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Engadget

Los Angeles Sues Time Warner Cable Over Shoddy Service

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 6th 2008 at 2:42PM


Far from being the first time Time Warner Cable has upset its subscriber base, the Los Angeles city attorney's office is pulling a Dee Snider and refusing to take the carrier's lackluster service anymore. In a 25-page lawsuit, the city is alleging that the operator "caused major havoc and distress" two years ago when it "failed to live up to its part of the franchise cable agreement requiring that a company answer subscribers' calls within 30 seconds and begin repairs of service interruptions within 24 hours of notification in 90% of its calls for service."

The suit claims that no more than 60% of customer calls were answered in time, and cable / Internet service was said to be "so intermittent and inferior in quality that it was not much better than no service at all." Not surprisingly, TWC representatives chose not to comment on the whole ordeal, but the outfit could face civil penalties of tens of millions of crisp US dollars in the case.

Should've picked up the phone, TWC -- it would've been easier than picking up this tab. [Disclosure: Switched is part of the Time Warner family] [Source: L.A. Times]

[Image courtesy of Web 2 Concepts, thanks Scott]
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Engadget

Time Warner Cable Experimenting Metered Broadband Access

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 3rd 2008 at 11:01AMBreaking News

Time Warner Experimenting with Download LimitsBack in the old days of the Internet, when a 14.4 kilobyte-per-second dial-up connection was hot, providers charged by the hour -- a flat fee for a dozen or so hours' worth of time online and a couple bucks more for each additional. As Internet access became more popular, prices dropped and subscribers dumped such plans in favor of "all you can eat" packages, but it appears that Time Warner is feeling a bit retro, experimenting with these sorts of caps on unfortunate subscribers down in Texas.

About 90,000 customers of Time Warner's cable Internet access have been put on a new tiered and capped download service, ranging in price from a relatively anemic 768 kilobits-per-second for $30 per month up to a rather more speedy 15 megabits-per-second for $55 per month. Those prices are in-line with their current rates, but the catch is those caps: Just five gigabytes of downloads per month on the cheaper plan while the upper-tier plan is capped at forty gigabytes. There's a dollar-per-gig fee over that.

Forty gigabytes -- about a small iPod Nano's worth of tunes -- may sound like a lot, but this could be a huge roadblock to burgeoning video-on-demand services, as each film's size can easily exceed one to two gigabytes (with high-definition downloadable films often twice that or more). If you're also into music streaming, online gaming, or downloading the latest apps to your machine, this change could potentially be quite expensive. Will it succeed? That remains to be seen, but if initial reactions are any clue, Verizon's competing FiOS service might just be seeing a flood of new subscribers in the near future. [Disclosure: Switched is part of the Time Warner family] [Source: AOL Money & Finance]
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Engadget

Time Warner Cable Looks to Bring Internet Content to TVs

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 1st 2008 at 3:02PM

Shortly after hearing TiVo's top dog speak of a "whole home model" to reduce the amount of STBs required for entertaining individuals in various rooms, along comes Time Warner Cable's chief executive talking up some innovation of its own. We'll be frank -- we're not entirely sure what Glenn Britt is getting at here, but through a broken series of quotes, we're led to believe that the carrier is prepping some "equipment" that will easily bring Internet content to TVs. Not like there isn't a perfect solution for this quandary already, but we digress.

Specifically, he mentions a " new wireless cable modem that will allow you to network everything in your house," which is about as broad / vague as you can get. Nevertheless, it's enough to keep us watchin', though we can't say our expectations are extraordinarily high. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Source: Forbes via eHomeUpgrade]
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Engadget

Sony Working with Cable Companies to Eliminate Clunky Set-Top Boxes

by Tim Stevens, posted May 29th 2008 at 10:01AM

Sony Working to Eliminate Cable BoxesSince the inception of cable television subscribers have had to deal with the clunky cable box. When most TVs were finally able to take coaxial inputs and didn't need boxes anymore, cable companies then introduced digital cable, again requiring a converter box. Then came cable HD, and again more advanced boxes, making escape seemingly impossible. But, that may not be the case forever, if an agreement between Sony and the major cable companies takes hold.

Sony has partnered with the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a group that includes companies that cover 82-percent of all cable subscribers in the US. The technology Sony is planning would expand on the largely failed CableCARD initiative, a small tuner that could be inserted into some model TVs to decode signals from cable companies. The one-way nature of the technology prevented use of on-demand programming or DVR-like functionality, making the things rather undesirable. That's exactly what Sony hopes to fix.

No word yet on when we might see this functionality included in Sony televisions, or whether other manufacturers will jump on the bandwagon, but we'd sure be happy to get rid of our big clunky silver box -- and the five bucks per month fee that comes with it. [Source: The Seattle Times]
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Engadget

Comcast Wants to Put Cameras In Your Home

by Peter Mychalcewycz, posted Mar 26th 2008 at 1:07PM


Conspiracy theorists are going to have a field day with this story. In fairness, so will just about everybody else. We hope.

