Having a tornado demolish her home was bad enough. But when Ann Beam received a $2,000 cable bill a few weeks later, she was floored. “I just couldn’t believe it,” Beam said. “I was like, ‘What are they thinking?’”

Time Warner Cable billed a number of Wheatland residents for equipment destroyed in the Jan. 7 twister that struck the southeast corner of the state. Beam’s bill covered five cable boxes and five remote controls.

She immediately called the cable company, but a man who identified himself as a manager said there was nothing the company could do.

Tornado victim billed for cable devices - Yahoo! News

I am not sure what’s odder in this story.  That the person in question had 5 cable boxes or that they are $400 dollars each.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: WhenBureaucracyAttacks, WTF?, TimeWarner

Apple has postponed the release of the Apple TV software update by a week or two, saying it needed more time to finish the upgrade that would let people rent movies directly from their televisions.

In delaying the Apple TV upgrade, the company said the software wasn’t quite finished. “Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two,” the company said in a statement. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had said during his Macworld keynote that the software would be ready by the end of January.

Apple Delays Apple TV Software Update — Apple — InformationWeek

Blogged with Flock

Tags: DamnYouApple!, IWantMyATV, Apple, AppleTV

Sony Corp said on Thursday it would stop making rear-projection televisions, becoming the latest company to distance itself from a technology once seen as a promising rival of LCD and plasma displays in the flat-TV market.Sony said it would focus its resources on liquid crystal display (LCD) and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology to address the flat-TV market, which is growing rapidly as consumers trade in their boxy tube sets for sleeker flat screens.

UPDATE 1-Sony becomes latest to quit rear-projection TVs | Industries | Consumer Goods & Retail | Reuters

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Sony, HDTV, LCD, TV, Television

Wal-Mart Stores Inc quietly canceled its online video download service less than a year after the site went live, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.Wal-Mart shut down the download site after Hewlett Packard Co discontinued the technology that powered it, Walmart.com spokeswoman Amy Colella said in an e-mail. She added that it will not look for another technology partner.

HP spokesman Hector Marinez said the company decided to discontinue its video download-only merchant store services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform “as expected.”

A message at www.walmart.com/videodownloads said the service was stopped on December 21 and Wal-Mart offered no refunds for the downloaded videos.

Videos purchased on Walmart.com can be played using the Microsoft Windows Media Player or the Wal-Mart Video Download Manager, but cannot be transferred to a computer other than the one used to download them, according to the site.

Wal-Mart cancels movie download service | Reuters

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Walmart, Movies, DRM

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Twentieth Century Fox are set to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent Fox movies through Apple’s digital iTunes Store, according to media reports on Thursday.

Apple and Fox plan movie rental deal: reports | Reuters

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Apple, Online Movie Rentals, The Long Tail, Fox

Got your Wii yet?

If you answered no, head to the nearest GameStop ASAP because today only, you can purchase a Wii raincheck, which will guarantee you a Wii before Jan. 25, 2007. For the full price of $250, you get a nice DVD case with a special message that assures the recipient that his or her Wii is on the way.

Today’s the day for Wii rainchecks - Video Games - Man Zero - MLive.com

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Nintendo, Wii, Christmas

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s annual Macworld surprise may be a slimmed-down laptop and a higher-capacity model of the iPhone.

Jobs traditionally uses the Macworld Expo in January to showcase new products. Last time, it was the iPhone and Apple TV; the year before, faster Macs with Intel Corp. chips.

Jobs, 52, also may introduce a larger-screen handheld device for playing music and video and surfing the Web, said Andy Neff, an analyst at Bear Stearns & Co. in New York. Apple may also unveil a new version of Apple TV, a $299 device that connects to TVs and lets people watch movies and shows stored on their PCs.

Apple’s Jobs May Surprise With Slim Mac, New IPhone

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Apple, iPhone, Macworld, AppleTV

 Lost in the news of iTunes updates and DRM-free music, comes the updated AppleTV.  I knew this was coming sooner or later.  The next version of AppleTV sports a 160 GB drive, 4 times the current drive size.  Also upgraded, the price.  The next version is $399, up from the original $299 price tag.

 Apple also announced that AppleTV users will be able to browse YouTube, as well as login to their YouTube account via their AppleTV.  Initially only the most popular videos will be available, until later this year when it expands to the entire YouTube library.

 The new 160GB version if AppleTV is reportedly to be available this Thursday.

 Boston officials freaked out over marketing stunt to promote late-night programming on Cartoon Network.  The devices caused officals to shut down bridges and major roads.

“It had a very sinister appearance,” Coakley told reporters. “It had a battery behind it, and wires.” 

 The light-bright looking device featured the mooninite with a  raised middle finger.

 Err was quoted as saying, “It was all a mistake, I was trying to cash my Uncle’s welfare check.”

 In the midst of an expected announcement from Apple, the iTunes store is current unavailable with just the curious phrase, “It’s Showtime.”

 It is expected that Apple will be announcing the addition of full-length movies for purchase from iTunes.

 In other video iPod news, 4Flix.net has announced non-DRM movies and TV shows, via a monthly subscription fee.  But most of them seem to be the out of copyright films already available for free at Archive.org.  The movies will be viewable on the video iPod.

 UPDATE:

iTunes is updated with movies and games.  Enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean, Life Aquatic, or play a game of Pac-Man.  All with your iPod.  Sadly the movies are way more expensive than if you just bought the DVD, ranging from 9.99 to 14.99.  The games aren’t cheap either at 4.99.