Tivo drops the HD gauntlet

How I wish I was at CES. I'm a big fan of the show but of course, no one around here invites the one guy who loves and knows more about various gadgets around here than just about anyone within a 2 mile radius. Sigh. Maybe I'll drop my own cash to go next year (let's see how much MSFT stock rises hehe)....back to meat of the story:

Tivo (finally) announces a stand alone HD box. Yes you've read correctly. Tivo has seen the light. It'd be nice for Tivo to REALLY see the light and just port their UI over to Windows and Mac OS X, sell the remote for 50 bucks and let you install their stuff on your own PC, drop the monthly fee in return for periodic (and interesting) video ads, and just make everyone very very happy (On my knees praying for the surprise announcement from Tivo now...).

With the Tivo Series 3 (that's QUITE the creative name, I know), my only complaint is no Wifi built-in (c'mon man!) which seems lame at first, but really is a good idea since you wouldn't want to transfer the gargantuan files around on a piddly little 54Mbps wifi connection. Maybe it'll be compatible with some super high speed broadband or wireless USB connection? (Saying another prayer now...).

The details:

250GB & 320GB drives combined give you 70 hours of programming (Awww man...MPEG-2 again??!!)
OLED Front display shows show names being recorded.
Tivo will sell (probably overpriced) external drives you can add on.
Woirks with WMV (and other codecs yet to be announced, more praying for Xvid, Divx, Ogg, MP4).
Dual cable card slots, dual tuners.
720p or 1080i
Component and HDMI ouputs

Man I'm glad I didn't pay for "lifetime service" on my old Series 2 boxes (not that I can afford an HD Tivo, HD TV, or even digital cable, but hey). I'll still probably build my own Media Center box (but after Vista ships) but still make secret offerings to the gods for Tivo on my PC.

See For Yourself [via Gizmodo].

BillG CES 2006 Keynote blow by blow

In reverse chronological order:

BillG wrapup
Themes for 2006:
Xbox 360, Cheap HD, Media Center
Partners
User centric-all platforms easy and seemless

Xbox 360
4.5-5.5 million boxes by end of June
4 Games attach rate
3 Accessories attach rate
New manufacturing partner to meet demand
4 million Xbox Live marketplace downloads on Xbox 360
Same demographic and market size as CSI
Paramount premiers MI3 trailer on Xbox Live Marketplace
March 2006 - over 20 free games (including Street Fighter II - WOW!!)
Xbox 360 HD-DVD external drive to be launched later this year (MAN, I gotta pay extra for it?)
Xbox 360 driving HDTV sales
50 HD Games by Summer 2006
EA Fight Night III - Al Bernstein comes out to announce fighters
BillG plays as Muhammed Ali
SteveB plays as Joe Frasier
SteveB heavyweight division, BillG lightweight division
Game looks pretty cool. Camera angle nice. Accurate player styles
First Person View if you're getting your ass kicked
Cool replays...spit flying and everything. Whoa
BillG wins, Balmer throws controller
Xbox Live Marketplace users get free demo of EA Fight Night III RIGHT NOW!

Vista Media Center User Interface
Faded overlay on playing TV
Music
Album Cover View
Different Views
View by artist
View by year (WOOHOO!)
Works with XBox 360 as extender
Movie Library
Movie Poster View
DVD-Changer can be hooked up
Digitally Legal copies show up here

Digital HD Cable on Vista
Cable adapter box with Cable Card attaches to PC
Consumer buys "Cable-Ready PC"

HD-DVD player
Toshiba player availabe soon
HD-DVD on Vista
Interactivity on HD-DVD - scene chooser overlays on top of movie WHILE it's playing ("HD-DVD Interactivity Layer").
Shows you actors in the scene by order of their appearance in current scene WHILE movie is playing (OOOHH)
Can query information ("What else is this actor is in?") WHILE movie is playing (AAAAHH)
Overlay commentator video WHILE movie is playing
Digitally legal copies to be stored on the PC.

Windows Live Messenger
TV Buddy (YAY MSNTV TEAM!!)
Recommends shows your buddy likes
"What's on tonight?" - Activity API recommends shows based on your criteria
Plays trailers right in Activity API screen
MSNTV Remote Record built in...click and it records your TV shows!

Windows Live
TV services (YAY MSNTV TEAM!!)
Recommendations service based
RealTime MediaCenter activity

TV - Media Center
New online spotlight services on Media Center
Comedy Central Motherload
Cool UI that allows browsing while show is playing
Comedy central archives
Total Number of online spotlight apps: 110 worldwide
Webcast feed died
New media center form factors from PC maker partner
Toshiba Gigabeat portable video player
30GB HD
4 hours playback
Media Center UI (sync video [online and broadcast], music, photos)
Stars VONGO.com service
Similar to CinemaNow and MovieLink
Allows use on portable or PC
$9.95/mo. for 1000 movie selection (same as Stars current movie selection)
LG Portable Media Center
Widescreen

VOIP phones
Contact list on the phone
Seemless VOIP

Treo 700w
Available TOMORROW from Verizon!

Vista Tablet
Heavy investment in Vista tablet
Cheaper tablets on the way

URGE MTV and MS partnership
Integrated in WMP
No mention of business model (subs, ppv, ad based?)
Search similar to WMP library
Pro blogs
Sharing, tagging, community - user driven content
Justin Timberlake arrives on stage to plug his new album and URGE

Vista Demo
Similar to PDC 05 and Company Meeting 05 with some new stuff:
Demo of Photos (super fast thumbnails, tags, search, and automated slideshow with mixed photos/video)
Demo of Windows Media Player Vista (better UI, search)

Future of Computing Demo
Family screen (as seen at PDC 05 and Company Meeting 05)
Info to phone (as seen at PDC 05 and Company Meeting 05)
Info on table PC in airport lobby (as seen at PDC 05 and Company Meeting 05)

BillG started with a lot of preview (as usual) of the various technologies that he's going to talk about

BillG's CES Keynote

Tonight (January 4, 2006) at 6pm, Bill Gates is going to give the keynote at CES. I'm not going to spill the beans, but there's going to be some really neat stuff in the keynote. Be sure to watch live. If you don't watch, don't worry...I'll have a blow by blow here tonight.