Archive for: comcast
It looks like Comcast is finally making good on past promises after acquiring NBC universal, namely providing more affordable internet to low-income families. The newly announced “Comcast Internet Essentials” will cost just $10/month. There are of course a number of requirements. One such requirement — households with kids on free lunch programs. Another stipulation is that the household is up to date on all Comcast bills.
On top of the cheap internet, Comcast is even throwing in a $150 voucher for a free computer, access to free digital literacy training, and even copy of Norton Security Suite. If things are tight at home, Comcast’s new Internet Essentials offering is quite the deal.
iPad users whom also subscribe to Comcast at home will soon have one more reason to pay for those high rates — live TV streaming with the blessing of Comcast themselves. The announcement was made to AllThingD’s Peter Kafka. But don’t go celebrating just yet, for it’s not quite as awesome of an announcement as it seems. The most glaring shortcoming of the upcoming iPad Live TV streaming is that it can only be done within the customers’ home. With that said, it begs the question: “What’s the point?” Of course, video licensing and live video licensing are two completely different challenges, unfortunately. The second shortcoming, at least initially, is that streaming will only be allowed to Apple’s iPad and Android tablets, leaving out a monumental smartphone-toting user base.
A live demo is supposedly going on today during a Citigroup investors conference, though release date, pricing, and any on-device restrictions are currently unknown.
Hopefully Comcast comes to their senses and realizes that streaming content in-house only isn’t worth our time, nor theres.
Latest: Most users should be back online at this point, according to Comcast.
If you’re a Comcast user somewhere in the midwest, chances are you aren’t reading this. But for the rest of you, Comcast is having some issues right now. The current word on Twitter is that Comcast’s DNS servers went down in Chicago.
On that note, if you must have your internets back this instant, changing your DNS settings to Google’s public DNS (8.8.8.8 – primary) and (8.8.4.4 – Secondary) will get you back online for the time being. Anyone else not in the midwest having issues?
Update
Instructions for manually setting DNS:
- Mac: Click on the Apple icon > System Preferences > Network > Select Connection (Network you’re connected to) > Choose ethernet or wireless network > Click “Advanced” > Select DNS tab > Click “+” to add new DNS settings > Enter 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 > Click Apple > Disconnect and reconnect to network.
- WIndows 7: Start > Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings > Select desired connection you’d like to configure > On desired connection (ethernet or wireless) right-click and select “properties” > Select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” and click on “properties” > Click “Advanced” > Select “DNS” > On bottom of screen, select “Use the following DNS server addresses” > Enter 8.8.8.8 as primary and 8.8.4.4 as secondary > Click “OK” > Disconnect and reconnect to network.
It may look complicated, but it’s really not. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any problems.
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…
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…
- December 11, 2009 2:25 pm
It used to be that Comcast was one of my least favorite if not most hated media providers. When they first started enacting the 250GB cap on monthly internet, I decided that was the last straw. Funny how time changes things isn’t it? For now, Comcast looks pretty mild in comparison to other ISP’s in particular who are pushing much stricter monthly bandwidths, some barely making it into the double digit range. If there were ever anything that would make me like them again, enough to actually want to give them my money, a thick slathering of humor would certainly do it.
So how would Comcast go about spreading this humor stuff to end users such as myself? You know those little descriptions that tell you a bit about each movie you can watch? Take a closer look next time. What you read may shock you, make you laugh, and ultimately fill your pants with unmentionables as you fight to contain your bowels after reading some of their clever and so very true descriptions.
Thanks to WTF Comcast, you and I can enjoy some of the Comcast movie description writers’ greatest works.
Gizmodo > WTF Comcast
The big news in the media world this week is Comcast’s acquisition of NBC. With anti-trust/monopolistic worries creeping to the forefront of our minds, we can all agree that it is a sensible purchase. Comcast controls many aspects of the media world, why not have their own channel of sorts. Again, it makes sense. New news today filtering out that details Comcast’s plans and strategy on this long and winding road to gobbling up a company had many stops along the way. One stop in particular that seems a bit odd to me is Facebook. Yes, Comcast was actually considering purchasing Facebook.
