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NEWS: TiVo heading to the UK

Stuart Miles — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:29:37 +0000

Will take on Sky Plus with new service in 2010

TiVo, the US equivalent of Sky Plus is coming to the UK following a deal with Virgin Media announced on Tuesday.?

The news, broken during the American company's earnings results will see a "long-term, strategic partnership with Virgin Media", says?Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo.

According to the two companies the deal will involve TiVo developing a converged television and broadband interactive interface to power Virgin Media's next generation, high definition set top boxes.

"TiVo will offer Virgin Media's nearly four million UK customers TiVo's advanced television software and user interface on both its traditional and DVR set-top boxes", confirmed Rogers.

Virgin Media currently anticipates its first TiVo co-branded product in 2010.

NEWS: Daily Tech Deal: Free Sky+HD box at Tesco

Ben Crompton — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Money saving deals, offers and innovations

Like it or not, it's mid November and we're already having Christmas thrust upon us, and if you're one of the many who are planning on centring their Christmas around the tradition of Christmas telly as opposed to the birth of Jesus, then this could be the tech deal for you.

Tesco direct is pushing its Sky+HD boxes by offering one free when you purchase a TV and join the Sky+HD service, admittedly it means shelling out quite a bit of cash but if you're in the market anyway it might be something to consider.

If you join before 24 December you'll also receive a ?50 Tesco Gift Card - as long as you're a new customer. Bear in mind, however, that charges for the Sky+ service range from ?28-?58.50 and minimum sign-up is for 12 months, along with the fact that the Sky+ functionality is rather dependent on your subscription and therefore may become redundant if you decide not to renew.

If you're up for it though it seems like a good offer as you'll be able to store around 30 hours of high-def TV on the unit and Tesco has a decent selection of TVs to choose from, ranging from 14-inchers to 47-inch+ monsters.

This link will take you to Tesco direct where everything is laid out for you and don't forget to read the terms and conditions tucked away neatly at the bottom of the page.

Tags: Home Cinema Tesco Sky PVRs Daily Tech Deal

Daily Tech Deal: Free Sky+HD box at Tesco originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

NEWS: Best Home Cinema Devices 2009 nominations

Stuart Miles — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:00 +0000

And the nominees are...

Here are the nominations for Best Home Cinema Device in The Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards 2009.

The following products were chosen because we feel they represent the best home cinema devices on sale in the last 12 months that are available in the UK.

The nominations are:

Philips 56PFL9954H Cinema 21:9 television

Panasonic DMR-BS850 Freesat Blu-ray recorder

LG 37LH7000 television

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim console

Humax Freesat+ FOXSAT-HDR recorder

Now in its 6th year, the Pocket-lint Gadget Awards, thought to be the longest running in the UK, pick the best gadgets and gizmos from the last year released in the UK.

Pocket-lint's vigorous vetting process means that all the gadgets up for nomination have to have been seen by a member of the Pocket-lint team (so far over 600) and have to have been available in the UK between December 2008 and December 2009.?

The awards, voted by a panel of leading gadget journalists from around the world, including the staff from the Pocket-lint team, will decide the real must-have gadgets of the year, rather than those simply deemed cool or anticipated, being the definitive guide for consumers looking to buy gadgets.

Winners will be announced at an Awards evening in London on Monday 7 December.

If you would like to order tickets to the event please visit our awards event page.

Public voting will start on Wednesday 18 November.

NEWS: Sky: Scheduling clash saw 2 million set Sky+ boxes

Amy-Mae Elliott — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:37:16 +0100

Claims to have saved many that "difficult decision" about which reality TV show to watch

Sky has revealed how many reality TV addicts set their Sky+ boxes to record shows this weekend just gone as - gasp - two rival broadcasters scheduled "talent" programmes to clash.

Anyone who wanted to watch (and apparently there's millions of you out there) both "X Factor" and "Strictly Come Dancing" on Saturday were out of luck, unless of course they had some kind of televisual recording equipment.

Sky says that 1.9 million households across the UK chose to set their Sky+ boxes to record either show.

While X Factor drew 9.3 million viewers compared to Strictly Come Dancing's 7.7 million, over 1.2 million people chose to watch X Factor at a later time via Sky+, whilst around half that (686,000) set their boxes for Strictly Come Dancing.

A Sky spokesperson commented: "It's great we've been able to save two million people from a difficult decision and enabled them to watch every second of their favourite shows".

Tags: Home Cinema Sky PVRs Statistics X Factor Strictly Come Dancing

Sky: Scheduling clash saw 2 million set Sky+ boxes originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:37:16 +0100