Hasta La Gadget!

Intel is counting on lashings of cash to drive its living room ambitions, with a rumored budget potentially in the hundreds of millions helping convince conservative content owners that it’s a safe partner to bet on. The chip company has reportedly green-lit an IPTV investment well in excess of the “hobby” amounts rivals with similar cable-cutting ambitions have allotted, a show of force that has allowed it to negotiate new licensing deals of a sort so-far unseen.

The challenge Intel faces is just like every other company hoping to cater to viewers turned off by channel-swollen cable packages: persuading the content owners to relax their stance on only licensing huge bundles of dozens of channels. That strategy has proved lucrative so far, with cable subscribers forced to subscribe to many channels they don’t actually want in order to get a few they particularly watch.

Intel’s strategy, it’s suggested, is using its heft in chip production to demonstrate quite how committed it is to the home entertainment segment; “since Intel is used to betting billions on chip design, it has allocated a budget significantly larger than Apple or Google’s” Fortune reports. That investment supposedly looks more realistic to Hollywood negotiators used to $100m+ movie budgets.

The chip firm also has an existing legacy in working with, not against, cable providers. It inked a deal in 2011 to power Comcast’s next-gen Xfinity TV boxes, and has been producing STB chips for getting on for a decade. What technological advantages it plans to bring to the streaming TV segment has also been framed in terms of benefiting content owners, too, rather than consumers.

So, Intel is believed to be pushing a monitoring system that can deliver more accurate and detailed viewership data, including rough age range, gender, and a more precise number of how many people are actually watching. That same system is also being promoted among content owners as ideal for targeting advertising, picking more relevant promotions based on who is in front of the TV at any one time.

An evolutionary rather than revolutionary approach to pacify content providers, and more flexibility in choosing channels (or even pay-per-show), re-watching media from the past month with a “cloud PVR,” and throwing in apps and other web-enabled features to lure in viewers, could make the difference where Apple and Google have struggled. Fortune’s sources claim Intel will begin a small-scale beta to customers in March 2013, though the first-gen STB itself will be shown off at CES 2013 next week.

Money not merit is Intel’s web TV strategy is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Intel is readying a set-top box mixing on-demand streaming media, free cable content, and a virtual DVR, sources in the video industry claim, with the first-gen hardware tipped for preview as soon as CES 2013 next week. The new push for a slice of the living room follows Intel’s apparent frustration with the failure of first-gen Google TV boxes powered by its chips; according to TechCrunch’s tipster, the company has grown tired of “everyone doing a half-assed Google TV so it’s going to do it themselves and do it right.”

According to another source inside of Intel itself, an early version of the STB will be brought to CES next week, with a preview of the system tipped for its January 7 press event. However, it may be some time before the hardware actually arrives under your TV, with Intel supposedly eyeing a progressive roll-out rather than attempting to sweep across the US in a simultaneous launch.

That’s an apparent workaround to traditional content owner reluctance to “unbundle” the packages of cable channels usually offered, something which has scuppered Apple plans, among others, to help cord cutters get solely the channels they’re most interested in. Packaging channels together is a good way for content owners to keep licensing fees buoyant, especially given many of those tempted to abandon paid cable service are reluctant to miss out on certain sports, media, or other shows.

Intel’s approach will supposedly be on a city-by-city basis, initially focusing on areas where content providers have less lucrative deals with cable companies, and hoping to demonstrate that a more flexible licensing approach might also make sense financially. Such a rollout will begin “soon” according to the tipster, though there’s nothing more specific.

As for functionality, in addition to free cable content and select pay-TV content depending on what Intel can pry out of licensees, there’ll be internet-streamed shows such as from Redbox and other services. Intel also aims to offer a DVR system which would allow recall of any show aired within the past month, across any channel the individual user has subscribed to: rather than having to pre-emptively record a show, it would simply be served up on-demand.

Chatter of an Intel set-top box and accompanying service began back in March, with reports that the chip company aimed to have the system up and running before 2012 was through. Subsequent leaks tipped a complex viewer-monitoring cable box that could give more precise demographic data as to who was watching which services, to show more accurate and relevant adverts, and generally make up for any losses incurred through channel unbundling by increasing overall advertising revenue. “They’ve told us the technology is going to be so much more interactive with ads that you can make more money” one anonymous TV industry executive said at the time.

Google TV had promised to do something along those lines, but Intel’s partnership with Google faltered after early hardware from Logitech and Sony met with mediocre response in the market. Earlier this year, Google announced it would support low-cost, low-power ARM processors with Google TV, though despite more affordable hardware as a result, the platform is yet to take significant market share from more traditional TV entertainment sources.

Intel cable and web TV system tipped for CES reveal is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You may have not noticed, but your cable box at home has a Firewire port on it, designed to serve up content to other devices in your home. This almost useless port — thanks DRM — is a result of an FCC mandate that has been enforced for almost ten years. Due to the lack of use, the cable industry asked that the rules be updated to require an IP interface instead. That request was granted in the fall of 2010 and was supposed to go into effect this very month.

Evidently two years wasn’t long enough to find an acceptable industry standard stack to deliver video over IP, so TiVo and the cable industry requested an extension. The FCC let it be known last week in a Memorandum Opinion and Order that a single standard wasn’t actually required, as long as the IP interface on the cable box used an industry standard — the Commission did bless the DLNA Premium Video Profile as a suitable example. We’ll have to wait and see if any other standards are in the mix, but regardless, TiVo and the rest of the cable industry now have until June of 2014 before every one of their boxes has to be able to deliver HD content to 3rd party devices like TVs, Blu-ray players and tablets via IP. In this particular context, TiVo is being treated as a cable company box supplier, although we’re not sure how this will apply to its retail devices. Only time will tell if this mandate will bear fruit, but with any luck, the second time will be a charm.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: FCC

When I upgraded to the iPhone 5, I didn’t really think about  how much of a pain it would be to find charging cables that fit Apple’s new Lightning connector. Sure, there are more and more products hitting the market these days, and I carry around the Lightning-to-30-pin-adapter in my bag, but I really like the idea of the Nomad Cable, a tiny Lightning-to-USB cable you can carry around on your keychain.

Invented by Chicago product designers Kegan & Roberto, the idea is simple but brilliant. The Nomad is a stubby little cable that’s got a USB connector on one end and an 8-pin Lightning connector on the other. The USB end has a special cap that slips onto your keychain. Given the size of the original iPod 30-pin dock connector, it might not have been too practical to carry one on your keychain at all times, but the new connector is small enough that such a cable is not much bigger than a key.

The 3″ long Nomad Cable is just long enough that you can plug your iPhone 5, iPad Mini, 4th gen iPad, 5th gen iPod Touch, or 7th gen iPod nano directly into your computer for charging or syncing. Plus. the cable has enough flex in it to deal with USB ports at just about any angle.

Overall, I think the Nomad Cable is a really convenient and inexpensive way to make sure you can juice up your latest Apple gadgets anywhere you go. While a small number of very early backers were able to grab one for as little as $5(USD), the current wave that’s up for pre-order is going for $15 – which I still think is reasonable. If you think it’ll come in handy, head on over to Kickstarter and place your pre-order for February 2013 delivery. I already did.

Pervasively unreliable Time Warner Cable surprised its New York customers with a postcard in the mail declaring they’ll have to pay $4 to rent the cable modem you need for its piss poor internet service. And now TWC is being sued for the stunt. More »