The iPhone has proven itself as more than a luxury item. All cellphones that can’t browse the Internet quickly became dinosaurs the second the iPhone was released. Sure, I pay more per month for service (just under $70 on my grandfathered plan), but it’s worth it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used the GPS with Google Maps to figure out where I am, or I learned something important with the ability to check my email/twitter/Facebook/etc.

A lot of people I know live without cable television. Considering you can save over $600/year by going unplugged, it’s not a bad idea. Cable TV is a lot of money, especially if you tack on the HD DVR and extra channels. You can watch a number of TV shows online now, but there isn’t one clean solution to put them on your big, shiny LCD.

In September, that will change.

Get ready to spend $99 on the iTV from Apple. Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) says the device “will change everything”. If you look at his reasoning, he’s absolutely right. Of course, the Boxee box will be released right alongside the rumored iTV. Unfortunately, not many people outside the tech community have heard of Boxee (and everyone has heard of Apple). Google TV will join the party a little later, providing iTV with the same competition that the iPhone faces from Android devices.

Forrester says 14% of Americans are considering buying a tablet next year. Companies are rushing to get their tablet out the door. Instead, they should be rushing to come up with their Internet set-top box.

Anyone want to buy a 40GB Apple TV?

While this is clear proof that usability can improve profits, the Netflix blog announcement does not exactly make neither the company, nor usability look good. The announcement is sympathetic toward the workers, but it fails to discuss how the savings will impact the company. Can they invest in more servers to host up streaming movies? Can they procure more movies? Can they improve delivery times? Can they afford to fill more jobs in other departments? Netflix should have communicated what they will do with the savings.

In other Netflix related news, customers can now watch streaming movies on TiVos and Xbox360s. The company is still light years ahead of Blockbuster, who just announced plans to stream movies via a 2Wire set-top box.

There will always be a hard-copy DVD market, but digital rentals will soon be the norm as they become more affordable and widespread. On my Apple TV, I probably average two HD movies per month. If I could subscribe for unlimited movies in a month for $10-15, I would sign up without hesitation.

[via Gizmodo]

Click here to view the embedded video.

As silly as the video is, tech companies could actually learn a lot from it. Goofy encounters a wide variety of usability issues. Many companies (e.g. Dell) conduct out-of-the-box studies to ensure a good user experience. Some companies (like Bose) attempt to make this process easier with home theater in-a-box solutions. But, the problem goes beyond sound. The whole setup process can be easy, but with all of the choices and little instruction that consumers receive, it can end up being complicated.

My recommendation is to do your research on an HDTV and buy one locally if it is larger than about 32 inches. Don’t buy anything else in the store. Buy cables (HDMI or Component) and a surge protector online. Invest in speakers only if you’re not happy with the TV’s speakers (try all of the audio setings on the TV too!). You may want to also invest in a Blu-Ray player for HD movies, but personally I am happy renting HD movies on my Apple TV. If you have Netflix, you can buy a Roku set-top box for renting HD movies.

[via Gizmodo via Cartoon Brew via Dark Roasted Blend]

Just when we thought Blu-ray had won the format war, Apple has made things very interesting. While one can’t own the movies they purchase (this will be coming at some point–probably with a virtual catalog in the iTunes Movie Store instead of local storage), Apple TV makes HD movies that much more accessible. A $3.99-$4.99 price tag on rentals also adds some competition for Netflix (who recently announced unlimited streaming movies–but those aren’t HD).

Apple TV Take 2 was my favorite announcement from the MacWorld 2008 keynote, which also featured a NAS (dubbed Time Capsule), new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the deliciously green and expensive MacBook Air.

This weekend, I was listening to the latest UIE podcast (SpoolCast Crew Episode #6) and the panel was talking about Apple TV’s failure. The group cited the obvious reasons (it’s not a media center substitution, you can’t play your DVDs, you can only play iTunes content), but failed to mention one of the best uses for the device: video podcasts.

Video podcasts have come a long way since their inception. In fact, a few companies have been born that focus solely on producing quality video podcasts (see Revision3, On Networks). They are such high quality that they are already a substitute for regular TV. I would love to have an Apple TV with all of my podcasts so I can watch them on the big screen.

If you are new to the idea of video podcasts, here are some to get you started:

• Ask a Ninja
• Beautiful Places in HD
• commandN
• Cranky Geeks
• Cute with Chris
• DiveFilm
• Geekbrief.TV
• HD podcast | washingtonpost.com
• Hubblecast HD
• MobuzzTV
• Noodle Scar Daily
• Onion News Network
• On Networks (Backpack Picnic, Stump the Chef, etc.)
• Revision3 (Diggnation, InDigital, etc.)
• Rocketboom
• Tiki Bar Tv
• TreeHuggerTV
• Webnation

The Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) has trained professionals from around the world that will come into your house and calibrate your HDTV. Paying someone to come into your house can be expensive, but compared to the cost of the HDTV it is worth it.

An alternative to having someone come into your house is to buy a calibration DVD and do-it-yourself. Robert Heron of DL.TV/PC Magazine says that the Monster/ISF HDTV Calibration Wizard DVD will provide near identical results to hiring a professional to calibrate your TV. The special DVD is only $30 and will walk you through calibrating your new HDTV.

