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Dish

satellite

New Dish Network Satellite Launched, More HD Channels On the Way

In order to offer more HD channels, satellite providers need more satellites. So happy day for Dish Network subscribers, their EchoStar XI satellite was successfully launched this morning after a satellite propelled into space last March didn't reach the right orbit. This'll let Dish add 17 new HD channels shortly, bringing them up to 100. DirecTV says they'll have over 150 by the end of the year, though Dish's upcoming all-HD TurboHD package could wind up being a better deal if history is any guide. [Reuters]

at&t

AT&T Dumping Dish TV (Is Satellite Screwed?)

AT&T is nixing the agreement they've had with Dish TV since 2003 to sell their satellite TV service as part of a triple play bundle with internet and voice. Some are speculating it's because AT&T is simply down on satellite TV (it's got its own U-verse IPTV thing after all), but more likely it's pitting Dish and DirecTV against each other in a bidding war, since U-verse deployment ain't exactly a runaway train speed-wise. So, realistically, you could see AT&T hawking DirecTV instead of Dish next year, which would be a blow to to the latter, since they're already little number two. But maybe AT&T will be super ballsy and push off satellite altogether. [Info Week]

slingbox

New Dish Network 722s HD DVR Has Built-In Slingbox and Slingcatcher

At their Team Summit Retailer Conference over the weekend, Dish Network pulled back the curtain on a new flavor their latest HD DVR, the 722s. It's got a built-in Slingbox, plus Clip + Sling and Slingcatcher functionality to boot. The pile of whip cream on that box of synergy awesomeness is a brand new HD UI; a built-in, Yahooified browser; and a new remote with a touchpad and trigger. There's some other minor Dish stuff happening at the link too, if you're interested, but this new box is the headliner—all that and a can of Buffalo Pringles. [Multichannel via Zatz Not Funny]

cellphones

Dish Network Wants to Go Mobile

Oh, the irony. A wireless content distributor (Dish Network) needs somewhere between $500 million and $2 billion to support mobile (wireless) TV. Dish owns a chunk of the 700Mhz spectrum; now they just need a friend. But as Dish vice chairman Carl Voge put it, "We're a long, long, long way from building anything out. We're a long, long, long way from deciding who our partners will be..." I'm just not sure how "long" companies like Dish have before crafty wireless carriers coupled with 3G/4G technologies render their services obsolete. [Multichannel News via mocoNews]

espionage

News Corp. Hires Hacker to Break Into Dish Satellite Network, Steal Security Codes for Pirate Cards

This is classic corporate espionage/sabotage at its finest. Dish Network is accusing News Corp.—which used to have a 39 percent stake in DirecTV and still provides its security tech—of hiring hacker Christopher Tarnovsky to break into Dish's network, steal the security codes, and use them to make pirated cards to flood the black market. It sounds insane, but Tarnovsky admitted in court he was paid James Bond villain style, with $20,000 cash payments mailed from Canada hidden inside "electronic devices." More »

crockery

Flavour Designs Solves the Mystery of the Tipping Bowl

Sure, this soup is great. Yeah, I'm really enjoying it. Aw, crap—the spoon's only gone and tipped the freaking bowl all over my Diesels. Well, not anymore, friends. Please welcome Flavour Design's problem solving bowl, cleverly titled, And the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon. It is so simple it will make you cry about all those embarrassing times you could have easily avoided—a receptacle for the spoon actually built into the bowl. Pure genius. Nobel Prize committee, the search is over for this year's Peace Prize winner. [Neatorama via Boing Boing]


tivo

Tivo Defeats Echostar for Stealing DVR Patent in Epic Court Battle Once and For All

Two years after initially smacking down Echostar (now just Dish Network) in court for stepping on its patent for a "multimedia time warping system" (aka a DVR) Tivo has clinched final and lasting victory against the satellite provider. Dish Network subscribers won't have to worry about losing their DVRs or seeing anything different though, since the current boxes are designed around Tivo's patents (probably because they knew they were gonna go down in court). Update: Echostar/Dish is actually gonna take it all the way to the Supreme Court! More »

wimax

Comcast and Time Warner To Launch WiMax Network, Asking Sprint to Run It?

