This is a semi-good deal if you've already purchased a lifetime subscription on your old Series 2 units and want to upgrade to a
TiVo HD. For the medium, medium price of $199, you can transfer your old sub to the new unit if and only if you purchase an HD unit between October 11 and November 8. Plus, your old subscription has to have been activated
before October 1, 2003, and not have been already transferred to some other machine. If you fit through all these caveats, feel free to fork over even more money to TiVo. [
Zatz Not Funny]
Gizmodo
We've got some more details on the FyreTV IPTV porn box that brings DVD-quality porn into your living room (where it belongs). If we're reading the site correctly, the FyreTV box will be subscription-based, meaning it's essentially an "all you can eat" type of porn instead of an a la carte—think Zune Pass vs. iTunes. It's entirely streaming, so there's no saving of content, but you can bookmark and search for your favorite scenes. Go sign up for the free beta if you're interested. [FyreTV]
Amazon is in talks with four major music companies about starting its own music download service this summer, according to The Wall Street Journal. The online retailing giant is also talking about selling an Amazon-branded portable music player. The four music companies Amazon is talking to are Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. Amazon is already in a good position to develop a music service because it already has 55 million customer accounts, and these users are already set to seamlessly buy music with a single click. The company has been preparing for this new service, hiring 3,000 people to work on digital content initiatives over the past year. Another likely aspect of the Amazon service would be a subscription business model, where its digital music player would be offered for free or at a low price. Amazon would also use the information about what its customers have previously purchased to preload these players with music. Pricing is expected to be competitive with other subscription services—around $15 a month.