Home theater PC owners will need to have a Windows XP or Vista system with a dual-core 3.0+ ghz processor and video card that is HDCP compliant. Cheap Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drives for computers are hard to come by, but you can use the $200 XBox 360 HD-DVD drive! So, if you happen to have a home theater PC, this is the cheapest way to get HD content on your display.

For more information, check out DL.TV episode 120.

• Get a Blu-Ray player. The first-generation players (Samsung BD-P1000, Panasonic DMP-BD10, Philips BDP9000, Sony BDP-S1, Pioneer BDP-HD1) is getting very mediocre reviews, but Pioneer’s player appears to be on top if you have $1500 lying around for it. The cheapest and smallest Blu-Ray player lives inside Sony’s PlayStation 3, if you can even find one of those.
• Get an HD-DVD player. Toshiba is the leader in this arena, as they are releasing their second-generation players (Toshiba HD-A2, Toshiba HD-XA2) this month. The cheapest player is the HD-DVD add-on ($200) for the XBox-360 video game console ($400).
• Get HD on-demand with Comcast or any other TV service provider’s movie option.
• Get an upscaling DVD player. These players take your regular DVDs and scale them up to look better on your HDTV. When it comes to upscaling, no one does it better than OPPO.

For HDTVs supporting 720p/1080i with HDMI input, the best choice for an upscaling player is the OPPO DV-970HD ($149). This player comes with a free HDMI cable, which combines video and audio into a one-cable solution. For HDTVs without HDMI, you will have to buy some component and optical or coaxial digital audio cables (I suggest NXG on RadioShack.com).

The OPPO DV-970HD is a slim device (probably about less than half the size of the traditional DVD player). It is not the most consumer-friendly device in the world because you will have to do some configuration. First, the player ships set to 480p output. You will want to immediately switch it to 720p or 1080i (whichever you think looks better on your TV). Second, your universal remotes will NOT work with the player. OPPO is working on getting a code for universal remotes that meet its needs.

Fortunately, OPPO has great customer service. If you send them an e-mail, you’ll get a response the same day. It took them under an hour to respond to one of my e-mails. Try doing that with SONY!

If you have one of those new 1080P HDTVs, then OPPO also has a player for that (the DV-981HD. But, if you’re willing to shell out that much money for a HDTV, then you probably should invest in a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player (or both).

iTV will be about $300. I like the idea, but I really do not think it is going to work. Here is why:

• Apple has tried this before.
• People do not want another box in their home theater, and another remote in the living room. Even though it is small, iTV complicates things.
• Windows users do not have a lot of stuff in iTunes. If Apple decided to sell iPhoto and the other iLife applications for Windows, then this problem would not exist.
• iTunes does not have any HD content… and it probably will not for a while. Movies in HD are huge files, and expensive to move around. Movies you can currently buy on iTunes look like crap on an HDTV.
• It is not a DVR. As far as I know, iTV does not have a hard drive and will not be able to record TV.
• There is already enough content. We have upscaling DVD players, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players, new gaming systems (XBOX 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, etc.), and media center PCs.

I praise Apple for trying to solve the computer-TV convergence problem, but I do not think iTV is the solution. People will buy it, but mostly current Mac geeks.

I think the living room solution is one box that is a computer, DVR, DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player, and video game system. And it has to have one well-designed remote control.

After a relatively short life of 8 years or so, my parent’s Panasonic tube TV bit the dust last week, and I was called in to find a replacement. We actually ended up with the 37″ Panasonic TH-37PX60U due to room and furniture restrictions. But, the 42″ model was seriously considered, since it was actually $200 cheaper than the 37″!

The 60U line of Panasonic HDTVs was released in September 2006. It consists of the affordable 37″ and 42″ plasma models, and (much) more expensive 50″ and 56″ models. There is also a 42″ EDTV in the line, but do not even consider that since it is not HD. The 600U Panasonic line features their higher end models, which have more features including CableCard and better sound. CableCard would be nice, but CableCard does not allow you to buy movies or pay-per-view programming on demand. And, if you are using external speakers (as you should be with these nice HDTVs), then the sound doesn’t matter at all.

The TH-42PX60U comes packed with features such as two HDMI inputs (for your upscaling DVD player, Playstation 3, HD-DVD player, Blu-ray player, receiver, or PVR/cable box), digital audio output (for your surround sound speaker system), stereo audio and composite video out (for a low-end PVR/cable box or stereo speaker system), plenty of component inputs (for your XBOX 360 or DVD player), plenty of composite video inputs (if you still have a VCR), and a QAM tuner (to receive unscrambled HDTV). With QAM in the Boston area, one will receive 7 free channels in HD over the standard cable line: ABC, NBC, TV-38, CBS, FOX, WGBH HD, and CW.

The TH-42PX60U also features RCA jacks (composite video and stereo audio) on the front and an SD card input for viewing photos straight from your digital camera on your HDTV.

CNET gave the TH-42PX60U a “Very Good” rating of 7.5/10 and Consumer Reports also rated it highly. This HDTV is a bargain.