Tom Conrad: Microsoft TV – IPTV Edition: Tom Conrad provides a firsthand report of the new SBC/Microsoft IPTV system and says that the interface is very similar to MCE and superior to the Foundation Comcast interface. It will be interesting to see what this looks like when SBC rolls it out later this year.

The WSJ reports on the launch of Comcast’s VOIP service today. Initially the service will be promoted to up to 15 Million homes and within 18 months to the 40 Million homes will have access. They are looking for about 20% adoption within 5 years which would give them 8 million customers. VOIP is hitting the big time and the new phone wars are on! MORE »

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger Scoble has an excellent post out answering Doc Searls on the roll of the PC in televsion. Obviously as anyone who reads my posts knows I would have to resoundly agree with Scoble. The PC has a huge role to play with television. PCs essentially add power and features to television. Microsoft’s Media Center Edition is a computer, TiVo is essentially a linux based computer. These two computers have revolutionilized the way that people watch television. MORE »

One of the biggest surprises at CES during Microsoft’s keynote was the unveiling of the LG LRM-519, a DVR/DVD recorder featuring Microsoft’s new thin-client Media Center inspired DVR platform that can be networked with any Windows XP or Media Center Edition PC to stream photos, music, and video. But the coolest feature of the device is that it can take the content it has recorded to its hard drive and stream it to a compatible Windows PC for syncing and optimization via WMP 10 to connected playsforsure devices. MORE »

It’s official… Slingbox Personal Broadcaster, the television “Place Shifting” broadband appliance, will be available in the first half of 2005. We know people have been pretty anxious to get their hands on one and now the company has released details and pricing for the unit, which we have to say very reasonable compared to software based solutions that require a monthly service charge. MORE »

Anyone who owns a Wi-Fi enabled Pocket PC and Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC definitely needs to checkout the Niveus Pocket Remote that will be available later this month for download (free 15-day trial or $34.99 per individual license). The innovative software application is an ideal solution for controlling your PC’s entire music collection, including FM radio and the ability to record television shows through an intuitive MCE like user-interface. MORE »

Tech Digest reports: “Philips is taking a shot at the multi-room audio server system market with its Wireless Music Centre system [actual name – Philips WACS700 Wireless Audio System]. Set to launch in April the apparently easy to install solution includes a main unit with a 40 Gigabyte hard disk with CD player and FM tuner which wirelessly streams music to up to five table-top speakers systems. The system can apparently playback up to six different tunes in six different rooms.” Priced at $999, with each additional adapter cost $300, the system looks to be a contender in the distributed music server space. The system is also said to be able to stream music via an 802.11b connection in either MP3 or WMA formats.

Humax, the maker of the popular and inexpensive combo TiVo DVD recorder, is getting set to launch the LT2650, a 26-inch 16:9 LCD TV with an 80-hour TiVo DVR and onboard DVD recorder sometime this spring/summer for $2499. I don’t know about you, but this is something I would definitely be interested. I’m just wonder if you’ll be able to easily hack it for larger storage capacity?

Forget buying an SD card adapter for plugging in your SD card’s content into another PC, SanDisk has been showing off their new SD card with a built-in USB adapter. Somehow the SanDisk engineers managed to design a card that when fold back on its mini hinges reveals a USB plug that fits into any USB port (very trick).

Engadget gets the early scoop on the second generation RCA Lyra personal video player: “It’s a little slimmer and smaller, but will still house a 20GB drive along with a CompactFlash slot as well as be able to record video directly in. Big upgrades are a programmable timer and built-in tiny speaker. The Lyra Audio Video Jukebox doesn’t have any magic bullet against recording video that’s protected by Macrovision, and won’t record if it finds you are playing a DVD, videotape or some of the satellite broadcasts that contain this annoying signal.”