August 25, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

TiVo Premiere: Over the Air DVR and Internet Video in One

When I cut the cable there was one thing I regretted: The ability to record TV. Sure, I didn’t have cable or satellite anymore, but with over-the-air (OTA) TV I still got over a dozen channels. At the same time, I wanted a DVR that could handle Internet TV. With the TiVo Premiere you can get both for a mere $149.99 list price plus the monthly service fee.

I’ve been a fan of TiVo since it’s first days and I was pleased to see that the company recently came out with a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) that could handle a cable-cutter’s needs.

The TiVo Premiere has two tuners so it can record two shows at once. It also comes with a 500GB hard drive. That translates into up to 75 hours of HD video. There are other models–the TiVo Premiere 4 with four digital tuners and the TiVo Premiere XL4 with four digital tuners, far more storage, and THX audio—but the basic TiVo Premiere is what you want for OTA and Internet video. As you would expect with a 2012 video device, this new model TiVo can support up to 1080p video.

TiVo Premiere: Over the Air DVR and Internet Video in One. More >

August 24, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Apple vs. Samsung verdict: It doesn’t matter

The jury in Apple vs. Samsung, doubtlessly eager to be out by the weekend, rushed their way through the approximately 26 pages and 55 questions of their instructions and decided that Samsung did indeed violate some of Apple’s patents just over a billion bucks.

Impressive? Not really.

This is not the end. This verdict doesn’t even matter in the long run. This was just another clash.

This case was going to be appealed, no matter who won, the second it started. This is just one more encounter on the case’s way to the Supreme Court. Samsung has lost this skirmish, but not the war.

Let me refresh your memory. Apple started this by suing Samsung around the world. Samsung has replied in kind. Antarctica may be the only continent where the two aren’t locked in battle. The U.S. District Court is just a single battlefield in a much greater war.

Apple vs. Samsung verdict: It doesn’t matter. More >

August 23, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Open-Source virtualization management coming for KVM, Xen and VMware

I like using the right tool for the right problem, but when it comes to running multiple virtualization hypervisors I don’t want to run individual management management programs for each one. I want one tool to rule them all. That tool may prove to be Convirture‘s next version of its open-source ConVirt Enterprise Cloud 3.2 program.

ConVirt Enterprise Cloud is currently used to manage virtual and cloud infrastructures based on the open-source hypervisors KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and Xen. VMware remains popular on on August 28th, Convirture will release a beta of the program that can manage VMware as well.

Jay Lyman, an analyst for 451 Research, describes ConVirt Enterprise Cloud as a “single management tool for virtualized, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure (Subscription Required) so enterprises and service providers can consolidate the management of their varied resources. With current support for SLES 11 SP2, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and the latest versions of Amazon, Eucalyptus and OpenStack clouds, Convirture plans to add support for CloudStack by the end of 2012. ConVirt Enterprise To further expand beyond open source hypervisors, Convirture is also adding support for VMware vSphere in its products. The company claims that this places it more in a systems management category and while we would still consider it primarily a virtualization and cloud provider, its vSphere support does expand its market to include those relying on VMware and others for systems management.”

Conviture argues—and I don’t think anyone could disagree with them—that, “the heterogeneous datacenter is real and is not going away. IT managers are deploying whatever tools they need to get the job done. In the world of virtualization and cloud computing, that means multiple hypervisors–open and proprietary–are being deployed side by side.” That being the case, having a tool that can let you manage all of them from a single interface would be a real time-saver for administrators.

Open-Source virtualization management coming for KVM, Xen and VMware. More >

August 20, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Mutually Assured Destruction: Google/Motorola vs. Apple

Apple has been asking for it, and now they’re getting it.

Cupertino has been doing its best to sue Samsung’s Android tablets and smartphones out of the market rather than compete with them. Now, Motorola — under Google’s control — is returning the favor. Motorola Mobility is asking the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Welcome to the next logical step in the world of patent warfare: mutually assured destruction (MAD).

For those of you who didn’t grow up during the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union, here’s how MAD worked.

In MAD-driven foreign policy, the U.S. and the Soviet Union never let things get too ugly between the superpowers because if one of them went too far, the other could bomb the other into the Stone Age and vice-versa. So, yes, there were all kinds of wars from the ’50s through the ’80s — Afghanistan, Angola, Korea, and Vietnam — but the great powers never launched nukes at each other.

MAD was a cold, hard policy; but it worked.

Apple decided to go after Android, in the form of leading Android smartphone vendor Samsung, in what Steve Jobs called “thermonuclear war.” Jobs may have been a great leader and a brilliant thinker, but he was no Henry Kissinger when it came to business partnerships and lawsuits.

Mutually Assured Destruction: Google/Motorola vs. Apple. More >

August 19, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Apple TV Rumors: A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing

I like my Apple TV a lot. To me, Apple TV was never as former Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, “just a hobby. Since then, there have been rumors that Jobs had “cracked” the code for a successful marriage of Internet, computer, and TV just before he died. Well, now we have what seems to be the most solid rumor yet about the Apple TV—and I don’t see any code being cracked. I just see a whole lot of business as usual nothing.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, Apple has been talking with the US’ biggest “cable operators about letting consumers use an Apple device as a set-top box for live television and other content.”

That’s what Apple has been working on? That’s the big news? That Apple is going to take a page from TiVo’s book and offer a combination cable digital video recorder and Internet media device ala the TiVo Premiere line? Oh please!

Apple TV Rumors: A tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. More >

August 17, 2012
by sjvn01
0 comments

Why is Apple scared to compete with Samsung?

Most people like some products, but Apple fans love their products. And, who can blame them? I own an Apple TV, five Macs, an iPad, and two iPod Touches because they’re darn good devices—and I’m a Linux fan. So why is Apple so frightened of Samsung and the other Android smartphone and tablet vendors that it’s trying to sue them into the ground instead of competing with them?

Apple isn’t just suing Samsung in the US. Apple has sued Samsung around the world. In Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom and more than two-dozen other countries, Apple has made the same lousy patent design claims: Samsung has stolen the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad.

These claims are bogus. There’s nothing unique about Apple’s iPad or iPhone designs. That’s not just my opinion. A UK judge told Apple it must tell the world on both its UK . website and in British newspapers that Samsung had not in fact infringed on the iPad’s design.

Why is Apple scared to compete with Samsung? More >

Practical Technology

for practical people.