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Buy From Amazon With Your TiVo
PunkOfLinux writes "From The NYTimes comes news that TiVo and Amazon have reached an agreement to allow consumers to purchase products from Amazon through their television sets using their TiVo remote control. TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high-profile programs, including The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Colbert Report, and Burn Notice. Broadband-connected Series2, Series3, and TiVo HD DVRs will be able to take advantage of the new feature." This sounds like the latest incarnation of the dream of television executives who in the early '90s talked about the "information superhighway," before it was clear that the Internet was going to fill that role. What they envisioned was "interactive TV," i.e. buying stuff with your remote.
If you press something like 888, you get localish car sales. I think there's one for real estate too. Granted, you can't press BUY NOW, because you'd really need to hide the remote from your children...
My Series 1 SA doesn't get this (much) spam!
You've been able to play Amazon Unbox videos for quite a while now, but until now, you went to Amazon, and to it to download to your Tivo. I personally think that is easier than going through the remote.
The cake is a pie
Well, the Apple TV does just that. You use iTunes to buy movies and songs with a remote control. In other words, it's not really a bad idea if they manage to figure out how to do this well.
I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies. I been able to get music (via MusicChoice) and movies (via Amazon Unbox) on my HD Tivo for quite some time.
Not that I do...
Schrödinger's cat is not amused—maybe.
TiVo will launch the new service to consumers by merchandising products related to several high-profile programs
Yogurt: Moichandising! Moichandising! Moichandising! Where the real money from the movie is made! Spaceballs: the T-shirt, Spaceballs: the Coloring Book, Spaceballs: the Lunchbox, Spaceballs: the Breakfast Cereal. Spaceballs: the Flame Thrower... [fires a short blast from flame thrower]
Dinks: Oooooohhhh!
Yogurt: The kids love this one. And last, but not least, Spaceballs: the Doll, me.
"May the Schwartz be with you!"
Yogurt: Adorable.
Developers: We can use your help.
I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies.
Yeah, like if you like how the killer used the reciprocating saw to dismember the body on CSI:, buy it now with a ThumbsUp on your TiVo remote.
I'm not shitting you: one of the CSI shows had product placement of a reciprocating saw as a dismemberment tool, first shown prominently in the episode (matching blade marks to bone), then the exact same model was advertised during a commercial break.
I won't like it if it means pop-ups during the show. And I own 8 TiVos (7 subscribed).
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
The last piece of the puzzle, completing the cycle of virtualization, will be Wii integration, so that we can look back fondly on the days when we were able to go to the store to buy it, pull it off the shelf, and carry it home.
The multiplayer version will allow our visiting friends to be the person at the counter, who talks us into buying. Watch for extra points to be racked up quickly if they get you to buy lots. Perhaps even a commission, paid in wee dollars.
Kent M Pitman
Philosopher, Technologist, Writer
The GUI on my Series2 Tivo is really slow when doing anything but navigating the standard menus and browsing shared mp3 files on my LAN. All of the nifty new features: Picasa Web Albums, Swivel Search, etc...all are frustrating experiences with the PLEASE WAIT clock on the screen. I think the processor in the older series2 Tivos aren't up to the task of these fancy new features. And spelling out book titles with a TV remote? (Arrow to letter > Select Letter > Arrow to next letter > Select Next Letter). No thanks!
Just what we've always wanted - more screen real estate taken up by ads and things we DON'T WANT. I mean think about it - how many people REALLY want to have something pop on their screen about how they can buy Burn Notice merchandise through their TiVo? We got the damn things so we didn't have to watch commercials (time-shifting, while awesome was secondary). I see slowly the TiVo is getting more things in the UI that take up space and want you to purchase something. Guess what? I already DID! It was a TiVo to stop me from getting annoyed by requests to purchase something.
I've never really considered using something like MythTV or MS Media Center, but damn - if they can't stop adding useless crap Ads and things to the TiVo I will have to look pretty hard at an alternative.
I would pay $10 per zap if they built this feature into my TIVO.
I'd love a new coffee maker like Michael's mom got. :D
Is there a market for un-branded TV+Internet purchasing? I'm working as part of an open source effort to bring more applications to a particular embedded TV device (not a TiVo), and would love to hear about things you would/might be interested in purchasing via your television :)
Thanks in advance for any (serious) feedback!
Actually, the news item made it sound like Amazon went back to the 90's thinking. My point was that there are ways of doing this in a really good way. I also provided Apple as a good example of this.
You say I am an Apple fan boy, but I really am not. In fact, I really dislike the iPhone and I can't stand OSX. Just because I point to Apple doesn't mean that I praise them.
Full Tilt
And soon, Tivo subscribers as well.
...at hotels, that is. A meal the next day, tickets to a local event (though I prefer getting them at the front desk as they are often authorized to give a discount that does not appear via the in-room entertainment system, as well as offering/suggesting amenities, etc.), canceling any housekeeping the next morning if I pulled an all-nighter, etc. Oh, and of course, movies (no, not those.)
