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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

TiVo Adds Another Cable Operator

TiVo wants to be the de facto DVR in the cable set top box.  One way to achieve such a position is to partner directly with each cable operator.  And with fewer and fewer cable operators to work with, the target list is well known.  Well move one more name from prospect to customer.  "TiVo has landed yet another cable operator customer, signing a deal with Cable One to provide DVR software and multiscreen-video applications to the 10th-largest MSO in the U.S."  With a footprint of 600,000 video customers, TiVo will see another nice bump to their subscriber base.

Through legal patent fights and cable deals, TiVo has been growing both revenue and subs.  With a legal fight against Time Warner Cable, one might see a possible solution being Time Warner finally taking Dish as their DVR partner as well.  With TiVo legal victories already against Verizon and Dish, Time Warner might consider a partnership less costly than a financial settlement.

The Next Great Energy Source To Run Our Technology...Ourselves

What if the days of recharging our devices on a daily basis was a thing of the past?  What if our battery devices were always being recharged so that batteries rarely needed to be replaced?  And what if this energy sources was free and abundant?  As we become constantly reliant on mobile devices to be powered up and ready to go, we are in constant need for a quantum leap in our battery technology.

Well, perhaps some progress is being made.  Well today's WSJ article has focused on a new energy source. "Scientists are studying how to tap the energy naturally created by people's bodies—such as heat, sound and movement—to power medical devices without the need to change batteries."  These experiments are focusing on technology that is running on the human body, devices such as "hearing aids, insulin pumps and pain-management devices".  But perhaps this energy source could power even more. "Some experts expect the first medical devices that tap the body's energy—known as bioenergy harvesting—could be available within a decade."

Do we produce enough energy, that devices in our hand could also act as a conduit to act as a power source?  Could even the proximity to a person enable transference of power, perhaps by wearing a device that is then bluetooth connected to a mobile device?  Our reliance on power was never more apparent than during the recent hurricane when power was out for days and one had to find charging stations to stay powered up.  As we become more and more reliant on technology, that quantum leap in battery power is much needed.