Tag Archives: TiVo

The end of an era…

Vcr tivo tombstoneSo everyone everywhere has been saying the VCR is dead. TiVo sent out an e-mail last week, I’m sure you got it (you do have TiVo don’t you?). It said:

Did you know…?
• Many manufacturers have halted production on VCRs forever!
• 2006 will be the last year for VHS movie releases.

But here’s the thing, so many people still have VHS tapes, they won’t be going anywhere soon. Who has ditched their cassette players if you still have cassettes? CDs were clearly better and more convenient. But the problem was that you couldn’t record CD (way back when, we could only play CDS, not record) and it’s still pretty hard for many people to make mix CDs. And most people can’t record anything to CD for something casual (off the radio, a recital, etc). The same goes for DVDs.

So they did a mock funeral in New York and if you brought a VHS tape you could trade it for a TiVo (as long as sign up for at least a year’s worth of service).

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Mailblocks R.I.P.

Mailblocks, the best e-mail web service out there is now shutting down. I’m very sad at this, they used CAPTCHAs to make sure you weren’t getting spam and they made e-mail managment more than bearable. Mailblocks gave you extra addresses that you could use for when you didn’t want mail filtered and would check your other accounts for you and emulated the outgoing address that you wanted people to see.

MailBlocks did it right. Think of them as the iPods of MP3 players, or the TiVo of DVRs, they just went the extra miles. I really can’t figure how I’ll manage my mail as well…

AOL bought them 6-10 months ago and has done nothing with the service. Now they are canceling all accounts (in 30 days). They want you to use AIM Mail which is free but appears to offer none of the main features of MailBlocks!!! I think they might have used the screen interface and that’s it. Yuck!

I will be asking for my refund. I guess it’s time to check out SpamArrest (here’s an animated demo). I’ve mentioned it before as an alternative to MailBlocks (when AOL stopped accepting accounts)so now it’s time to do it.

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The Perfect Score – Review

So a few weeks ago I noticed I was getting Showtime, I assumed it was a free preview weekend or something so I TiVo’d (taped) a few shows. One of those shows happened to be The Perfect Score, about a group of kids who decide to steal the answers to the SAT, tonight I got around to watching this one. It wasn’t until I was watching it for a few that I realized I had done that post about the SAT gizmo earlier today (duh!).

So the movie was fun, if you saw the preview it’s pretty much what you’d expect with a few “dream/fantasy” sequences about the planned crime itself. They really ripped on the the whole standardization pigeonholing concept of the whole test and the scoring and how your whole life can be based on this number. The one line that I liked was something like, “They tell us to be individuals our whole life and then stick us all in the same room to take the same test to determine the rest of our lives” (that’s very paraphrased).

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TiVo will change the way you watch TV!

TivoaniI love my TiVo!!! I’ve seen other digital recorders but this is so easy to use with it’s excellent interface. I think it’s a great product. You can watch stuff when you want or start a show late and catch up to it by fast forwarding through the commercials. If you’re just watching TV live you can pause it or even rewind. It’s got season passes, wish lists, automatic suggestions (based on what you want), fast forward at 1 minute per second, on screen directory, you can schedule shows via the web and all sorts of other stuff. They have got to save shows to DVD. If you hook it up to your home network (you do have a home network, don’t you?) you can play MP3s and view photos that are on a computer somewhere else. You can share shows between TiVos in your house (if you have more than one). It really is a great tool to have for your TV watching (even if you don’t watch a lot).

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When is HDTV not HD?!?

So I picked up an HD TV cable box today. But I don’t have an HD television. “Why?”, you ask? The better to see it with! My picture for the HD channels are beautiful!!! I feel like I just bought a new TV! My HD cable TV box will work fine on most TVs; probably any TV that will let you hook up a DVD player will hook up to this and give you a much better picture.

HdtvlogoHere’s the thing: it’s got regular “video out” connectors on it (the yellow video or s-video), the same connectors that you use to hook up your DVD player. If you think your DVD picture is better than your regular TV, I’d say you should try this out. I’ve got Comcast in the Detroit area, I just walked in to get the box and came home and hooked it up instead of the old one. It’s only $5 more a month than the regular digital cable box.

How good is the picture do you ask? It almost as good as my DVD player !!! I’m using the s-video connector (the one that looks like the small round keyboard connector for your computer) and I’d say it’s way better than my old digital cable box. I’m sure you’re wondering why and the answer is simple: The television standard that we use has ben in use for over sixty years and that was black and white (color wasn’t tacked on until a dozen years later).

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Anna Nalick Today

Anna Nalick is on the Today Show on NBC on Saturday, June 18th. She’s supposed to be performing around 8:10 AM EST. Set your TiVo!

Anyone know what’s supposed to be on the Anna Nalick Import CD…?

Grey’s Anatomy – Was it the Season Finale?

GreysanatomyIt was the season finale, wasn’t it?!? I don’t see any more episodes in my Tivo, either way it was a very busy episode. Poor George, he’s just the butt of everyone’s jokes and all he can do is stammer if it’s an embarrassing situation. At least he’s the new girlfriend (anyone know who plays her?). Every time I see Isobel I just want to reminisce and pull out the old Roswell DVDs, she’ll always be Isabel to me (oh wait, she still is).

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Enterprise – The Series Final Episode

So I really enjoyed the final hour (it was really two one-hour episodes) and I really wasn’t expecting that after the first hour. I just watched it (I just love TiVo) and I have spoilers so don’t read on if you haven’t watched it yet (I’m assuming real Star Trek geeks already watched it).

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