While many probably think of me as a Slingbox homer, I’m also a HAVA owner. However, while employed by Sling, you might not have trusted me to objectively cover competitor Monsoon Multimedia - so I largely steered clear. (Like the Slingbox, HAVA boxes ($100 - $250) stream content from a variety of set-top boxes over a local network or beyond via the Internet.)

At CTIA last spring the HAVA team combined two of my favorite geek technologies by bringing placeshifting to Nokia’s N810 WiFi-enabled Internet tablet (<$400). A device that I doubt we’ll see Sling tackle. And while the N810 is a niche product, this software allows HAVA to differentiate themselves (and their mobile clients are free). Plus, they’ve proven they can produce a Linux client - which should open doors to additional mobile and desktop platforms.

As you can see from the pics, the N810 makes for a nice portable television. (Love that integrated kickstand.) I had great results streaming my TiVo Series3 both within and outside of the home - relatively high download rates and consistently decent picture quality… despite HAVA not taking advantage of Nokia’s QVGA resolution when full-screen. HAVA made an interesting design choice when it comes to control - instead of squeezing everything into a lone virtual remote, they provide four different remote screens divvied up by function. The benefit being that buttons are large enough to hit with a finger tip, no stylus needed. It’s a fine idea but, for us DVR owners, they should really find a way to display transport controls on all screens.

Sadly, the N810 is a loaner I’ll be returning. While I recognize the market for this product is limited, I’ve been a fan of Nokia’s Maemo initiative since the 770 days.

In honor of Elephant Day (memory!) and SanDisk’s SlotMusic announcement, we’re giving away a new 8GB microSDHC card with USB adapter (MSRP $60). According to SanDisk:

SanDisk® introduces SanDisk® Mobile Ultra™ memory cards supporting fast data transfer speeds provide mobile phone enthusiasts a complete high-performance solution for better management of large numbers of songs, videos, photos, and game files exchanged between the card and PC.

Unlike my prior generation SanDisk microSD card with full-size SD adapter, I dig the more practical native USB chasis included with this model. So, if you’ve got a phone in need of multimedia, just leave a comment saying you want in on this giveaway. One lucky US resident will be randomly selected as the winner in the next day or so.

Lifehacker documents their top five BitTorrent software packages:

• uTorrent (Windows)
• Deluge (All Platforms)
• Transmission (Mac OS X/*nix)
• rTorrent (*nix)
• Vuze (All Platforms)

As someone who steers (mostly) clear of P2P file sharing networks, when dabbling on the dark side I use (and recommend) the simple BitTorrent client built into the cross-platform Opera web browser download manager (pictured above) in conjunction with the Pirate Bay. What about you?

Sony’s out with an interesting PS3 offering today. The Folding@Home download has been updated and rebranded as Life with Playstation. In addition to crunching away on molecular proteins, the add-on now presents current worldwide news (Google) and weather (Weather Channel) accompanied by music (bring your own). But I don’t really want to talk about the new features…

While I’ve played on the PS3 a decent amount, this is the first time I’ve lived with it. And Sony’s launch of Life with Playstation emphasizes the console’s UI issues. Microsoft, known for computer software, has done a much better job implementing the 10′ interface with the Xbox 360 than Sony, known for consumer electronics devices, has with the PS3.

When interacting with the PS3, I frequently feel like a PC is attached to the plasma - too much text, fonts are too small, poor use of screen real estate, too many download and installation screens, crash messaging, etc. I captured maybe only half of the screens below (unreadable from the couch) it took to get this app installed. Shouldn’t it really download and install automatically, perhaps even silently?

TWICE reports that Digeo will be releasing a HD CableCARD set-top box to MSOs beginning later this month and offering a retail DVR direct to consumers in January. Though I have to say the author was quite kind in his coverage. No mention that this cable box (or a precursor) was expected in 2007 or that Digeo also had plans to launch two retail set-top boxes last year. Also no mention that the CEO stepped aside, half the staff was axed, and both (previous) retail DVRs were scrapped just a week after briefing the press at CES. So, please forgive me if I’m a little skeptical that we’ll actually be able to purchase a (new) DLNA-capable M-Card Moxi DVR in just four months. Of course, this isn’t at all unusual in our industry - SlingCatcher will be over a year late when it finally ships and Palm Foleo was killed at the zero hour. Lesson being, until products ship let’s take these announcements with a grain of salt. Speaking of which, where’s my Lenovo S10?

In honor of Constitution Day, we’re giving away a few goodies that I picked up prior to TiVo killing their referral program. The prize package, valued at one million dollars, consists of:

• TiVo Glo remote
• TiVo coasters
• TiVo antennae

Entering the giveaway is simple. Register for a comment avatar (Gravatar) if you don’t already have one and then leave a comment. One lucky US resident will be randomly selected in the next day or so.

I’ve enjoyed watching the DECE (”Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem”) discussion unfold - it makes for good entertainment. A decent amount of the commentary has been the typical knee-jerk “DRM sucks” response you’d expect. And while it may be partially true that this industry alliance (Sony, Best Buy, NBC, Comcast, etc) was formed to fend off Apple, DECE has the potential of ultimately benefit all consumers. Really, can it really get any worse?

I watched the entire first season of Burn Notice via Internet streaming and downloads: Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon Unbox on TiVo. Each video locked in its respective silo. When I watched an episode on my laptop, Melissa couldn’t catch up by watching it on TiVo, Xbox, or even her own PC (with separate iTunes account). And there’s no way for me to watch the entire season again via a single screen. Or let’s say I purchase a movie on the living room PS3 or Vudu, and decide to watch it on the bedroomTiVo. Right now, I’m out of luck.

So let’s think about a commercially successful form of DRM… Ignoring for the moment it was cracked years ago, the DVD has enjoyed great success. Buy pretty much any DVD from any studio and it plays in nearly any brand of DVD player. So why not retrofit that “buy once, play anywhere” model for the cloud?

I support the studios protecting their properties, as long as they respect their customers with reasonable usage rights. Of course, the devil will be in the details. We’d most likely need network-connected devices to validate against a licensing server and capable of handling whatever codec(s) they agree upon - so we’re talking either new gear or gear that can be updated to support this model. If and when this ultimately rolls out. But I am hopeful these players do the right thing, and do it efficiently - despite imminent broadband caps, the clock is ticking. And I’m betting they’d rather improve access than see their content given away via P2P networks.

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs:

• Motorola USB DVR Transcoder Concept: Media Experiences 2 Go
• Holy Flash Batman, DivX Brings Hulu To Your TV: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection
• Placeshifting for BeyondTV Has Arrived: Brent Evans Geek Tonic
• 1/3 of European Millennials Prefer Video on a PC: Connected Home 2 Go
• WiMAX Networks Hitting 11 Mbps Download Speeds: Media Experiences 2 Go
• Starting with iPhone App Development: The Daleisphere