Hasta La Gadget!

Cox Cable is the latest pay-TV company to relaunch its viewing experience, putting features formerly branded as Trio and Cox TV Connect under the new Contour umbrella. Contour is the new name of its guide for TV and accompanying iPad app, all focused on creating a personalized experience for each user, with tailored suggestions and favorites for up to eight individual profiles. This comes along with the “Record 6” 6-tuner DVR, featuring 2TB of space for up to 300 hours of HD storage and whole home DVR support. The tablet app also allows for viewing live TV from 90 or so channels and video on-demand (while the user is at home), plus the ability to search listings and schedule DVR recordings, or push a program they’re watching on the tablet to the TV. It even includes shortcuts to other TV apps on the device like HBO Go, ESPN or CNN.

Much of the TV watching functionality has been available via the Cox TV Connect app which is still shipping for the iPad 1, Android, Mac and Windows platforms, although Contour is currently iPad and iOS 6-only. The Contour app is available for subscribers with most Cox TV or Contour TV service, plus Preferred Internet or higher, while the guide and DVR are out in all markets. Check after the break for a preview video of how it all works, or hit the links below to download the app or see if the service is available in your area.

[Thanks, Tom]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Cox, iTunes

Are you a Cablevision subscriber with a Galaxy S III (T-Mobile, US Cellular or unlocked), Galaxy S IV or Galaxy Express (AT&T) handset? Awesome, because now you can watch live and on-demand TV from your phone via the company’s Optimum app. More than that, Optimum can do double duty as a clicker for your screen as well as manage recording schedules and content. The cable provider also announced that its cloud-based Multi-Room DVR would triple the storage capacity for recorded video — jumping to 300 hours of standard-def, 75 hours of high-def or some combination of the two. Maybe what’s most exciting is that now you can record 10 shows or movies at once. This should give even the most avid time-shifted TV-watcher a ton of freedom and eliminate a potential Sophie’s Choice between Law & Order: SVU, 2 Broke Girls and Antiques Roadshow. Yeah, our tastes are what you might call “diverse.”

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile

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Via: Optimum (Twitter)

Source: Google Play

As powerful as the Hopper DVR can be, it largely exists in an app vacuum: to date, only official releases like Dish Explorer and Dish Social have had access. Dish is giving its set-top box some much needed flexibility, however, by offering the Hopper’s APIs to third-party developers. The expansion lets non-Dish mobile apps control the Hopper directly, whether it’s switching to a live show or scheduling a recording. Thuuz Sports (shown above) is the first app to take advantage of the APIs, although we wouldn’t expect a flood of releases afterwards — Dish is screening developers for privacy issues and “other considerations.” Still, the move represents a rare level of openness in an industry that frequently insists on self-branded software.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile

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Source: Dish, Thuuz

If you’re like us, you were wondering what impact Samsung’s acquisition of Boxee would have on Boxee’s Cloud DVR service. Unfortunately, we don’t have good news. Boxee is shutting down the service on July 10th, and customers will lose access to their TV recordings at the same time. We’re not surprised by the move, but it effectively shuts the company down within the space of a week. When Boxee’s apps, the Boxee Box and the Live TV add-on are either gone or on their way out, there aren’t really products left to offer — it’s all Samsung from here.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Samsung

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Via: The Verge

Source: Boxee

DirecTV recently switched the name of its Nomad transcoding device to GenieGo to match its new DVRs, a change we first noticed on its Android app. On Windows PC and iOS the apps are about to get a new update that changes the name and lets users stream video from their DVRs over WiFi even when they’re away from home (Mac and Android support is due later in the year.) Previously, it allowed users to stream live and recorded TV, or download recorded TV to a mobile device for viewing offline, but Slingbox-style streaming of live or recorded TV anywhere is new, and brings it closer to the device we thought it could be when it launched. Solid Signal and DBSTalk report the incoming update (not live yet, but it should pop up tomorrow) is easy to use, letting users stream recordings, start a recording so it can stream or remotely setting up the transcoder to make a mobile copy users can download once they get home. Satellite TV competitor Dish has brought deeper integration of Sling into its new Hopper DVRs, and now DirecTV has its own in-house solution, anyone thinking of switching sides?

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile

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Source: Solid Signal, DBSTalk, DirecTV