The technology has existed for ages; it's just been a matter of getting a widespread-enough set-top box into homes -not- tied to a specific cable/for-pay broadcast operator so as to prevent lock-in. If anything, it's surprising that it's taken this long for it to kick off (albeit in a small way, as I understand it) via TiVo.
I would always get the feeling to be tricked. On the internet I can search around for good deals, reliable companies and products and sellers which have their reputation.
On a TiVo I would always wonder what the companies did pay to get the place, whether the product is realy as good as it is and worth that money and wheather TiVo is tricking me again into something. I would never trust it. And I would get annoyed by it.
And more over: I don't have a TV (only a screen attached to my DVD player)...
I'm pretty sure they are talking about buying things other than music and movies. I been able to get music (via MusicChoice) and movies (via Amazon Unbox) on my HD Tivo for quite some time.
Well... yes and no.
You know how some ads have those little popups in the upper-right-hand corner? That chime and display when you're fast-forwarding through them?
Now TiVo owners will get those during shows too.
So when Stephen Colbert holds up a copy of I Am America And So Can You, a little pop-up will appear with a link to buy it on Amazon.com.
Apparently you won't be able to browse Amazon.com from your TiVo (except, of course, for the parts you already can), just receive Amazon.com ads through it.
Which I wouldn't really mind all that much if I weren't paying $15/month on top of the cost of the box for the privilege...
You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
Remember when Walmart.com or Blockbuster.com or whoever it was had to pull their recommended movie service because of terribly innapropriate recommendations? How well will this TiVo/Amazon service be run, and how are they going to recommend products based on TV shows, will they be picked by humans? Will they use a super-complex inhuman computer algorithm?
I see you are watching "History of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre", can I recommend "A Box of Semi-sweet dark chocolates in a red-velvet heart-shaped box with free plush teddy-bear"?
Eggs
Milk
Bread
Cat Litter
Soda
Or, rather, what I presume it will be: thumbs-up icons appearing on screen at random moments during programming. That's right -- you pay TiVo for the privilege of having obtrusive advertising on during the show!
I've said this for years: TiVo long ago decided that their customers were the advertisers, and not their users.
That didn't stop them from charging their users, however.
You can buy stuff online, from online stores via devices that give you online access!!!1!
Ave Molech Setting
I just got a tivo a month ago based on everyone's rave reviews.
Frankly, I'm hugely disappointed in that every new "Feature" is just another way for me to buy more stuff.
- Podcasts!: Want to get the ones worth watching? You have to upgrade the pc software for 30 bucks.
- Amazon Unbox!: Wow. Now I can buy an old movie that HBO won't even bother showing.
- Now this: Amazon Unbox 2.0: Now I can fight the slow menus to buy a book. I can use that book to read during the long pauses between when I select an option and when they show up on the screen.
I also hate the fact that I can't watch tv while using the slow as hell menu. I've found it's faster to go to their slow flash-based website and schedule a show than use the menu on the TV.
That Tivo will now track user purchases, along with viewing habits. Or that Ellen DeGeneres (and any show she's involved with) has reached "high profile" status.
Method of processing duck feet
A friend of mine worked at a marketing agency where she worked with a prototype system similar to this, howeverit was even more interactive. At any given time during a show, you could:
1) Hit the pause button
2) Point the remote at the TV which controles a mouse like cursor (think Wii Remote)
3) Point to car\shirt\bag\etc that happened to be on the screen at the time
4) Click it and be directed to a 'buy it now' interface
The idea is that companies would pay the show for product placement adding to the revenue of the show and ... dare I say... eliminate the need for commercials.
The only problem I foresee with this approach is increasingly blatant product placement within shows which WILL get to the point of being distracting, much like commercials are today.
Never underestimate the addictiveness of immediate gratification.
It happened a couple of times that I've been browsing the 'App Store' and just thought "I need that!" and bought it.
Combining TV watching, aspiration to own 'stuff on TV', with credit card information (on Amazon), and the ability to buy on a whim, we should see this take off.
-- "It's not stalking if you're married!" My Wife.
Just add a browser, and then TiVo can also claim now it is a cloud computer.
The mindset was always producer/consumer, where we happy consumers cheerfully watch what the TV companies decide to send to us. Ideas such as adding a shop, or choosing endings and camera angles never really worked because people either want a lot more control over that, or want someone else to deal with it.
Commerce is what interactive TV is for. Humans are creatures of merchandising, not web browsing or java games for their own sake. They want to be part of a corporate merchandising story.
Meanwhile it seems that the web is ahead of the curve. A story about ATM scammers implanting an Asus Eee PC in an ATM to record card information is followed by information on where to find deals on Asus Eee PCs.
No links on where to buy blank credit cards though. But according to this movie novelty cards, magnetic tape, and glue work just as well.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?