Cool Tech Reviews

May Wong at the AP:

TiVo Inc. is expanding its video recording service so users will be able to transfer recorded television shows onto Apple Computer Inc.’s iPods or Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Portable — the latest move aimed at putting TV in people’s hands for viewing anywhere.

The enhanced TiVoToGo feature being announced Monday will also add more copy-protection measures to discourage possible copyright abuse that would anger Hollywood.

TiVo officials said shows recorded via TiVoToGo will have digital watermarks. The extra encoding will follow the copied program wherever it goes, giving TiVo the ability to trace the origin of a transferred program that might get posted freely onto the Internet.

With its introduction in January of TiVoToGo, the digital video recording pioneer gave its broadband Series2 subscribers the ability to transfer recorded shows to Windows-based PCs and laptops as well as portable media players. But the service was available only to devices compatible with Microsoft Corp.’s Portable Media Center platform, such as Creative Technology Ltd.’s Zen.

Now, by adding support for the MPEG-4 video format, TiVo hopes to capitalize on the popularity of iPods and PSPs, which are among today’s hottest handheld gadgets with video capabilities.

Not a bad plan, particularly including both the iPod and the PSP, but there is a catch.

The new service feature will be available Monday for current TiVo subscribers as a beta test and for the general public in the first quarter of next year.

Consumers would need certain video encoding software on their computers, provided by TiVo or purchased elsewhere for about $15 to $30 in stores.

The enhanced TiVoToGo also will allow users for the first time to set their TiVos to automatically load new recordings of their favorite programs to portable gadgets via their PC. The recordings would be transferred overnight, similar to how shows are downloaded to TiVo boxes overnight for those who request automatic recording of certain programs.

Don’t expect instant gratification: The transfer process from a TiVo Series2 set-top-box to a PC — a necessary step before syncing to a portable — occurs roughly in real-time. An hour-long show will take an hour to transfer to the PC, then roughly another 10 minutes or so to sync to a portable device.

I guess you’ll really have to want to watch something on the small screen.

Apple has already sold 1 Million videos at its iTunes store:

Apple Computer on Monday said its iTunes online service has sold a million videos in under 20 days, sending shares up almost 5 percent.

iTunes, the most popular online music store, began selling about 2,000 music videos and episodes of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” and “Lost” for $1.99 on October 12.

The debut coincided with the launch of a new generation of Apple’s iPod digital music player that can play video on its 2.5-inch color screen.

Technology, media and Wall Street analysts are eyeing Apple’s performance for validation that a market for legal downloading of videos exists.

Topping the list of big sellers were music videos by Michael Jackson, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West, as well as episodes of ABC shows.

I’m frankly amazed.

One last review of the “Video iPod”- Richard Baguley in PC World:

Given the brouhaha surrounding Apple’s latest player, one might assume its name is the Video iPod. Think again: It’s simply an iPod, the fifth generation of the device since its introduction four years ago.

And that’s probably the best way to think of it. Although the big story is its ability to play videos, it’s really just an audio player (and a good one) that can do video, not a dedicated video player.