I recently listened to the March 31, 2008 EGM Live Podcast (download) where Garnett Lee interviewed Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Director of Product Management for the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. Among other topics, Aaron had the unenviable job of defending the concept of Microsoft Points (time index 17:40).

Reading several articles today on Sony’s pending PS3 on-demand service (see here, here and here) and Sony’s pending Playstation cards, to be denominated in local currency (here), it occurred to me that Microsoft’s use of points alone is going to become increasingly untenable as Microsoft’s key game/movie/TV show download competitors all offer competing products denominated and purchasable in local currencies.

Below I discuss Aaron’s arguments for Microsoft Points and what, to me, are overwhelming competitive arguments against them.

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TiVo’s getting a little bit social (hey, it’s the thing to do) in launching “My TV” on Facebook. As you would expect, one can add, rate, and review all sorts of television programming. There’s also links to online scheduling (for us TiVo customers), but no integration with Facebook’s existing TV show favorites or a method to import your existing Season Passes, Now Playing list, etc. Interestingly, TiVo didn’t name the widget after themselves and clearly indicates one doesn’t need to be a TiVo owner to participate. Which is a smart marketing move. (via Gizmo Lovers) Read the rest of this entry »

HDTV just never gets old. According to a friend at the NAB show, companies are still shouting HD from the rooftops. Or in this case, from their booth displays.

Weather and traffic are in on the game. AccuWeather was showing off HD content for all types of displays and platforms. Here are some photos of the “CinemaLive HD Weather Display System”. Can’t tell much about the actual scenery, but the graphics sure look good! There’s lots more detail on the Accuweather site showing 3D graphics, Microsoft VirtualEarth integration and more.

Meanwhile Navteq was showing traffic solutions for newscasters. One pic below. Apparently the rendering detail is unbelievable in person. Navteq, by the way, does a whole range of digital navigation and location-based technologies. The company just announced it’s working with the Broadcaster Traffic Consortium to provide services to both portable devices and automobile in-dash systems via HD radio.

Finally, Chopper 5000 made an appearance at NAB. Yes, you too can buy a tricked-out helicopter for broadcasting HDTV. No word on price.

(Thanks, Paul!)

Dave Winer’s Internet service was recently shut down by Comcast without warning. Apparently, he’s in the top percentile of bandwidth usage and Dave feels that Comcast has singled him out as a criminal. While I don’t know how he’s using his Internet connectivity, I do agree that the way Comcast handles these matters isn’t very consumer friendly.

However, what interested me is that Dave was directed to the Comcast Customer Security Assurance and Legal Response team. Frankly, Comcast needs to tighten up their own security before making customer insinuations… Last week, we initiated a customer support chat to get our Comcast.net credentials. Despite providing our specific account number, phone number, and partial social security number Comcast reset the former resident’s email password and gave it to us. No social engineering required. Fortunately, this is a mostly unused account and I’m a pretty ethical guy. But the experience surely gives me pause. Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s Q2 and I’m probably not the only one wondering where the SDV Tuning Resolver is. If you recall, this product will allow unidrectional CableCARD retail devices to tune switched digital video channels - which would otherwise be unavailable for viewing. It’s unlikely older CableCARD devices like first generation TVs with slots would receive a firmware upgrade to support the resolver, but I assume TiVo will be (is) all over this - in fact, they’ll need to be as SDV spreads.

Given the multiple layers of testing and certification (manufacturer, CableLabs, TiVo, MSOs) plus training and deployment logistics (cost?), I figured the Q2 target was somewhat aggressive and the HD Guru has discovered:

according to a Cisco spokesperson, its version is now undergoing testing at Cablelabs and is not expected to be released until sometime this summer.

At CES I learned the potential exists for a smaller, more elegant “USB dongle” (as we originally envisioned), rather than the larger AC-powered form factor Mari uncovered at Motorola. I’m hoping this makes it to market. And it’d be especially nice if it could be distributed in retail along with CableCARD devices, rather than (or in addition to) having to go through the local cable-co.

Frankly, this whole thing (SDV) is a cluster and defeats the original purpose/intent of mandated separable security (and confuses consumers - good for MSOs who want you on their VOD boxes). Unfortunately, there’s no simple solution - bandwidth is finite. Both the industry and their CableCARD TiVo customers will need the tuning resolver as a stop-gap and the sooner we get to tru2way devices, the better.

(Thanks, HDTiVo for the HD Guru link!)

The new PS3 Playstation store is a much needed improvement over the older store.

The Old Playstation Store

The old store (pictured left) booted slowly, was unresponsive, had tiny print and was almost unusable. It relied on a ‘mouse’ like interface with a pointer that needed to be moved around the screen with the PS3 controller’s analogue stick. It was very difficult to use and imprecise.

The New Playstation Store

• The new store boots up faster
• Thankfully, the mouse-pointer interface is gone
• The main menu now presents a grouped items column on the left
• Selecting an item group brings up a much easier to read sub-menu (see the “New Releasesâ€? submenu above)
• The submenu has a navigable list of possible selections on the right
• Selection details show up in a big, easier to read, panel on the left
• Everything is faster and crisper
• (more pics on joystiq here)

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Today’s question, via IM, wonders how to handle the death of a car stereo. Though, it’s not quite so simple — Both the CD player and line-in jack still work, so they’ve been considering a satellite radio add-on. They don’t have a problem with the monthly fee but, upon quizzing, it seems clear they’re not interested in the extra cable clutter (power, antenna, line-in) a plug & play unit adds. My suggestion to upgrade their 1999 ride to a newer model with standard satellite radio and airbags didn’t go over so well… So given only passing interest in satellite, they should probably just restore terrestrial radio via an inexpensive in-dash unit from Crutchfield.

After the explosive hype around Amazon’s launch of the Kindle, things have gone kinda quiet on the new e-book reader, with the exception of reports on shipping delays last month. So are people buying the Kindle? Are they using it? Are they liking it?

I can’t answer any of those questions, but I can relate one Kindle user’s experience. A certain unnamed relative of mine received a Kindle last Christmas. She’s not a techie. She’s not using the Kindle to keep up with RSS feeds or for most other Web uses related to the Whispernet connection. She’s using it to read books. Lots and lots and lots of them. And she loves it.

Said relative is the kind of customer Amazon must covet for the Kindle. Recently we talked about buying a pair of books and then exchanging them next time we saw each other. I went out and bought my book in short order, but she decided she couldn’t wait and ordered the book for her Kindle that day. Turns out she already had a hard copy too! It’s a good thing Amazon warns users when they’re about to re-purchase an e-volume.

I could regain half the real-estate in my house if we ditched real books for their electronic versions. It’s not likely to happen any time soon, but clearly the Kindle is a good substitute for some book junkies. And if anyone reads books in the next generation - the truly digital, but also ADD generation - the Kindle is proof against Sony that e-reading has a promising future… delivering instant gratification.