Archive for: cable
UK readers will want to make sure they have or know someone who has access to Sky 3D TV this Christmas, for Avatar 3D is coming to town. The Christmas premiere will be exclusive to Sky 3D and Sky 3D alone. However, those who aren’t too keen on 3D movies in general will be able to see the 2D version of Avatar on sister channels Sky Movies Premiere and Sky Movies Premiere HD.
The Avatar 3D (and 2D) premiere is scheduled to go live on Christmas Eve at 8pm. Interested readers will of course need the required 3D TV, Glasses, and Sky TV channel packages.
Watching Avatar 3D within the comfy atmosphere of your home sounds like a great way to spend Christmas, no?
Remember a time way back in 2007 when AT&T announced a little gem for the Xbox 360 relating to U-Verse? For many people, that initiative to bring U-Verse programming to the Xbox 360 and have it function as a set top box have all but died. Three years and still no product/service generally means “death” in the consumer electronic world. But the powers that be have managed come through. The U-Verse-enabled Xbox 360 is nearing an official release.
But before you get all hog wild with the celebrations, we’ll point out that there are a few stipulations…
It seems as if we’re always seeing new and innovative electrical outlet designs. On the flip side, however, we never really see anything new and exciting when it comes to what’s actually being plugged into said outlet. The cable that tethers our gadgets and electrical devices hasn’t changed in decades. Why should everything else have all the fun?
That’s what the “Line Block” hopes to change. The key design element with the Line Block is the puzzle-like design which allows the stacking or coupling of multiple cords. As anyone who owns their fair share of electronics, having stackable/easily containable cords is a god send. If we had the Line Block now, we could throw out all of those twist ties as well as over priced cable management solutions.
Of course, the biggest hurdle isn’t making all of these cables — Ultimately needing hundreds of millions, if not billions — but actually getting dozens upon dozens of hardware/gadget/electronics manufacturers to all come together and agree on some kind of standard so that the Line Block could actually be born. To dream the impossible dream…
(Larger pic inside)
If you’re one of millions of AT&T U-verse users, you’ve got a new handy dandy feature headed your way. Coming soon to a smartphone (still undetermined) near you, AT&T Voicemail Viewer will allow users to remotely listen to and manage home voicemails left on traditional land line systems from the comfort of the open road. Currently, there’s no mention of what actual smartphones will be supported. Complicating those seeking more, pointing your browser to att.com/vmviewer as is stated in the press release serves up a nasty 404 error instead. Whoops!
No worries, folks. AT&T should have that little snafu fixed lickity split, at which point I’ll share the good word with the lot of you…
While trying to avoid the beating of the poor horse that’s been beaten one too many times, I stumbled upon an article and felt the need to share it with you. It’s rather short for what it covers — HDMI cables and why you don’t need to spend more than $5-$15 on any cable — but does so in a very clear and precise way.
Check out HD Guru if you’re tired of listening to your poor, technologically retarded old man boast about his new $1500 TV and accompanying $200 3′ HDMI cable. Being the tech junkie you are, it’s the least you could do. The less grossly overpriced cable sold the better.
If there’s one thing that I can go ahead and claim for the majority of the human race, it’s this: No one wants another A/V cable standard. Such marketing pushes are often filled with plenty of PR fluff promising great new (and cheaper) benefits for customers. All it excels at however is further confusing customers, over-saturating the market with cable mumbo jumbo, and giving retailers a reason to jack prices up. But this new standard actually makes some sense as it is based off of cables many web connected people already make use of — cat5e/6 networking cable.
Dubbed “HDBaseT”, this cat5e/6 cable will allow A/V hardware to hook up to each other with a significantly reduced A/V cable cound, and ultimately resulting in cheaper A/V cable prices for customers, among other A/V equpiment (hopefully). Why manufacturers didn’t pursue this route 5-10 years ago is beyond me. But at least it’s here now.
The initial concept and outlook is promising. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long at all to get a taste of HDbaseT either. The standard is supposed to be adopted in 2011. Anyone interested? Or do you think wireless is going to kill off any remaining chances of a replacement A/V cable standard? Keep it in the comments…
If you weren’t familiar with Consumerist, let me toot their horn. It’s a great site that calls out companies in America for shady tactics with the only aim of righting the wrongs. However often that actually plays out doesn’t matter so much as the thought behind the whole shebang. Anyway, the point I am leading to is that Consumerist holds a contest each year that gives readers full discretion of choosing the worst company in America. And wouldn’t you know it, a Gadgetsteria frequent topic — Comcast — took home the gold…
As if we needed another reason to hate the MPAA — SOC will live on, invading our homes and gadgets effectively neutering them. Now, if you’re one who doesn’t record videos via analog outputs on devices, you have nothing to worry about. But for those who do, you have plenty to worry about. From here on out, any media the MPAA feels is “too new” or valuable will have the switch flipped, rendering those analog outputs on your TV, cable, or satellite boxes completely useless, leaving you without your paid for content thanks to the new, official bill by the FCC (PDF)…
If you happen to care for your general rights in this little thing we call life, you may have stopped by Consumerist once or twice. Run by the same folks behind Consumer Reports, the Consumerist focuses more on personal acts of wrong by any and all corporate entities directed at consumers.
Over the last few weeks, company after company has been knocked out of the running with only one — Comcast — living ’til the end…