Comcast is experimenting with camera technology. More specifically, it trying out technology that turns cable boxes into camera-equipped devices that would utilize body-form-recognition as a means to provide custom-tailored service, and, of course, custom tailored advertising. The boxes would be able to tell who is in the room based on the shape of their body, thus tailoring programming to fit their specific desires and security settings (when children are involved). Facial recognition is not in the works as of yet.

We should be clear: This is all in the experimental phase. There has been no consumer testing and Gerard Kunkel, Comcast's senior VP of user experience, stresses that any final decision is predicated on the boxes providing more to the viewer than just precision advertising.

Custom Tailored. Security. Efficient. Your New Best Friend. Now You Can Leave the Kids At Home With Super Cable Nanny! Those are hypothetical buzz-words and -phrases Comcast will most likely lay on in hearty layers if and when it begins to roll out this new technology.

Honestly, what is your immediate gut reaction when you hear that a massive corporation might want to place cameras that actually track your movements in your own home? We won't say what we think. Trust your gut reaction and don't let any amount of mediocre advertising sway you.

Security. Customization. Blah blah blah.

Gut Instinct.


From NewTeevee (via Rantings of a New Yorker)


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Engadget

ABC Offers 'Lost' and Other Shows On Demand (With Commercials)

by Tim Stevens, posted Feb 26th 2008 at 11:16AM

ABC Soon Offering Free Episodes On Demand (With Commercials)NBC and CBS, and ABC already offer full episodes of new and classic shows online -- a huge help to those who lack a DVR and find themselves missing an episode or two. Now ABC is taking that a step further, offering a free video-on-demand service straight to digital cable subscribers' boxes. There's a catch, though: You won't be able to fast-forward through the commercials.

This too is similar to the online offerings of the major networks, which insert limited commercial breaks in their shows available online. ABC will put something like two to five minutes of commercials, which you'll be stuck watching, into an on-demand episode of 'Lost.' But given there are something like 17-minutes' worth of commercials in your average on-air episode, you're getting some time savings the new VOD offerings, since -- even if you have a DVR -- you probably spend more than two minutes fast-forwarding your way through ads anyway.

ABC's service is already available to a limited number of COX Cable subscribers. There's no word on when it'll be going national, but when it does, it'll be a boon to forgetful types who don't want to shell out for a DVR purchase or rental.

From Newsvine

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Engadget

Fourth Undersea Cable Cut, Stoking Suspicions of Intent

by Will Safer, posted Feb 5th 2008 at 2:09PM

United Arab Emirates

A fourth undersea cable that carries Internet connectivity to and from the Middle East has been cut, according to various reports. The previous three cuts caused major disruptions to Internet service in the region and in some cases led to complete Internet blackouts.

This latest cable is operated by Qatar Telecom, and the disruption affected mainly that part of the United Arab Emirates, the federation of seven states situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula. While this latest cut didn't cause a complete disruption of service to Qatar, the prior cable failures caused major Internet blackouts in several Arab states in the Persian Gulf region.

According to reports, the latest disruption was caused by a power failure and not by a ship's anchor slicing the physical cable, as has been suspected in the other three major disruptions. These same reports hint at the suspicion that the cuts have been intentional but, so far, there has been no confirmed report that these disruptions are the result of an organized effort.

From Engadget.

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Engadget

Comcast to Offer 50x Faster Web Speeds, More HD On-Demand, and Fancast

by Alon Avdi, posted Jan 8th 2008 at 3:10PM



Today at CES, Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts announced a bevy of new services and technologies for the cable giant's customers. The signature development Roberts touted is the launch today of Fancast, a Web site that that translates cable television services to the PC. Under the new service, consumers will be able to search for content from most major networks and a plethora of video sources, with the option to view the selected items on TV, the computer or DVD. In addition, Fancast offers remote DVR recording capability, meaning consumers can direct their television to record shows from a PC or handheld device. In the future, Comcast plans to enable access to the Web site through the customer's television set.

An equally important announcement to the Fancast debut is the coming availability of the DOCSIS 3.0 modem connection technology, the next generation successor to broadband. Wideband, as Comcast has termed it, transmits at 100 Megabytes per second (Mbps), roughly fifty times the speed currently available, with the potential to reach 160 Mbps. While current cable connections typically run around 5 Mbps, fiber optic systems like Verizon's FiOS boast 100 Mbps capability. In one fell swoop, Comcast aims to blow other cable companies out of the water and offer Verizon stiff competition. To give some perspective, customers with wideband service could download a feature-length film in HD in an impressive four minutes, compared to the six hours it would require to download HD films using a DSL connection. Roberts signaled that Comcast's intention is to offer wideband to consumers this year.

