hbo

Will you pay $3--or more--for TV episodes on iTunes?

Several HBO shows debuted today on the iTunes Store, but the big news was that two of them--Rome and The Sopranos--will retail for $2.99 an episode. To date, Apple had insisted on flat pricing of $1.99 per episode of any TV show added to its download roster. Indeed, the company's refusal to allow variable pricing was said to be the primary factor in NBC pulling its vast library of shows from the digital retailer in 2007.

Blogger Dave Zatz points out two big stumbling blocks to the larger issue of TV shows on iTunes:

... it's not … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 723: Best bad idea ever

The military has proposed creating their own botnet to help combat cyberfoes. Kevin Poulsen at Wired thinks this is idiotic. We think there's a certain amount of mad genius to it, and debate the points. Meanwhile 6 million Chileans had their personal data leaked to the Internet. Don't worry it's not all shock and awe. Harvard says violent video games are A-OK! Shoot 'em up, kids! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 723

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Friday, May 16. However, you do not need to subscribe to … Read more

Hello, lover: HBO-iTunes hookup is official

It's official: as reported yesterday, Apple has inked a deal with HBO to sell episodes of the premium-cable network's original programming in its iTunes Store. You can now use Apple's digital-retail hub to purchase episodes of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Deadwood, The Wire, Rome, and Flight of the Conchords.

Right now, all six seasons of Sex and the City are available for purchase, as a promotion for the spin-off movie opening at the end of May. But iTunes currently offers only the first seasons of the other shows, as well as The Sopranos' final season. (… Read more

HBO to Apple: Bada Bing?

Apple may be getting ready to announce a content deal that would put old episodes of The Sopranos on iTunes.

Citing HBO insiders, Portfolio reported on Monday that Apple and HBO are getting ready to announce a partnership deal within the next two weeks (coinciding with the release of the Sex in the City movie?) that would supposedly involve Apple breaking its pledge to have the same pricing structure for all content sold on iTunes.

The report doesn't specify exactly how much Apple would charge for old episodes of HBO shows, but it notes that HBO insiders think that … Read more

HBO hates babies and parents and puppies--beware the DRM boogie monster!

I sat on the phone with Tivo for a combined total of 30 minutes this morning (roughly 22 minutes on various stages of hold) to figure out what happened to my daughter's favorite Goodnight Moon show that we Tivo'd off of HBO.

As it happens, HBO encoded the program with DRM--a dated self-destruct mechanism and when Tivo ran it's nightly update and the clock turned over the program was deleted without any interaction from Tivo.

(Side note: Tivo support is really good and very nice. I can't fault the company or the support team for any … Read more

Tivo, Comcast, or HBO just screwed me by deleting a recording with no recovery

For those of you who have young children you know that you need some kind of bedtime ritual to get the kid to go to sleep.

At our house we watch the Goodnight Moon show that we Tivo'd from HBO. I should have bought the DVD a few months back instead of just now but we figured it would always be in the Tivo!

This 30 minute masterpiece does an amazing job calming the savage beast. But today we got quite a surprise when the Tivo deleted the show on it's own and doesn't show it in &… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 682: The murder of CableCard

EPISODE 682

Web creator rejects net tracking http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7299875.stm

BT confesses lies over secret Phorm experiments http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/17/bt_phorm_lies/

Yahoo Buzz is a game-changer for social media http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ yahoo_buzz_is_a_game_changer.php

Google says Microsoft’s Yahoo buy might hurt Internet http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/ idUSPEK15292020080317

Flickr Video beta due in April http://www.news.com/8301-13953_3-9895044-80.html

Firefox 3 goes on a diet, eats less memory than IE and Opera http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080317-firefox-3-goes-on-a-diet-eats-less-memory-than-ie-and-opera.html

LimeWire digital music … Read more

As 'The Wire' wraps up, a prediction and some musings on a great TV show

In a few minutes, my TiVo will turn itself on and begin recording the eighth episode of the fifth, and final, season of HBO's masterpiece about police, drugs, the street, politics, bureaucratic corruption and inefficiency, and the press in Baltimore, The Wire.

The show, the first three seasons of which I took with me on my Road Trip around the American southwest last summer, is almost certainly one of the best TV shows of all time. There are surely no shortage of legitimate TV critics who have laid their reputations on the line to say so.

For me, watching … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 644: No Child Left Inside

EPISODE 644