Cable operators Comcast and Time Warner plan to gather up $1.5 billion to $2 billion in order to get their own WiMax network going, and it's said that they would turn to Sprint to run the show. Now, I don't know what part of this plan makes sense to anyone else, but A) WiMax as a wide-area network technology isn't looking as hot in practice as it did in theory, and B) Sprint doesn't seem to be capable of running its own operation, let alone someone else's multi-billion-dollar baby. One thing is for sure, this move by the cable titans shows, like Dish Network's recent acquisition of some 700MHz spectrum, that everybody wants a piece of the wireless pie, even if they don't know exactly what to do with it. [AP]

700mhz

Dish's Surprise 700MHz Win Means What?

Dish Networks, sat TV provider, has won a block of the 700MHz band in the FCC's recent auction. Given Dish's primary business is television from the heavens, one has to wonder what they're up to. At first, I thought internet, as DirecTV has. But the analysts say that the tiny corner of the band that Dish bought is actually not suitable for 2-way communication, and is better for broadcast. Maybe they're planning to pipe their channels over the airwaves. That could be useful in portables. [Yahoo]

satellite

Proof Satellite Sucks: Dish and DirecTV Get FCC Approval to Downgrade HD Channels Until 2013

High-def channels consume bandwidth like Britney Spears at a Frappuccino trough (props, last night's South Park). That's a problem for twinkly satellite providers Dish Network and DirecTV, who just don't have the capacity to blast every channel in HD—so the FCC just gave them the nod to downcovert broadcasters' HD signals until 2013. Basically, it means that just because a channel is broadcast in HD, they don't have to give it to you in HD. More »

wisdom

Kitty Cat Satellite Dish Sticker: A Haiku

My satellite dish.
My apartment full of cats.
I'm king of the nerds!
[Product Page via CrunchGear]

home entertainment

EchoStar Splits, Sling Media Could Reap the Benefits

According to a recent SEC filing, Sling Media's parent company, EchoStar, has formally changed its name to the DISH Network —a move that better aligns the company with its core satellite TV service. A spin-off company called EchoStar Holdings was also formed and, as part of the move, it will be taking over the Sling Media brand. What does this mean for Sling Media and their popular line of Slingbox products? More »

i need my hdtv

What Satellite Service is Better for Your HDTV?

On Black Friday, some of you walked home with your first HDTV. Or second. Discount voodoo is understandably hard to resist. But unless you've got HD content, you've got nothin' but a pretty frame. Since it's the holidays, you probably don't wanna screw around in customer service hell. If you've narrowed your choice down to satellite because of where you live or a prior (bad) experience with cable, we've done some homework for you, sorting through the near-legalese of HD packages and talking to chipper sales reps from the two majors, Dish Network and DirecTV. Which one offers the most HD goodness at the best rates? More »

sling media

Sling Media to be Acquired by EchoStar for $380 Million

Sling Media, the company that brought you the Slingbox and SlingPlayer software, has been bought by EchoStar. The corporation, which owns the DISH pay-TV network, has valued Sling Media at $380 million, and the sale should take place before the end of the year. Full press release is below. More »

cedia07

Dish Network ViP 722 DVR: More Space, Black Chassis, Slight Improvement

We got our hands on the Dish Network ViP722, making sure the next generation of satellite DVRs has plenty of storage space. Its makers have added hours of storage to this beast, now totalling 55 hours' worth of 1080i or 720p HD video, or 350 hours of standard def. In addition, you can now plug in an external USB hard drive and keep swapping them out as you need more storage. If that's not enough, you can also output video to a second television.
More »

Dish Network's ViP622 DVR now supports external USB 2.0 Hard Drives and requires a one time $39.99 activation fee. TiVo's eSATA support isn't official yet. Time to wake up, TiVo. [Zatz Not Funny!]

wimax

DirecTV and EchoStar Partner For WiMAX Internet Access

This deal between DirectTV, EchoStar (DISH's parent), and Clearwire (a WiMAX service provider) seems to be the first big solid WiMAX push in the US, if everything goes to plan. In the agreement two big satellite TV providers will get a broadband service of their own—something they apparently think they need to compete with cable and DSL—and Clearwire's WiMAX will get some large exposure to the public. More »

gadgets

Dishmaker: Never Wash Another Dish?

We actually linked to this story from Treehugger about a year ago, but with the advent of YouTube there is renewed interest in the product...at least to me. While the dishmaker appears unwieldy, this "dishwasher sized" apparatus can actually replace cabinets worth of dishes by storing them as flat disks. Only a small amount of pressure and heat is necessary to reshape the acrylic into a bowl (and back). More »