Hasta La Gadget!

TiVo owners just got another way of acquiring high-definition movies and TV shows.  Tivo announced today its new partnership with Amazon.com, which lets TiVo subscribers download HD videos from the Amazon Video on Demand service right to their DVRs.

Episodes of current TV shows will be available for purchase for $2.99; recently released movies will be available to rent for $3.99-$4.99. Many of the titles support Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, for use with living-room surround-sound setups.

TiVo subscribers with a broadband-connected Series3 HD, TiVo HD, or TiVo HD XL can register for the service by visiting www.amazon.com/videoondemand/tv.  Afterwards, they’ll be able to search and browse available movies and TV shows to download directly to their TiVo.

For additional information, visit www.tivo.com/amazon.

Epson, along with partners Impressx and Engage, has
unveiled a multi-touch screen interactive desktop at the UK’s Gadget Show Live, according to Vnunet.com. The 52-inch X-Desk uses projectors–a natural fit for Epson, who sells a ton of the things–to transform a surface into an interactive display. The idea is to “[blur] the lines between the physical
and virtual worlds, allowing people to physically interact with digital content
such as photos, videos, documents, maps and information,” according to the company.

Here’s how it works: place an MP3 player, a cell phone, or other device on the surface, and the X-Desk gives you immediate access to whatever media is contained in the device. Users can also move media around on the surface. The report said that the system consists of a rear-projection screen, a camera, a PC with custom software, optical sensors that register and interpret touches on the
surface, and an Epson 3LCD projector. No word yet if the company plans to produce the X-Desk, but it probably won’t be any time soon.

We loved Logitech’s Harmony One universal remote. The touch-screen Harmony 1100 (http://tinyurl.com/cht9sz) cuts buttons and doubles the price–but it’s prettier.

Verizon on Monday added video-on-demand content from Turner Networks and Sony to its FiOS TV lineup. The deal will allow customers to watch shows on-demand from channels such as the Cartoon Network, CNN, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, and more. The Sony partnership will provide access to HD movies like “Hancock” and “Pineapple Express,” Verizon said.

“Our ever-expanding VOD library gives customers a front seat to all of the best on-demand entertainment, with the convenience of watching what they want, whenever they want,” Terry Denson, vice president for FiOS TV content and programming at Verizon, said in a statement.

FiOS currently has about 14,000 on-demand options, 8,500 of which are free.

Households on the DTV converter box coupon waiting list should have their coupons in less than three weeks, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“The backlog should be done 2.5 weeks from today,” Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, an associate administrator at NTIA told the Federal Communications Commission Thursday.

The economic stimulus package recently allotted $650 million for the converter box program, including $90 million for outreach and education. NTIA is already digging into those funds to help clear the converter box coupon waiting list.

About a month ago, there were 1.8 million households waiting for 3.3 million coupons, according to the FCC. Issues with the coupon program were among the reasons cited for delaying the transition from Feb. 17 to June 12.

With new procedures recently put in place, the NTIA expects it will now be able to send out 2 million coupons per week, McGuire-Rivera said.

Those procedures include using first-class instead of third-class mail to send out the coupons, adding more banks that will be issuing the debit card coupons, and enhancing the agency’s fraud and abuse checks.