Best of CES 2012 Awards

CES is the largest consumers electronics show with sum 150,000 people attending in Las Vegas.  See what gadgets made the best of the show by clicking here. 

How to Protect your Kids online

In our household, a fast and reliable internet connection is becoming just as important as electricity, A/C, and running water.  Our kids are using the internet more frequently for entertainment, communicating, and school work.   Most of us run antivirus software on a home computer to protect it from a digital intruder.  But what do you do to protect a child from the Internet?  

As you know, there are a lot of good things to be found on the Internet but there is also a lot of bad.  As a parent, my wife and I protect our children from the outside world but the online world is another matter.  There are a lot of software based Internet filtering programs that you can install on a computer just like antivirus software.  However, I have found none of them to work well.

Open DNS is a cloud based Internet security that works excellent and is free to home users like you and me.  It provides web filtering and protection from malware too.   What is so nice about Open DNS is that it filters all devices you connect to your home internet connection.  So, your laptop, iPad, PC, Mac, and mobile phone connected to your wifi connection are all protected and there is no software to install.  This is because OpenDNS works with your router not with the Internet device.  

Once setup, you can choose a level of protection that fits your family’s individual needs.  For example, you may choose to block all pornography and hate groups, but allow information about guns.  Or, you can choose a custom profile where you can individually block or allow particular websites.  I love youtube but I can ground the kids from it by blocking the site using OpenDNS.  It’s kind of like a digital pattle for the kids. Lol.

Anyway, I am very pleased with OpenDNS and highly recommend it.  Keep in mind your children may not be 100% protected with this tool.  If they can communicate online with the outside world, they still need to be monitored.  Again, OpenDNS is a tool that empowers the parents.  It took me about 10 minutes to setup and just a few minutes to adjust the filtering to our needs.  I found it to be very useful and hope that you do too.  To find out more click here.

Microsoft rolls out major Dashboard update on the Xbox 360

Microsoft makes the xbox 360 an even better platform for internet TV.  More details click here.

A Christmas promotion like no other

If you haven’t already considered RTC’s Christmas promotion, I suggest you check it out.  It is not the usual take $10-$15 off your bill for the first 3, 6, or 12 months with a contract.  It is something new and surprisingly different for a Telephone Company or Cable Company to be offering.  

You see, most Internet providers are scared of an online streaming service such as Netflix.  Not only is it expensive for the ISP to serve but it cannibalizes the TV offering too.  For example, the cable company doesn’t want you to stream when it can provide you with 250 channels of junk you’ll never watch for $70/mo.

RTC is different and has a progressive vision on Internet TV.  It is actually promoting it!  Like me, RTC is focused on consumer benefit.  When you sign up for RTC Internet service, they bundle it with a Roku or AppleTV box and 1 year of Netflix service.  For more information, I highly encourage you to check it out here.  Even if you don't sign up, you gotta admit it is pretty unique.

1 Year without cable TV

It has been 1 year now since our family decided to ditch DirecTV.  We replaced our set top boxes with Internet TV boxes and subscribe to Netflix and Hulu for $14/mo.  An over the air antenna gets us the local channels and live sports and news.  Everything we watch is available online or over the air.  We rely much more heavily on our Internet connection from RTC now which was upgraded to 25meg.  No regrets and I calculated that we have saved $600 this past year.  This isn’t for everyone but I suggest you consider it too.  To find out more...read some of my previous blog posts.

Tivo does Internet TV?

      Tivo has been around for years (since 1999) and is a house hold word.  When the word “Tivo” is mentioned, most think of a smart DVR as it learns from your viewing activity and makes suggestions on what you should watch and record next.  I personally consider the brand “Tivo” as positive and think most folks do as well.  But didn’t the cable company kill Tivo?  Every cable and dish provider has their own DVR box you can buy or lease and Tivo has been on the decline ever since.  Right?

     Enter Tivo Premier.  A box starting at $99.  It is designed to replace your cable box.  It combines traditional pay TV with Internet content from Netflix, Hulu, Blockbuster, Amazon, Youtube, and Pandora.  You can schedule recording remotely with your mobile phone too.  It records up to 45 hours of HD quality as there is a hard drive inside.  But it appears this product is designed to complement your cable TV not replace it.

     The problem I have with the box is the subscription price of $19.99/mo.  While it can replace an existing cable set top, you are still paying a net of $10 - $15 per month for this box.  Plus, if you subscribe to Netflix, that is an additional $7.99/mo on top of your cable bill.  But I am probably going about it all wrong.  This isn’t about cost savings it is about additional content.  So, if you can’t get enough content onto your regular cable box or through Dish Network, then ok, this box is worth looking into further as it combines pay tv with internet tv.  But here’s the thing; most folks I talk to have more content than they can consume and feel they pay way too much for it.  So, I don’t think the Tivo Premier is for the masses or at least the folks I hang around.

So, how would this box do as a dedicated over the top internet tv solution?  Let’s see how it compares:

Tivo

$20/mo for Tivo service

$8/mo for Netflix

$8/mo for Hulu

$36/mo plus $100 up front fee for the box

Dish Network

$37/mo  Dish 120 (1^st 12 months then $50.99/mo after)

Free Installation

So with Dish Network, you get more content and pay no up front fee.  With Dish, that monthly cost would also include TWO boxes both of which are HD DVR.

In sum, I can neither recommend the Tivo premier as a complimentary service or as a dedicated iTV solution either as the economics doesn’t make sense due to the $20/mo Tivo subscription.  You might as well buy regular dish TV instead.  It is a better bang for the buck.

email from Netflix

Dear John,

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We're constantly improving our streaming selection. We've recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we've added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team