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Has TiVo's Fate Been Sealed?
ChipGuy writes "Things are getting bleak for TiVo, reports the New York Times, and adds that TiVo blew a major opportunity to team up with Comcast. And that might have cost CEO Michael Ramsey the job. Om Malik writes that 'The fate of TiVo also highlights the dilemma facing a lot of "exploding TV" start-ups. The technology does not necessarily translate into profits and a business,' and breaks down the financials -- over half a billion dollars in losses so far. PVRBlog adds that 'When the story of TiVo is written, this Comcast negotiation could be the point when the company's outcome was decided.' More reactions here."
They are not hack-friendly. The TivoToGo content is locked down via DRM. To burn to DVD-R you have to buy another burning app (essentially a kludged version of the same prassi RecordNow burning software everybody rebrands as their own).
The new 40 hour Series 2.5's (the nightlight models) are locked down so the kernel is cryptographically signed, so you can't do anything with it.
No commercial skip. No nothing.
They're as far from hack-friendly as you can get.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
You're an idiot.
Have you even used TiVo software since 1.0?
Good lord - Season Pass Manager, Wishlists, To Do list, Recording History, better searches, group folders, HMO for mp3 and picture streaming and remote web scheduling, home LAN access, TiVo2Go, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.
What are you, a moron? Our TiVo fees have gone into producing a much, much better service than what was initially offered in 1.0, but you were too cheap to pay for it, apparently.
Your loss.
I get the impression that 90% of the posters on Slashdot are cheap-ass college students who haven't yet worked for a living and don't yet understand the value of paying for certain things when their time, and not just there money, is limited.