Posted by Aurora

Two years ago the cable industry promised tru2way was “the way” cable viewership was moving, but where did it go?

To really understand the evolution and future of tru2way we should take a step back and look at its predecessor the CableCARD.

The CableCARD goes back almost ten years, when TV manufacturers and cable TV service providers teamed up briefly for a ‘ditch the box’ effort – that is, eliminate that clunky old set-top cable box and instead build its functionality into new TV sets.

The belief then was that consumers hated having a separate set-top box, and that CableCARD functionality would make cable-ready TVs truly ‘plug and play,’ not to mention get rid of all that clutter of wiring. Some worked beautifully, while others stubbornly refused to recognize valid channel packages even when all conditional access was disabled. The pairing issues, and reluctance of manufacturers to support more than a handful of CC-compatible models, resulted in a very slow rate of adoption.

But CableLabs and MSOs hadn’t given up yet. Their ‘next big thing’ would be a bi-directional version of CableCARD, allowing a greater degree of interactivity and the ability to get video-on-demand – something the original CableCARD platform couldn’t do. To differentiate this new feature, they called it ‘tru2way.’

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Posted by Michael

As the cable industry gathers in Los Angeles for the annual Cable Show, some clouds of uncertainty about the regulatory future of cable broadband services may greet attendees.

Six days before the event’s start, the Federal Communications Commission released its “third way” approach for broadband, suggesting Internet access should be regulated in the same manner as phone service. The FCC approach also proposes broadband service providers treat all Web traffic equally and not block or hinder consumer access to any Web content.

Cable interests inside D.C. expressed unease with the FCC’s proposition. Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, organizers of the annual Cable Show, said the proposal to “reclassify broadband services is disappointing.”  He added that the association “firmly believes that the case for new regulation of the Internet has not been made.”

The FCC’s push has supporters, however. The Open Internet Coalition, which includes online heavyweights Amazon.com, Google and Ebay, stated in a letter sent to the FCC that the regulatory approach will “preserve a level playing field for all participants.”

While some in the cable industry may view the prospects of new broadband regulation as dismal news, others think it may not be so bad for the industry.  Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said the regulatory impact on cable “is less apocalyptic than some have warned.”

Also, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will have an opportunity to explain his position when he addresses the Cable Show on Thursday, May 13.

Posted by Bill

The age of the Kindle seems to be waning as quickly as it waxed. At least, that’s a possible outcome of the latest wrinkle in digital book sales, now that Google plans to enter the business in competition with Amazon.com and its Kindle e-book reader perhaps as soon as June. Various reports indicate that via the new Google Editions service, buyers will be able to buy and access new and older titles – including, potentially, out-of-print books for which Google has a rights agreement with the author – using a variety of platforms such as a laptop, netbook, smartphone, etc.

If this seems like another big blow to Amazon, it is. While the online retailer has sold an estimated 1.5 million of the devices in the first two years after it launched the original Kindle in November 2007, Apple took less than a month to reach 1 million sales of its new iPad – which many observers see as a natural e-book reader and can access Kindle content. Good-bye to Amazon’s nascent grip on the e-book reader side of the market.

Now on the e-book content side, enter Google and its ability to leverage the Web vs. having to rely on a proprietary device and content delivery network. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google Editions not only will enable users to buy books that turn up in Google searches on a variety of sites, but also will enable brick-and-mortar booksellers – including small, independent retailers – to sell Google Editions content from their own websites, capturing most of the revenue from those sales. So, in addition to facing a competitive juggernaut on the e-reader device side of the business, Amazon now faces on the content side a competitor that potentially will be able to a much greater number of titles but also to a handful of reader device options.

It may be just as well that Amazon’s place in the e-book world shrinks. Besides staging the ultimate Big Brother moment for Kindle users a couple of years ago, Amazon’s handling of its e-book platform has gotten a little creepier lately than some people would like.

Posted by Bill

Who needs an app store? Apparently not everyone, if Microsoft has the right idea with its new Kin mobile phones.

The two available Kin models, launched April 12 and available initially only through Verizon Wireless, are aimed at tweens and twenty-somethings – Microsoft reportedly designed the phones based on feedback from more than 50,000 consumers in the target demographic. Kin comes loaded with social media- and entertainment-oriented applications such as the Zune music player and Kin Loop, which the company says “automatically brings together feeds from leading Microsoft and third-party services such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all in one place.”

What Kin doesn’t have is its own online store where users can download new games, utilities or other apps. That’s in contrast to the Android and iPhone mobile phones powered respectively by Google and Apple platforms that tout online apps stores boasting thousands – or in the case of the iPhone app store more than 185,000 — of free and priced applications that by most accounts are a big part of those phones’ appeal.

