Hasta La Gadget!

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]

Isn’t it better when we work together? British carriers think so. EE, O2, Three and Vodafone have officially created a non-exclusive joint venture, Digital Mobile Spectrum Limited, that should speed up the deployment of 800MHz LTE by keeping Freeview over-the-air TV signals clear of interference while the partners bring their low-frequency 4G online. Previously, the networks were bound to form an equivalent company called MitCo that wouldn’t have been active until after the 800MHz auction, preventing companies from getting their wireless houses in order until they’d already made a commitment. There’s also a competitive angle involved to go with the cooperative work, as you might imagine: with EE’s 1,800MHz LTE poised to go live on October 30th, choosing infighting over assistance would only help widen the frontrunner’s lead. Whether DMSL represents altruism or pragmatism, we’ll appreciate knowing that the hurdles to a catch-up in UK 4G will be more those of the technical reality than the usual political maneuvering.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

UK carriers form alliance to speed up 800MHz LTE rollout, let us enjoy our Freeview TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’d wanted to watch Aereo’s unique antenna-to-internet TV streaming until today, you had to tune in from an iOS device or Roku box. That’s not a lot of choice for placeshifting, is it? A fresh update to the company’s streaming service has widened the choices considerably for New Yorkers to include all the major browsers on Macs and Windows PCs. As long as you’re using a recent version of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari, you can catch up on Ion or Telemundo while you’re checking email. About the only restrictions left are the continued lack of Android support and occasional lawsuits from traditionalist broadcasters.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Internet, HD

Aereo opens its streaming TV to Mac and Windows web browsers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A new study from NPD DisplaySearch today shows that on average, the diagonal size of LCD and other displays on electronic devices and public signboards is on the rise, with the notable exception of mobile PCs. In some areas, NPD is showing huge growth, like the whopping 38 percent projected increase in mobile phone screen size between 2010 and 2013.

Display sizes are also making modest increases in other areas, like the 5 percent change in desktop monitors (from 19.9-inches in 2010 to a projected 20.9-inches in 2013), or the 29 percent spike in portable media player size. Given that Apple has a huge portion of both the PMP and mobile phone spaces, its recent introduction of larger-screened iPhones, iPod touches and iPod nanos likely influenced the significant project growth in those areas. Android and Windows Phone 8-powered devices are also seeing screen sizes packing on extra inches, however, so the fire was already started long before Apple came along to help bring up the average.

Why are mobile PC screen sizes trending downwards? NPD says it’s because of a couple of factors, including the rising interest in ultrabooks (though there’s some debate about how interested customers actually are in that category), and more importantly, the growth of tablets. Average sizes are expected to fall from 13.6-inches to 12.2-inches between 2010 and 2013 in the mobile PC segment, and if Microsoft’s new Windows 8 OS makes the splash in tablets the company seems to be hoping it will with the Surface and third-party offerings, that number could go even lower as 10-inch devices flood the market.

In the end, that means consumers can continue to expect their video and digital image media devices to get larger and larger, for the most part, which is also good news for content producers and those working in advancing digital A/V tech. I’m just hoping all mobile phones don’t go on a Galaxy Note II growth spurt, because that would require too much rethinking in terms of how we design and build pants pockets.

The Boxee Box — that sucker had a ton of hype behind it, but things don’t always work out. After two years of fighting Roku, Apple TV and, to a lesser extent, Google TV for market share, Boxee has drastically rethought its approach. The $99 Boxee TV marks a new chapter for the company with a focus on live TV and a streamlined consumer experience. Baked right inside the matte plastic case is a dual tuner capable of pulling in unencrypted basic cable channels and over-the-air HD broadcasts. There’s a slick guide to help you navigate but, most importantly, the slimmed down software sports DVR functionality. The Boxee TV has no internal storage, however, instead all your recordings are stored online in a “No Limits” DVR. For $15 a month you’ll be able to save as many shows as you want and watch it on your TV or on your computer, tablet or phone through an HTML5 webapp. The DVR service will be rolled out to New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington DC to start, with other markets set to come online in 2013.

The selection of apps is not quite as robust as it is on the legacy Boxee Box, but CEO Avner Ronen has settled on a quality over quantity approach. Netflix, VUDU, Pandora, YouTube and Vimeo will come preinstalled on the Boxee TV and other apps will follow. But we wouldn’t expect to see Know Your Meme or PornHub on there anytime soon. Some of the other losses are a little harder to swallow for fans of the original hardware. The move from Intel to a Broadcom SOC means the streaming options for locally stored media are much less robust. There’s DLNA support, but many other networking protocols have fallen by the wayside. The beloved QWERTY remote has also bitten the dust, replaced with a much simpler device that sports dedicated Netflix and Vudu buttons. Even the distinctive “sinking cube” design has been replaced with a basic rectangle that’s barely distinguishable from other settop boxes. You can sign up for more info at the Boxee site where you’ll also be able to preorder the Boxee TV ahead of its November 1st launch.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Boxee TV delivers dual-tuners and cloud-based DVR for $99 November 1st originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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