Hasta La Gadget!

Ah, commercials. They’re convenient for those times you want to grab more snacks without missing any of your show, and maddening when you just want to watch TV without seemingly endless commercials. Dish Network offers two features via its Hopper Whole-Home DVR that allows users to record shows and skip commercials. Fox tried to block these features, but a judge has ruled in Dish’s favor.

PrimeTime Anytime allows subscribers to record prime time shows (hence its name), while AutoHop gives an option for skipping commercials on certain recordings. Fox requested a preliminary injection to block these two features, concerned about the effect it will have on advertising revenue. According to a statement published by Dish Network, District Judge Dolly Gee ultimately rejected Fox’s request.

Says the announcement, the block was rejected for several reasons, a few of which were related to copyright. The ruling stated that the use of PrimeTime Anytime does not infringe on Fox’s reproduction rights and that users cannot be held liable for infringement, and neither of the two features fall under unauthorized distribution. About AutoHop specifically, Judge Gee ruled that the feature doesn’t violate Dish and Fox’s 2010 RTC agreement’s Video-on-Demand provision, but that it does “likely violate” the RTC agreement in general. Fox, however, hasn’t provided any proof that it has been harmed by the feature.

Dish’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel R Stanton offered this statement. “Today’s ruling is a victory for common sense and customer choice … The ruling underscores the U.S. Supreme Court’s ‘Betamax’ decision, with the court confirming a consumer’s right to enjoy television as they want, when they want, including the reasonable right to skip commercials, if they so choose.”

[via Dish]

Judge rejects request to block Dish AutoHop and PrimeTime Anytime is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Dish Network announced Sunday that the long and drawnout court case between it and AMC Networks along with sister company Cablevision Systems had finally been settled. The court case focused on a now-defunct service called Voom, and was originally filed in 2008. Dish Network later decided to drop AMC claiming that its channels cost too much.

Dropping AMC networks meant that Dish Network subscribers no longer had access to some the best and most popular shows on television including Mad Men, Breaking Bad and the zombie hit The Walking Dead. Fans of that show were particularly peeved because the show recently started its latest season. In fact, the entire last season of Breaking Bad was missed by Dish subscribers. During the blackout, AMC even ran an unprecedented and aggressive marketing campaign against Dish.

The good news for fans of the zombie drama is that the service came back on Sunday night, just in time to watch the latest episode of The Walking Dead. The settlement will have Dish Network paying Cablevision and AMC Networks $700 million in cash. Other AMC Networks channels, including IFC, We TV and the Sundance Channel will return to Dish Network on November 1.

[via ZDNet]

This image, acquired by France’s Pleiades satellite, makes Dubai look like a well lit diorama table. Given its absurd skyscrapers, ridiculous fountains and insanely sculpted town planning, perhaps that should come as no surprise. [ESA] More »

For starters, I’ll go on record to say that I’m a big DirecTV fan. Having tried Comcast’s abysmal cable box UI and DVR, and knowing the fact that Dish doesn’t have AMC anymore is enough to keep me a loyal subscriber for many years. That said, I was pretty excited to hear about today’s reveal of DirecTV’s newly upgraded HD DVR, the Genie.

The new DVR continues to best others on the market, this time adding a massive 1TB hard drive, capable of storing up to 200 hours of HD programming – or 800 hours of SD (but who watches SD anymore?) The Genie HD DVR also has 5 tuners built in, allowing you to record up to 6 shows at once, including a simultaneous VOD download.

A single Genie receiver will provide whole-home DVR service to up to 8 televisions around your house. You can even watch the same program on up to 4 sets at the same time, and each location gets its own full DVR controls, including record and delete abilities. And if you have a TV that supports RVU (currently Samsung’s 2011 6000, 6400 and 6420 series sets), you won’t even need a separate box to control the Genie.

It also supports picture-in-picture – a feature I’ve sorely missed from older television sets, so you can watch two programs simultaneously on one set.  DirecTV is also touting “Genie recommendations” which are supposed to suggest shows that match your preferences, but I’m not sure how different this is from the recommendation feature already available on current DTV receivers.

I’m definitely interested in upgrading my 5-year-old HD receiver, so I’m happy to hear about today’s announcement – though there’s no official word yet on upgrades for existing subscribers. Though the idea of losing the 50 or so hours of programs I’ve still got to watch on my current DVR is a little hard to stomach. Perhaps, someday they’ll offer an upgrade path that lets you transfer your existing programs to a new DVR.

You can find out more about the DirecTV Genie here.

Sure, we can pull space junk out of orbit with lasers or use it to cobble together new satellites, but if engineers at space firm Astrium UK have their way, space trash could be disposed of with the help of harpoons. Currently in a conceptual stage, the system is designed to shoot defunct satellites or other debris with a harpoon mounted on a “chaser satellite” and use a tethered propulsion pack to send the rubbish in an atmospheric descent where it’ll burn up. Since the projectile could shoot straight through targets and result in even more garbage, it’s been fashioned with a crushable portion to reduce its speed upon impact. There’s no concrete word on when the outfit’s solution might be put in action, but they’ll present their work on Wednesday at the 63rd International Astronautical Congress in Naples (Italy, not Florida, mind you). If you can’t wait to see the harpoon at work, head past the break to catch tests of an Earth-based prototype.

Continue reading UK engineers developing harpoon that could help space junk meet a fiery end

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UK engineers developing harpoon that could help space junk meet a fiery end originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 05:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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