While some reviewers had a few good things to say about the new Kins, the launch also sparked a fair amount of questions about the closed app design. “What In God’s Name Is Microsoft Thinking With These New Phones?” blared the headline on Silicon Alley Insider’s write-up. Om Malik at gigaOm believes Microsoft missed the boat by diverging from “what has become standard user behavior among young people: trying and buying applications.”

If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be Microsoft’s first stumble in the mobile phone world.

Posted by Joe

So 3D TVs are finally here. The Samsung LED 7000 boasts full 1080p HD, 240 Hz clear motion rate and it’s 3D ready! While I would love to run out and purchase a brand new TV, here are a few reasons I think I’ll wait on pulling the trigger.

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Posted by Bill

It seems not that long ago, the annual International CTIA Wireless show was the pinnacle for wireless news. For some reason, it doesn’t feel that way now. Seriously, you know when one of the big announcements is expected to be Sprint’s launch of its “Supersonic” 4G/WiMax phone, the breaking news from CTIA could be more incremental than monumental.

Now don’t get me wrong. CTIA still is a must-attend event for anyone working with just about any element of the mobile ecosystem, from base stations to backhaul. Wireless Week says attendance at this year’s show in Las Vegas could be up a whopping 26 percent from 2009, a potentially huge rebound. The big service providers will be announcing handset deals and the big vendors no doubt will be revealing customer wins of their own while swapping competitive bon mots about 3G coverage and LTE rollout plans.

Much of the crowd also will be buzzing about the wireless elements of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and spending time at the concurrent Tower Technology Summit, where even a couple of cable TV industry players will be talking about solutions for mobile’s backhaul capacity crunch.

But these days, most of the big news about wireless tends to be spread out over the course of the year at a variety of events (CES, Mobile World Congress, 4G World, even CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment) or controlled by a different entity, such as Apple with its iPad – which likely will be talked about at CTIA but doesn’t hit the market until two weeks after the show.

Maybe that’s a good thing; a sign that times are good enough in the mobile business and all of its elements that members can afford to keep wireless buzz-worthy at a number of venues, instead of putting their critical publicity mass behind CTIA ever year.

Posted by Bill

News flash: Verizon Wireless says its new LTE networks will deliver average mobile download speeds of up to 12 megabits per second in “real-world environments,” according to Light Reading Mobile.

Reality check: Believe it when you see it. That’s no slap at Verizon Wireless, just an assessment based what any mobile network is capable of providing vs. what the real-life, everyday user experience is likely to be.

As even this guy would tell you, actual street-level data speeds for every carrier can vary widely from their theoretical capabilities due to conditions such as network congestion and proximity of the nearest cell tower. AT&T’s legal disclaimer for cell coverage also cites “terrain, weather, foliage, buildings and other construction, signal strength, customer equipment and other factors” as affecting one’s ability to get a full signal and peak data speed.

That’s one reason why, for example, in PC World’s latest 3G wireless speed tests of carriers in 13 cities AT&T’s HSPA 7.2 networks led with an average download speed of about 1.4 Mbps and bursts of up to 4 Mbps, far less than the network’s theoretical 7.2 Mbps capability.

That’s also why, outside of interviews with trade publications, wireless carriers shy away from citing even a range of data speeds in their advertising or marketing; dueling coverage maps notwithstanding, they all know that in some areas they’re dealing with innate limitations to how well they routinely can provide optimal speeds.

Posted by Rachel

Very few online music companies have been able to stay afloat over the last several years, but Pandora is one that stands out.

A recent New York Times article highlights Pandora’s success story – after 10 years of struggling, the company estimates $100 million revenue this year and is drawing interest from investment bankers who think it could go public.

The online radio station, well-known for its Music Genome Project, has been on the verge of death for the past decade as it battled over record label royalties and fought to find investors. Employees even went unpaid for two years as the company went through ups and downs, trying to make enough money to stay in business.

Thanks to its iPhone app released in 2008, 35,000 new users a day joined Pandora from their mobile phones, and the application is now available on all major smartphone operating systems. As a result, Pandora reported $50 million in annual revenue.

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Posted by Joe

We see a lot of coverage about how technology improves the way we do business and how it entertains us — who can forget the countless stories on the iPad. But, technology also improves the lives of countless people giving them a second chance at rekindling something they thought they lost forever.

Famed film critic Roger Ebert has been battling thyroid cancer for several years, resulting in the removal of a portion of his jaw bone and the loss of his voice due to surgery on his larynx. In spite of all that has happened to him, he continues to review movies when he can.

Computer voice specialist CereProc has accumulated hours of Ebert’s voice from his television shows, so he can speak again.  The video is amazing!

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Posted by Rachel

Have you ever tweeted something like, “Off to Mexico for 2 weeks! Adios amigos!”?

It might seem harmless to share this with stalkers friends, but one web site, Please Rob Me, is bringing status updates like this to people’s attention.

Created to raise awareness of the dangers of divulging too much information online, Please Rob Me is essentially a list of status updates showing who just left home and in some cases, a person’s exact location.

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