Stargazing on your home TV nearly within reach for the mainstream

Engadget recently published an interesting article entitled, "WiFi-enabled Crestron touchpanel aids in stargazing." Some clever fellow has found a way to use his whole house wireless touchpanel to remotely control giant telescopes. A Crestron touchpanel is certainly not something mainstream consumers are likely to purchase at the store but it got me to thinking. All the tools are readily available for mainstream users to travel the galaxies and view black holes, quasars, nebula's, planets and stars on their big screen TVs. Imagine sitting in the comfort of your own living room traveling through space on your big screen TV.

If you haven't already, download and take a look at Microsoft Research's WorldWide Telescope. If you like to view satellite images with Google Earth, you'll love the WorldWide Telescope. Suddenly you have access to the same galaxial images as the world's leading astronomers. They even have guided tours and collections to make it easy. What's more you can install an application from ASCOM, a loosely-knit astronomy standards and developers group, that enables you to connect and control the same giant telescopes around the world as the experts for free. Truth in advertising, its not exactly easy to setup the application and get it to work but it is possible, especially if you have a little bit of astronomy and telescope knowledge. But that's the point. As major TV manufacturers look to integrate the Internet and interactive content with their digital TVs, why not build a simple and elegant interface for stargazing on the TV.

Now that's an out-of-this-world experience that I'd like to see.

GE & Tautung TV: Connecting Brands, Content and Technology

One of the big business and technology stories today was about the joint venture announcement between General Electric and Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer Tautung to market LCD TVs next year in the U.S. As the story goes, this is not just some effort to bank on the GE brand name. This appears to be a real strategic effort to leverage content generated by GE-owned NBC with the Internet and the hardware technology capabilities of Tautung. One can only imagine the wining and dining that went on at the recent Beijing Olympics to get this deal done.

Now GE is not the first American company to lend its well known and highly regarded brand name. In fact GE has done this many times before, like the GE licensed brand consumer products from Jasco, for instance. The model of the US brand selling products designed and manufactured in Asia is so well established that its hardly worth mentioning.

But in this case for GE and Tautung, their is something potentially very exciting and startling - perhaps the birth of a new unified hardware, software and services platform similar to the Xbox, Playstation, Wii, iPod/iPhone/iTunes and Blackberry complete systems.

Let's face it. The advancement of digital flat panel and HDTV hardware has reached its destination. Most TVs selling today feature full 1080P HDTV resolution capability, at affordable prices and in nearly every shape and size desired by the home owner. We're "Inside the Tornado" as Geoffrey A. Moore author of Crossing the Chasm would say, and brands are just shipping them as fast as consumers can buy them in anticipation of the April 2009 end to broadcast Analog TV (see my blog on the Myth of Switch to Analog TV)

The smart strategic marketers and technologists are already looking way beyond the basic hardware technology needed for producing high quality digital, High Definition TV. They've seen the power of the Internet and the availability of video content from the likes of Hulu (owned by NBC, gasp), Joost, Veoh, iTunes, etc. And they've also embraced the power of the Internet as a distribution source in parallel with TV broadcasting, witness the success of NBC's online Beijing Olympic coverage at www.nbcolympics.com

In case you missed it, NBC stepped up to the plate big time with thousands of hours of live and recorded coverage available for free 24/7. Check out some of the NBC Olympics viewer stats and you will see that for global megaconglomerate coporations like GE and Tautung that have to plan for new business by the billions, the Internet is more than a sufficient medium for harnessing multi-billion dollar growth.

And this is precisely what GE appears to be doing -- putting the pieces together to deliver a complete value proposition including the brand, the expanded content source of the Internet, the underlying connectivity technology and, I predict, the service to deliver consumers a complete experience via their TV. It is the natural progression for digital TV - connecting the hardware with the various sources available is what its always been about.

If you aren't sure what I mean, ask yourself if you would prefer to watch a TV show sitting in front of your PC screen or in front of your home hearth with your superslim, supersexy, mine's bigger than yours, eye-candy digital HD TV.

So Your Thinking About Switching to Verizon FIOS

After many years of satisfied service, we recently switched from the Comcast Triple Play to Verizon FiOS. Since Verizon is aggressively promoting their service with experienced door-to-door sales people, maybe you are contemplating the same. Our decision to switch was based on three tie-breaking advantages for Verizon:

1. Much lower monthly cost with the same or better offerings - by as much as $80 less than Comcast.
2. Multi-Room DVR, not yet available from Comcast (in fact, customer service was caught completely flat footed on this one and were unaware of the emerging technology)
3. Home Media Manager, that enables you to access photos and music from your PC on your main DVR/Set Top Box. This feature is made possible with the fancy Cable Modem/Wireless Router.