Other notable pronouncements include the advent of a Java-based open cable platform called tru2way. Open to all two-way cable services, tru2way will eliminate the need for cable set top boxes and is open to third party innovation. The tru2way system will enable users to control media through computer, cable or handheld devices. In addition, Comcast partnered with Panasonic to unveil the AnyPlay, the first portable DVD/DVR device equipped with tru2way technology that can recall all Comcast content. Customers simply attach the piece, record desired material and detach for mobile viewing.

Furthermore, Roberts stated that Comcast plans to offer 1,000 HD screening choices by the end of 2008 for its cable subscribers. Additionally, a new architectural structure for its cable system called Project Infinite will make putting up 6,000 movies, with 3,000 of them in HD, possible. The development of Infinite means that Comcast will deliver any conceivable video from any type of business model, whether free, by subscription, etc. Finally, Roberts received help from comedian Dennis Miller in releasing the Smart Zone communications center, a service that allows customers to check E-mail and voicemail from a PC.

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Engadget

American Internet Access Destined for Meltdown?

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 20th 2007 at 11:45AM

American Internet Access Set to Get SlowerInternet users have become accustomed to the idea of things getting faster as time goes on, but a warning from analyst firm Nemertes Research Group is raising fears that within three to five years, Internet access in the Americas could actually get slower.

Much, much slower.

The reason for the fears, which some are calling a 'meltdown,' is simply the popularity of the Internet. As anyone who hasn't been living under a rock knows, the Internet has become nearly ubiquitous in American households over those last ten years. The global network connections that bridge access between countries, called backbones, are said to have plenty of bandwidth to support the expected growth. However, the infrastructure that fills in those gaps -- actually bringing connectivity into your home -- is said to be woefully lacking to maintain this growth in Internet popularity.

Add in the increasing demand many are placing on their Internet providers by using bandwidth hungry apps like peer-to-peer file sharing, and you have a problem. It's this sort of pressure that has led providers like Comcast to attempt to throttle the bandwidth usage by some of its customers, leading to irate customers, lawsuits, and plenty of bad PR.

Expect more providers to start implementing these sorts of changes as they struggle to cope with increasing demand, and expect higher prices from those who don't resort to those restrictions.

From NewsVine

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Engadget

DirecTV Boosts HD Offerings to 70 Channels

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Oct 16th 2007 at 12:00PM

DirecTV Boosts HD Offerings
DirecTV is breaking out the big guns in the war for TV superiority. The satellite TV provider has bumped up its HD lineup from just a handful of channels to over 70, with plans to offer 100 by the year's end. T

Overnight, this addition channels pushes DirecTV from dead last in the HD race to first, and by a huge margin. For example, satellite TV competitor Dish Network -- previously the HD channel leader -- offers between 30 and 40 HD channels depending on the market.

Many of the channels are, of course, of the premium (HBO, Showtime) variety, but the lineup also includes HD channels we haven't seen in too many places before, including Food Network, CNN HD, and Sci-Fi HD.

$9.99 a month gets you all the HD channels tied to your particular package. For $4.99 a month more, you get access to all non-premium HD programing that's not included in your package.

From BetaNews

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Engadget

How to Hook Up Your New HDTV

by Switched Staff, posted Aug 7th 2007 at 12:32PM



Now that you've shelled out for a nice new HDTV, it's time to learn how to get the best possible sound and video out of it. Switched explains just what all of those inputs on the back of your set are for, how to connect them, and which ones will maximize your home theater experience.

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Engadget

Internet Speed Record Broken (Twice)

by Tim Stevens, posted Apr 25th 2007 at 11:21AM

Making the switch from dial-up to broadband feels like a huge increase in speed -- and it is. The fastest you could ever hope to get over a modem is somewhere around 56kbps, or 56,000 bits of data per second. Your average DSL line offers connection speeds somewhere around 200kbps, around four times faster, while cable modem speeds are often upwards of 5,000kbps, which is 90 times faster than dial-up. That's speedy, but not fast enough for some. Are you ready for 9gbps, or 9,000,000 kbps? Researchers at the University of Tokyo are, having reached an astronomical 9.08 gbps transmission rate over a 20,000-mile distance.

To put that into perspective, a DVD movie usually takes up about 4.7 gigabytes of data on the disc, or 5,046,586,572.8 bytes (a byte is 8 bits). Over a 56kbps modem that would take about eight days to download. Over a cable modem you could download the same movie in two hours. At 9gbps, that same movie would download in under 10 seconds. That's some serious speed.

This is all theoretical at this point, as the researchers used customized protocols and hardware to make the transmission. The fastest usable networks today are 1gbps, so it'll be at least another few years before anything close to this is possible at home. By then we'll all be watching High Definition movies anyway, which will be upwards of 50 gigabytes to download.

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From USA Today
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