There’s one that that really confuses me about that however. They’re basically two completely different companies dealing with two completely different regions of the “media” world — if you could even say Facebook is a media company as to me, I see them more as a social networking first business. It comes off looking a lot like the botched eBay/Skype deal that ultimately ended up in eBay taking a loss and dumping Skype. Mind you, Skype back in it’s early days was a quickly innovating and fast moving company. After being picked up by eBay, that pep-in-the-step momentum died as Skype has pretty much remained motionless the last several years. Would it have been the same for Facebook if Comcast had purchased them? Would Facebook have caught MySpace-itis and rapidly fallen from it’s king pin position?
I guess all I really want to ask you is “Why”? Comcast is obviously hungry for new markets at the moment. But simply buying someone just to make yourself bigger isn’t exactly the smartest business move. Anyone care to share their thoughts?
Alley Insider
Second,
Ever concern yourself with such trivial things as how the media/content industry is changing to adapt to the digital age and fit around what end users really want? Comcast apparently gives two sh*ts about you and what you want. I’ll let the man, Comcast COO Steve Burk, dig his own grave:
An entire generation is growing up, if we don’t figure out how to change that behavior so it respects copyright and subscription revenue on the part of distributors, we’re going to wake up and see cord cutting.
Change the consumers behavior…? What. The. Hell. You need to adapt for us. We’re doing you a favor — keeping you in business. If all the Comcast subscribers suddenly decided to up and cancel their service, Comcast would be out of luck and out of business. His remarks are quite insulting really and further inspire me to never give them a dime of my money.
Even more telling of how “forward thinking” and modern Comcast is, Mr “Out of Touch Burk even goes as far to criticize companies and business models that are embracing technology, namely starting off with negative comments aimed at News Corp, Disney and NBC Universal whom all collectively run Hulu. I completely respect our free market, capitalist economy, but bashing your rivals who are actually several steps ahead of you isn’t very smart…
“Some people’s business models are going in the wrong direction”
The wrong direction? Please tell me this guy is on his way out and isn’t actually responsible for any “mission critical” decisions. If you want to abstain from anything that has “Free” in the title and push the internet away like it’s some sort of ugly orphan child that showed up at your house then so be it. But actively and blatantly criticizing those companies who actually have a little intuition as to their customers wants and the market as a whole are going to fair fare better than you and your company Mr. Burk. I long for the day when greedy, narrow-minded, ass holes like you who are completely focused on deepening their own pockets lose their jobs — unable to drag the market with them. To companies in support of Hulu and other Hulu-esque models, I applaud thee for taking a daring step into the next generation.
Furthermore, any company that has to force their customer base to stay confined within said companies rigid business models does not have a business model to begin with. As soon as people are fed up with being jerked around, you’re “business model” and everything contained within will collapse.
If Comcast really wants to whither away, that’s perfectly fine with me. There are many more start-ups and companies that will be created eager to fill the void. Look back in history and it’s easy to see that any company who was reluctant or unwilling to adapt to emerging technologies eventually whithered, became irrelevant, and died. Comcast, see ya later. You’re dead to me…
TechDirt > Broadcasting Cable
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Remember those stupid “It’s Comcastic” commercials. Ya, I like many others had a few choice opinions about them too. If you thought just because there hasn’t been any mention of “Comcast” and “Throttling” in the same sentence for some time that somehow all the parties involved forgot, you were grossly wrong. New details of a retooled and just as anti-consumer policy have surfaced. In fact, Comcast’s new throttling policy is worse than their old one. So how bad is it? There are two scenarios that will alert the packet cops of your seemingly suspicious behavior in which a heavy digital hammer will promptly smack you down:
- Scenario 1: If using more than 70% of your maximum throughput (up or down) during peak network hours for more than 15 minutes, you can expect to have your speeds cut.
- Scenario 2: If your digital bits are deemed responsible or even partially responsible for slow downs at your Cable Modem Termination System (shared with thousands – tens of thousands other users).
So what’s the damage cost? Breaking either one of the rules above will result in your precious download/upload speeds being chopped down to 50% for at least 15 minutes or until your average network utilization drops below 50% for at least 15 consecutive minutes. Guess you better not use the internet for anything multimedia related during “peak hours” for fear of navigating yourself down a digital molasses highway. Please Comcast, don’t become the AT&T of the “earth bound” world. Ya, it sucks. One of the very reasons I despise Comcast and choose not to do business with them. Anyone else feeling tad bit of animosity?
Engadget > Slashdot