On paper it seemed like we were getting the same channels, the same phone service, the same or better broadband service at a much lower price and with some added bells and whistles. Here is my abbreviated summation of my experience, so far:

On Demand, DVR and the Set Top Boxes
Verizon On Demand is horrible – you can’t find anything and there is far less content (especially free movies.) The DVR function is ok but I seem to recall finding content to record was much easier and pleasant with Comcast. The multrioom DVR is quite nice on Verizon. Comcast will have multiroom DVRs but maybe not in Boston for some time. I heard from a friend who works at Comcast that they were testing in two markets. I like the Home Media app, too, to see photos and hear music from your PC on TV (but you need to have Internet service, too, for this to work.) The connections on the Motorola set top box are great - just the right inputs and outputs on the primary box and the two other secondary boxes. Kudos to Motorola for continuing to build a good overall product. Verizon has both MusicChoice and Urge digital music - I like Urge quite a bit and have used this on several occaisions. On the whole I would say that Comcast is more interested in delivering a complete user experience while Verizon is looking to generate increased revenue with pay-for services. Advantage: Comcast

Customer Service
Comcast customer service is significantly tighter, imo. Same for the web experience at Comcast.com and Comcast.net. My blood boils everytime every time I call Verizon. If they tell me one more time "ok, I've got your records" I think I will burst. And the folks on the phone lack empathy and enthusiasm. Comcast customer service people typically have personality and warmth. And the installation people from Comcast are head and shoulders better. Verizon installers are pure technical people who know how to climb a pole and split a cable. Comcast installers seem to know alot more about the product and spend as much time as possible making sure you are set up for a good experience. The Verizon install took one FULL day and the installer was totally burnt to a crisp by the end. Lots more bumps along the setup road with Verizon. Advantage: Comcast

Remote Control
The Verizon remotes are better – you can program a single button to perform multiple functions, for instance, and the on screen user interface is, I think, a little clearer and has icons for each channel – eye candy, I guess. But it’s also missing some key info like actor names, year, etc. Advantage: Verizon

On-Screen UI
The "Menu" function on Verizon is a kluge - it is very slow to respond and you would need to be a computer programmer to navigate the screens. Trying to find anything by Title, Channel or Interest is an all day affair. And for some bizarre reason Verizon decided to change their nicely grouped channel lineup one week after we signed up. Our channel numbers went from 700 to 1800 with many channels marked "46 Moved to channel 1259" Talk about a disaster. Advantage: Comcast

Internet
Internet service maybe faster and more consistent. Hard to say cause there are so many other variables that contribute to speed. I’ll go out on a limb and say end to end fiber is faster and better than Comcasts. But Comcast provided a host of Internet software and security tools for Free. Verizon charges extra for everything. And Comcast.net and Comcast.com are much, much simpler to use. Again, Comcast seems to be more concerned with your overall experience. Advantage: Comcast

Phone service is the same. While I found the online phone access system by Comcast to be pretty neat, I never used it. I'm not sure why this is but we seem to get less useful caller id information on our phone but this could be coincidental. Advantage: tie

I noticed Comcast offering a free Wii for triple play signups – clearly they are loosing a lot of customers and are trying to stem the tide until their new technology and pricing program goes into effect. I am glad that we are saving money and I do like the better multiroom Set top box but I miss the simplicity of Comcast. I actually watch TV less and find less things of interest to watch, now. My experience with Verizon is greatly diminished.

So you might want to take a closer look at Verizon and ask some tough questions before switching from Comcast. Or you might just want to call Comcast and negotiate a lower price until they catch up with some of their services.

A Vacation from Connected Entertainment

Its that time of year again. Time to pack up the ole station wagon, load the bikes on the rack, grab the kids, drop the dog off at the kennel and head out on the open road to destination fun under the sun. Just one thing before you go. Did you pack your Blackberry cellphone, GPS, digital camera, iPod, iPod speaker system, laptop computer, wireless walkie talkies, Wii, Playstation, PSP, Guitar Hero, headphones, battery chargers, FM Modulator, Bluetooth headset, USB cables, RCA cables, iPod cables...well you get the idea.

Vacations are supposed to be a time to recreate yourself. So why do we bring all these electronics with us that make us a slave to chargining, connecting and using them? I think its because we're concerned that we might miss out on an opportunity to live the digital lifestyle. Somehow we've equated the digital lifestyle with the good life.

Well I'm not about to turn into a Luddite and recommend you dump all your electronics but I do think it makes sense to pare down your electronics on vacation and spend more time connecting with your family. The good life is about having your breath taken away by the sight of a whale in the ocean, a field of brightly colored wild flowers, the look of shear happiness on your child's face and the twinkle in your wife's eye that lets you know you still excite her.

So this year, make a concerted effort to keep your connected entertainment to a minimum and focus on using it to enrich your connections to family and friends.