Author: Michael

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about whether our AppleTV upgrades survive software updates. We’ve always been pretty certain there would be no problems, but we’ve had no way to test other than our digging around the system to find clues. Since the OS running on these systems is a modified version of OS X, nothing seemed to be tied to the specific drive. But now, with the release of software 1.1 for the AppleTV, we can confirm (while watching YouTube!) that there is no problem whatsoever with the software update and our upgrades.

The TiVo Glo remote that ships with the Series3 TiVo is the newest generation of the excellent TiVo peanut-shaped remote. The remote has two new features (and lots of other changes). The features are: backlighting, and learning ability. We are now selling this remote on our TiVo remotes page.

The learning feature has generated a lot of questions. Can it be taught to work my Sony TiVo? (no) Can it be used with my Olevia TV? (no – these have some strange IR usage) It can learn in some ways, but not others.

The learning features only affect these buttons: TV Power, TV Input, Mute, and Power Up/Power Down. Any of those buttons can replay a code that the remote learns from the original remote that shipped with that component. So if you have a brand new, or unusual brand TV, you can teach this remote to use its TV Power button to send the same IR code as the original remote that shipped with the unit (but you do need the original remote to teach the TiVo Glo). The other buttons on the remote are not able to be changed.

One extra piece of info: the TiVo Power button actually can emit three different IR codes. So you can have it turn on your TV, A/V system, and something else (mood lighting maybe?) with the press of one button.

Rumors have been making the rounds, but we’ve always discounted them. But now TiVo CEO Tom Rogers hinted that the relationship with DirecTV might be thawing a bit, due to the change in majority ownership from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to Liberty Media. We certainly know firsthand that DirecTV TiVo users love their units, and that DirecTV DVR Plus users aren’t nearly as happy. Maybe DirecTV realizes this also, finally?

And for DirecTV HD TiVo users, maybe they’ll get a version of the excellent Series3 . . .

More info here.

Two pieces of news hit over the last two days. The first is that with a pending software update, AppleTV units will be able to stream YouTube videos. Pretty cool.

Next, EMI did a deal with YouTube (they also just did a deal with Apple to make DRM-free, higher quality music available on the iTunes store). The deal allows many music videos to be shown on YouTube, and even cut into YouTube videos.

So now you’ll be able to pick and choose potentially among EMI’s artists’ videos to watch on your TV. That’s a decent step forward.