TiVo to Let Users Record Shows Via Cellphone

Carl Bialik writes "Verizon Wireless plans to offer a new service called TiVo Mobile that will allow its customers who also have TiVos in their homes to schedule TV shows for recording when they are on the go, the Wall Street Journal reports. ' A customer might use the service to impulsively schedule a sitcom for recording after the show is recommended by a friend at a party,' says the WSJ, adding, 'Verizon Wireless executives said the service, to begin this summer, is expected to cost less than $5 a month, in addition to normal cellphone-service charges and TiVo subscriber fees, which are $12.95 a month.'"

Comments

A bit obsessive

[RedHatLinux]

Seriously, are there TV shows that important one needs this service to ensure they don't miss them

Re:A bit obsessive

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on. With your line of thinking, how many people even actually need cell phones?

Some scenarios where this feature might come in handy:

1. You are out with friends and they mention a new show to you.
2. You are out and realize you forgot that your show is on a new night this week - and tonight is the night.
3. You are out and see an advertisement for a new show. You can write it down and hope you don't forget to enter it in later, or you can just enter it in right now.
4. You are out with friends and one of them realizes he forgot to record a show he wanted to watch. You can do him a favor.

Where's the advantage?

[magicsquid]

Why should I pay $5 more a month for a service that I already have for free? Why not just go to the Tivo web site on a web-enabled phone and do your remote scheduling there?

Re:Where's the advantage?

[Tackhead]

> Why should I pay $5 more a month for a service that I already have for free? Why not just go to the Tivo web site on a web-enabled phone and do your remote scheduling there?

Because if you do it that way, Verizon doesn't get $5/month out of you! (Alternate: Because when you signed up for Verizon, they disabled the web-enabled part of your phone when they installed their ugly red user interface and branding onto it, but will re-enable it for $5/month.)

Oh, wait, you're looking at it from the customer's perspective. Never mind.

Even better, just call someone...

[Slashdot Junky]

Even better, just call someone that can connect to Tivo's website using a PC. You know, like a parent, spouse, girlfriend, regular friend, kid, etc.

Why pay to have a cell phone do yet one more thing.

Later,
-Slashdot Junky

Mo Money!

[SaturnTim]

$5 a month for something you will probably use a couple times a year (at most)?
on top of your verizon plan, on top of the tivo monthly fee, on top of the broadband connection...
(this won't work if your tivo still works on dial-up)

Never mind (as 50 other posts mentioned) the free alternatives...

Just doesn't make financial sense.

Re:and orb

[Romancer]

I recently scheduled the oscars to record from a web enabled phone by going to online tivo scheduling.

WTFITBD?

The hell I'm going to pay for a specialized app on a phone that has internet access already.

Standards are there for a reason, if a phone can access normal web pages it can do hundreds of things, if it has a bunch of nickle and dime apps that raises your bill it's a POS and your provider is screwing you.

If your phone can only view "mobile pages" there are scripts that you can run on your own webserver that'll strip everything but the actual info and serve you that.

Re:Japan

[MrWa]

While this doesn't have Tivo-like features, it does run Linux: P901iTV Some people go too far with their Japanese fetishes but, in general, it is pretty sad how far ahead the Japanese consumer product market. Simply go to any shop in Akihabara or Yodabashi camera and there products years ahead of what is considered new in the U.S. Hell, the free phones in Japan are better than $100-200 models in the US!! The US consumer market is way too slow in adopting new technologies - or even having them available for the bleeding-edge, early adopters to play with! When a bloody $5 per month "service" to let you schedule recording on your Tivo is considered news on a tech-centric website, you know something is wrong.

Re:TiVo users are suckers

[horatio]

I'm a sucker? No. Like I've said in other stories where this inevitably comes up, I pay not to have to deal with the bullshit. I fight with computers every day because it is my job, and because it is a hobby. Yet, I don't want to have to mess with kernels or libraries or dependencies or drivers or modules or the latest bug in mythTV or lousy hardware or whatever other problem there might be with running a typical PC. MythTV has its uses, and some people swear by it. Maybe you like it when your video card craps out on you. Maybe you're the type that walks/swims 8 miles to work instead of paying the bridge toll (haha sucker - I live under my desk!). I have no idea.

I pay 13$/month because I don't want to screw with my television (+DVR), I just want it to work. TiVo obviously provides me a service for this - the most obvious being the guide data. It is a small price to pay, imho, for the (nearly) worry-free joy that is my TiVo. If the series3 isn't vaporware, I'm all about it.