OK, I had no desire to write two posts in one day that laud Verizon’s FiOS service, but I just got an advanced word of Verizon’s new FiOS TV Interactive Media Guide (an online demo is here) and it’s very cool. You may recall that back in January at CES, Verizon announced its “next generation” of FiOS TV service, the heart of which would be an advanced interactive media guide.
Verizon just launched the guide in Ft. Wayne, Indiana and it’s definitely worlds above existing, real-world (i.e. deployed) interactive program guides. For one thing, the new guide has keyword searching that isn’t dependent on that silly “find the letter one by one” title searching typical of most real-world guides. Users are able to conduct keyword searches in different formats — keyboard, scroll wheel or even a cell-phone type format (see picture.)
For another thing, it’s very fast, with extremely low latency (.2 seconds) between user input and response. One fundamental great benefit is that the guide can occupy various portions of the screen — full, half or mini. No more cutting off from the program you’re watching to switch to the guide, an effort which today holds you captive while you study the guide and wastes a lot of time because today’s guides aren’t exactly low latency.
It’s also visually pleasing. For some reason, movie posters have become a big thing in the interactive TV guide world, with most on-screen navigation-related companies seizing upon movie poster thumbnails as the best way to visually showcase content. Of course Verizon’s new guide has movie poster navigation (the first I’ve seen outside of demos and lab versions.)
FiOS’s new guide also offers customized widgets that allow for the display of local weather, traffic, community information and more at the bottom of the screen.
Of course DVR recordings get captured by searches, a big plus, and there are other niceties, including the ablity to watch movie trailers.
It’s hard to say just how much of a competitive difference this new guide will make. Customers have to use it in order for it to become a meaningful sales tool, or positive buzz has to circulate before would-be customers take notice. It’s not something that lends itself well to TV pitches or direct mail pieces.
But, it’s cool and hopefully cable operators will take note and respond with better guides of their own.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 3:42 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The Chinese government appears ready to back down on mandating that all bloggers use their real names when registering their blogs. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that in lieu of “cracking down” on bloggers, the Chinese government would instead require that bloggers register only under their real names, an onerous condition in the heavily censored Chinese Internet market which would have radically reduced blogging in the country.
Now, however, through the Internet Society of China, the government is circulating a draft code of blogger conduct that only encourages real name registration rather than making it mandatory. The government has expressed concern over the “unhealthy” (read: salacious or anti-government) information disseminated in China’s 20+ million blogs.
The code, btw, is designed to help bloggers “watch their words and actions” according to the People’s Daily Online, which I take to be a Chinese government sanctioned publication (correct me if I’m wrong.)
It aims to prescribe the obligations of both blog service providers and bloggers through self-discipline, requiring providers to improve their services and standardize their businesses as well as reminding blog users of their social responsibilities.
It’s interesting, is it not, that the Chinese Internet business (which the Internet Society of China is purportedly supposed to represent) is trying to mount a code of blogging conduct at the same time, but for different reasons, that some U.S. bloggers are calling for a code of conduct?
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 3:06 PM | Print | Comments (0)The very hard-working John Czwartacki (known to most as simply “CZ”), who runs Verizon’s PoliBlog, alerted me to PC World’s list of the 100 Best Products of 2007. CZ did this because Verizon’s FiOS high-speed Internet service ranked 4th on the list, higher than a whole bunch of very cool gadgets and services, including the Blackberry 8800 (5th), Apple TV (11th) and XBox 360 Elite (18th).
CZ also specifically wanted me to check out this ranking because he knows I just got FiOS broadband service myself. And I have to say, as if it needs saying, that the faster speeds provided by this fiber-to-the-premises service are vastly preferable to the slower speeds of any other service provider.
There’s one tiny hitch, although it’s not Verizon’s fault. Every computer in this household is connected wirelessly to the Internet and, as embarassing as it is to admit, all rely on 802.11b technology, which has a maximum download rate of 11 Mbps. FiOS, however, has a maximum download rate of 15 Mbps, so we can’t really take full advantage of the download turbo power of FiOS…yet.
Not only does wireless connectivity degrade the download throughput rates (although curiously not the generous 2 Mbps upload rates), but even if it didn’t, I’m capped at 11 Mbps until I upgrade to 802.11g, or even better, 802.11n.
I honestly didn’t pay attention to the Wi-Fi technology on my laptop or any other computer before because, after all, the maximum I got — anywhere — was 7 mbps, from Comcast’s cable modem service. Comcast, btw, won’t stop billing me for that modem service, despite the fact that I’ve cancelled it, unless I make it my mission to drive, during work hours, to a customer service location and drop off my old cable modem.
When I say old cable modem, I mean it’s ancient. It’s a Motorola SurfBoard modem circa 2002 or 2003. When I first signed up for cable modem service, the only real equipment option was to rent a modem for $2 per month. Back then, the free modems that are now routinely offered at no charge to new subscribers weren’t available and retail cable modems were priced, if memory serves me correctly, at $199 or so.
The creaky SurfBoard modem is a device that I suspect will get either tossed in the junk heap or sold for scrap, but that doesn’t stop Comcast from demanding that I take, oh, 90 minutes out of my day to return it. Until I do, they’ll keep billing me for a service I don’t use and have already cancelled. That ought to be against the law.
In any event, FiOS is good even if I can’t enjoy the maximum download speeds yet. The downside: T-Mobile’s 1.5 Mbps service at my neighborhood Starbucks now feels almost like dial-up connectivity.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:28 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The New York Times’ John Markoff has this piece today about a proposal Google submitted to the FCC yesterday, two days before the Commission is set to come up with rules in the 700 MHz auction.
Google doesn’t plan to participate in the auction. The search giant just thinks it has a good idea with its market-based, real-time method for selling advertising and the government should take notice. The FCC’s process for auctioning spectrum has been criticized as unwieldy and subject to big bucks gamemanship. It helps, too, that several of the bidders in the auction want to use the spectrum to jumpstart broadband competition to cable and phone companies.
“The driving reason we’re doing this is that there are not enough broadband options for consumers,” said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google’s policy office in Washington. “In general, it’s the belief of a lot of people in the company that spectrum is allocated in an inefficient manner.”
One group, Frontline Wireless, which counts as backers key Google investors L. John Doerr and Ram Shriram, plans to endorse Google’s proposal. Frontline has advanced a proposal that would require licensees to provide support for public safety communications, but allow for the auction of airwaves not used for that purpose.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:14 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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