Stephen (aka TiVoStephen, aka Director of TiVoCast Operations) and I were deeply moved by the Kim family ordeal and the tragic death of James while trying to find help for his wife and children. I thought it would be worthwhile to leverage ZNF to raise money for the James Kim Memorial Fund, and I approached Stephen for assistance. Without hesitation he agreed to reserve a TiVo Toaster for this task and helped brainstorm the mechanics of raising funds.

So, if you were waiting for an excuse to make sure the Kim girls have a paid ticket to college, here’s your incentive: For every $10 you send via PayPal (davezatz@yahoo.com) through 1/31/07, you will get one entry in a raffle for the unique TiVo Toaster. Each entry will receive a number and the winning entry will be randomly selected. I will pick up the cost of the TiVo Toaster and all PayPal fees. At the conclusion of the raffle, I will send a check to CNET for the total amount donated plus ZNF’s Google Adsense income for the month of December. Stephen will have the TiVo Toaster shipped to the lucky recipient.

I’ve been actively trying to get access to Netflix’s new online movie service. My first email response from customer service:

I appreciate you inquiring about “Watch Now� feature, at this time we do not have any information on this feature. I have enclosed the list of plans that are available.

Their response to my second query a few days later:

We appreciate your interest in our new instant viewing feature. At this time, we are enabling members to the program in stages. This is to ensure the best possible experience for all participants. We currently plan on making instant viewing available to all Netflix subscribers by June of 2007. We are currently unable to add subscribers to this program on demand.

Frankly, this irks me. Not because I’ll frequently use this service, but because it’s less than ideal customer service — either enable everyone who asks, or call it a beta and let folks apply. Well, it looks like I got the back-door blogger hookup through their PR department because I’m live now. Though, I suggest everyone who wants access to keep the pressure on Netflix Support to encourage a shift in policy.

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Another day, another question! Actually, we probably won’t do this daily and this question came in yesterday. A fellow tech blogger asks:

Would you clear something up for me? Is there a Blackberry version of the Slingplayer and is EDGE fast enough to support it?

Sling doesn’t currently provide placeshifting software for the Blackberry platform… which is too bad as Windows Mobile drives me crazy. While getting briefed on Sling’s CES announcements a few weeks ago, I did inquire about Blackberry support. They are aware of consumer interest in such a product, though I wasn’t able to determine if something is or is not being developed at this time. Either way, I wouldn’t expect support in the near future. To recap, Sling does offer Slingplayer Mobile for Windows Mobile PocketPC and Smartphone editions ($30), while Symbian and Palm clients are currently in beta testing.

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A periodic roundup of relevant news…

• Microsoft eying WiFi-enabled Zune filling stations: Engadget
• Flash-based Zune due in Q407, better WiFi soon: Digital Music News
• Microsoft made Zune because partner hardware “sucks”: Bloomberg
• Universal and Sony prohibit Zune sharing for certain artists: Zune Thoughts
• Europe dreaming of a brown (Zune) Christmas: Washington Post

I must preface this post by saying Netgear gifted me with their new $199 Dual Mode Skype Phone, part of my CES Blogger In Residence prize package (AKA ‘Dave got paid’). So, it’s entirely possible I’m not objective and therefore I won’t do a formal review. Having said that, quite a few products sit (unopened) on my floor for months waiting to be reviewed… whereas I immediately put this phone into production when I returned from CES.

Unlike Netgear’s previous WiFi Skype phone, this model has a base station which you wire to your home router. The base station will also accept a telephone connection from your “land line” — hence the “dual-mode” moniker: Skype + Land Line. Which brings me to the first point (of two) that I wanted to share…

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I get a decent amount of questions via email covering a variety of topics — Believe it or not, I try to answer everything that comes my way. I don’t know why I didn’t think of doing this sooner, but I’m going to start running selected questions and answers. Perhaps my response will be useful to a larger group, and perhaps you readers will have alternate suggestions worth considering.

First up we have a question from a long-time supporter of the site. The last time I heard from John he was debating between television models at Best Buy. We had a few back and forths and then he didn’t take my advice. Ha! This time around, I think John and I are in agreement:

I bought an 20 gig iPod 2 yrs ago but now it has some sort of - can you believe it - frown face. Apple wants $250 to “fix” it. I have all of my tunes backed up so it’s not a problem to start over. What do you recommend? Also, have you ever heard of the frown face icon on the iPod? Weird I know.

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I wasn’t one of the lucky 250,000 to receive Netflix’s new movie download service, but my buddy Matt got the hook up. Matt and I go way back and he’s always kept me current on the video game industry. As roomies in college he made sure we had 3DO and the Japanese Nintendo 64 months before US release… not to mention the Sega Saturn and the first Playstation, plus a huge Mitsubishi monitor to game on.

Anyhow, Matt’s Watch Now tab is active and he spent some time playing around with it:

It works fine — easy installation, no interruptions during the stream. Video quality is good. But the library of titles SUCKS right now (all old stuff). And uhhhhh, sitting at my desk to watch a movie… sucks too. Kinda cool overall, but I don’t see myself using this. I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it better!

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