If you follow the rumors surrounding Apple, you know that the company is reportedly working on a television. That television, rumors suggest, will come with iCloud support, apps, and perhaps even Siri. More importantly, it’ll deliver the kind of image quality often not found in today’s televisions. However, like so many other Apple products, it’s highly likely that the television will boast a high price tag.
A week or so back, Dish Network announced its automatic commercial erasing Auto Hop technology. I think most of us knew TV networks were not going to appreciate the feature in the least. Many TV networks have come out against Auto Hop suggesting that automatically deleting commercials from DVR recorded programs would upset the current ecosystem that pays for network television shows. What we may not have expected is to see cable companies come out against the feature.
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I remember a time when Netflix was special. The company was delivering innovative ideas to the marketplace, it fully understood its customers, and its management was in tune with the changing market dynamics. Netflix was, just last year, in fact, a tech giant.
But after increasing how much it charges customers for access to its rentals and its streaming, and watching its content partners turn their backs on it unless it paid up, everything has changed. Now, Netflix is a shadow of its former self, and a company that, as far as I’m concerned, could very well be on its way to outright obsolescence.
Last week, we mentioned a new and interesting feature that Dish Network added to some of its DVRs. The new feature is called Auto Hop and would go in on certain shows and automatically delete the commercials. The feature did have caveats such as only working on prime time programming for the four big broadcast networks.
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German luxury TV manufacturer Loewe has denied reports that it is considering an €87.3m ($112.8m) acquisition offer made by Apple, describing the speculation as having "absolutely nothing to it." An unnamed Loewe spokesperson told German news site Heise that the rumors are unfounded, despite ongoing financial concerns with the company's high-end sets struggling to find buyers in the tough economic climate.
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The release date of BioShock Infinite has been pushed back into 2013, with developers of the much-anticipated title Irrational Games pleading more time to finesse it "into something even more extraordinary." The company made headlines back in March when it confirmed an October release for BioShock Infinite; now, the game won't arrive until February 26, 2013. Never fear, though, says Irrational Games Ken Levine: you'll be gobsmacked by the results.
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LG will begin selling Google TV sets in late May, a senior exec has confirmed, with US buyers finally able to pick up the long-promised smart televisions. Sales in the US will kick off in the week of May 21, LG TV’s executive vice president confirmed to Reuters, with the company gauging the response before it decides whether to offer the new internet-connected models in Europe and Asia.
There has been a lot of speculation running rampant over the last several months that Apple was getting its very first entry into the HDTV market ready. There have been several analysts speculate the TV will launch this year previously. However, a new report by JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz says that the TV is unlikely to arrive this year.
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EchoStar has unveiled the world's slimmest DVR called the HDT-610R. The DVR is only 14 mm deep making it easy to fit into crowded entertainment centers in any living room. Despite the DVR's small stature, it has all the features the TV fans want and will be up for pre-order the Amazon, John Lewis, and Maplin starting on May 4 in the UK.
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All eyes are on RIM's BlackBerry 10 plans at BlackBerry World 2012 this week, but the company has pushed out an entertainment-focused Bluetooth streaming accessory as a pre-show aperitif. The BlackBerry Music Gateway is a compact Bluetooth box that allows a BlackBerry phone - or, indeed, any smartphone, tablet or other device equipped with Bluetooth streaming support - to play music through your home or car speakers. RIM even throws in a little NFC to sweeten the deal.
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LG has revealed its own multi-platform cloud media service, LG Cloud, squirting content between PCs, smartphones, tablets and smart TVs. Compatible with 2D and 3D content, the LG Cloud introduces the company's Real-time Streaming Transcoding technology to perform server-based media conversion to suit whatever device you're currently using; so, if you're on your Android smartphone but want to watch a Full HD .MKV file, the film will be automatically converted to suit the handset.
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Quite often when I buy a product on Amazon, the retail giant offers me the opportunity to download some free tracks from its MP3 store at no charge. And yet, I can’t remember a single time when I’ve taken advantage of the offer. I like free music like the rest of us, but to me, there’s only one multimedia store worth using: iTunes.
