Blog articles from 09/2008

I still haven't got hold of ChinaQ. Tried to call a couple of times but no one's picking up. Therefore, I'm still not 100% sure about what's the level of support from China Telecom. I doubt it's a strategic investment from the corporate level. I've also downloaded the client and visited the world. When I was there, it was totally dark (presumably night in China) and the world feels very much like Second Life in terms of aesthetics, features and functions. I had a conversation with...

TZero Technologies looks to be one company to watch in the UWB for consumer electronics space. The company fell of the UWB radar a couple of years ago when the former CEO decided to take the company's development toward "no-new-wires" solutions for the service provider space. However, in a market that is already heavily leaning toward HomePNA, MoCA, or powerline (mostly in Europe), this wasn't attainable. So, the company brought back Dr. Rajeev Krisnamoorthy as its CEO, got some...

AT&T has finally decided to partner with DIRECTV for all its satellite services starting Feb 1st 2009. While it is too early to say that its all gloom and doom for DISH Network, it will certainly be a very challenging environment for the company to grow its subscriber base. 15% of the subscribers that were added in 1H 2008 came through AT&T. That number is all the more significant given the fact that DISH experienced a net decline of 25,000 subscribers in the second quarter this...

Here's an article today that takes Adobe to task for failing to encrypt content coming from Amazon.com's Video On Demand service , allowing users to capture the video streams and record them using some easily downloadable software. The hole is between the Flash servers and the players on PCs, giving people the ability to record (and presumably then share) that content. And, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can use the same "catching" software to capture video from...

Last week, Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE) recruited two Hollywood producers, Alexandra Milchan and David van Eyssen, to create feature-length films for distribution on the internet and presumably mobile platforms. Upon reading the news, the first question in my mind was: “What is Paramount thinking?” As if reading my thoughts, I found a quote from Thomas Lesinski, PDE’s president, discussing large amount of experimentation with content length online and how people flock...

TiVo and Nero AG are announcing a TV recording kit for your PC, combining TiVo's lauded interface and controls with a TV tuner from Nero. The Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC will go on sale initially in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. For people who already have a tuner-equipped PC, Nero will sell the TV recording software separately, for $99. TV recording on the PC has been available with other products for years (notably, the Media Center solutions from Microsoft), but this marks the first...

I did get that time over the weekend to finish the installation and configuration of the ZVBox (chronicled in last week's post). The half-hour that I allotted turned into an hour-and-a-half, but part of that was getting back under my desk to try some cable management with some velcro ties that I had purchased from RadioShack. I got the ZVBox to work through a coax splitter, and there was rejoicing when I got the image up on the TV in the living room. Then, the only other big...

In stark contrast to the Wall Street, IBC with its record attendance levels and success, offered quite a few positive and interesting trends to the video services space. Three areas that have received considerable attention are content security, interactive television solutions, and advertising. Widevine showcased ‘Widevine Cypher’ which offers operators the ability to leverage a single content protection to manage content protection across multiple platforms without additional...