasonic at the Consumer Electronics Show that are so thin, they're almost invisible from the profile view. While prices haven't been determined yet, the new ultra thin televisions are set to be on store shelves later this year.
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