Hasta La Gadget!

Hurricane Sandy’s taken out more than the electricity of hundreds of thousands of Northeastern USers — it’s also pillaged the internet connections of many, leaving our Netflix and Hulu Plus subscriptions unused, and subsequently our Eddie Murphy ’80s movie marathons unmarathoned. Comcast understands this to be the dire situation it is, and is offering its Xfinity WiFi service free of charge for folks living in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Washington D.C., and West Virginia (sans New York City, as there aren’t any hotspots in the Big Apple, sadly). Just select “Complimentary Trial” from the landing page and you’re in like Flynn until November 7 (when the deal ends).

Or perhaps you’re one of our lucky readers unaffected by the crazy hurricane? Apple’s got an opportunity through iTunes for direct donation to the American Red Cross, should you wish to help out our friends suffering through worse than just lacking internet. Donation increments range from $5 to $200 — just sign into iTunes and click the Red Cross advert below New Music.

Filed under: Apple

Sandy got you down? Comcast offering free WiFi to affected regions, iTunes allowing Red Cross donations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 14:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While being able to schedule DVR recordings from your mobile device is nice, an update currently being pushed to some Comcast DVRs is adding the ability for users to check exactly what shows are stored there from an app or web browser. Previously the only remote info users could get from their DVRs was the percentage of storage currently in use and what recordings were scheduled to take place, but now users can see individual recordings, choose to watch any of them now, change their deletion priority, or even delete them remotely. Hopefully that doesn’t lead to any unintentional interhousehold griefing as users manage the often inadequate hard drive space in their cable DVR, but it can certainly put ones mind at rest to know The League (or whatever your show of choice might be) was successfully archived.

The update is quietly being pushed out as a software update for the DVR itself, and should appear automatically for users on the web or in their iOS app’s DVR manager (Android users can access it as well, but via the browser). We noticed the change after our Motorola DVR got an update that also made the name of a channel appear under the number when typed in from the remote. It worked well, although a few much older recordings were not listed online every new one was, which could explain the quiet rollout that Comcast confirmed to us just began yesterday. One other change taking place at the same time is a new Xfinity TV Player app for iOS that is focused solely on streaming VOD, mirroring a similar app already out on Android. While the Xfinity TV app on the platform has handled streaming duties since 2010, the dedicated player has a different menu and even player interface, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the feature excised from the general app eventually.

Continue reading Comcast quietly updates DVRs with ability to list stored programs from the web, mobile apps

Filed under: Tablets, Software, HD, Mobile

Comcast quietly updates DVRs with ability to list stored programs from the web, mobile apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft haven’t even been announced yet but their best competition may be from your cable TV / internet provider, according to a report from Bloomberg. The only-too-eager-to-talk people familiar with the matter named AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS and Time Warner Cable as services preparing tests before the end of the year with general availability planned for 2013. Comcast and Cox were also name dropped as potential candidates to bring console-quality HD games directly to customers, based on tech from startups like Playcast, CiiNOW and Agawi. Of course, while we’ve seen this sort of setup before (as seen above, check out an awesomely 90s Sega Channel ad after the break) and recently from OnLive and Gaikai, cloud gaming has yet to catch on in a major way. Whether this potential approach is all smoke or will actually turn into reality has yet to be seen, but after TV Everywhere we wouldn’t be surprised to see providers toss in gaming as another incentive for subscribers not to cut the cord.

[Image credit: Sega Retro]

Continue reading Cable, IPTV providers reportedly testing cloud-based HD gaming for launch next year

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD

Cable, IPTV providers reportedly testing cloud-based HD gaming for launch next year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While most of us have spent the last few weeks preparing for the return of North American-style football (get our NFL Pick ‘Em league info here), soccer fans in the US and France have been tracking the sudden rise of international TV network beIN Sport. Operated out of Qatar by Al Jazeera, beIN Sport USA has snagged the exclusive broadcast rights to Spain’s La Liga, Italy’s Serie A, France’s Ligue 1, South American World Cup Qualifiers and Copa America 2015, plus the away games for the US national men’s team in their qualifying rounds. The bad news for those interested in viewing the games is that until just recently, there were no carriers for the channel, although DirecTV (which also recently added BBC America HD for Doctor Who fans) and Dish have subsequently added it to a few tiers. Most recently, Comcast announced the channel’s availability on its Spanish MultiLatino package and for English viewers on the Xfinity TV Sports Entertainment lineup, with access also available via internet streaming. It appears Fox and ESPN have a new challenger at least for broadcast rights to soccer, and beIN Sport has expressed interest into other arenas as well, which could see it become a newer version of the now-defunct Worldsport HD channel for fans of sports that are more popular outside the US.

Continue reading beIN Sport USA soccer channel comes to Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

beIN Sport USA soccer channel comes to Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Aug 2012 01:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The executives at Verizon are likely jumping for joy today, as the FCC has approved the company’s planned spectrum acquisition. Verizon will be purchasing spectrum licenses from SprectrumCo, which is a joint venture between a number of big cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner. It’s paying a lot of money for access to that AWS spectrum as well, as the total price comes in at a whopping $3.9 billion.

Naturally, Verizon plans to use this freshly-acquired spectrum to expand its 4G services, but now that it has acquired the spectrum it wanted, it will be licensing out its lower A and B block spectrum to other companies. One of the companies that will licensing spectrum from Verizon is T-Mobile, which plans a roll out of 4G LTE for early 2013. In a statement, it was pretty easy to tell that Verizon president and CEO Dan Mead was eager to begin utilizing this new spectrum. “This purchase represents a milestone in the industry and we appreciate the FCC’s diligent work to review and approve the transaction,” he said. “We will work aggressively to ensure that we put this previously unused spectrum to use quickly to benefit customers.”

We’ve known about Verizon’s plan to buy up this unused spectrum since December, when it first noted it was interested in striking the deal. Given the number of companies involved the deal and the amount of money changing hands, the FCC had to become involved to make sure everything checked out. The FCC obviously doesn’t have the problem with the deal, announcing that Verizon has the green light to go ahead with the purchase today.

So, not only does this deal help Verizon greatly, but it will also help out other carriers and their customers. Verizon’s 4G LTE network already covers 75% of the United States, but with this new sale, Verizon will be able to give that a boost. Here’s hoping that Verizon begins its roll out as quickly as Mead’s comments suggest. Stay tuned, folks.

[via Android Community]

FCC approves Verizon’s $3.9 billion spectrum purchase is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
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