MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Jan 22, 08 - 12:53 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

Did you hear about the constipated mathematician? Worked it out with a pencil

ha ha, who cares about hbo anyway.

I like it. I subscribe to HBO anyway from comcast, along with its internet access, so it just means now I can watch it on a computer at no extra charge. Makes sense really

Jan 22, 08 - 12:56 pm Comment from: Ampar

". . . why are they only doing it in a single system in two areas—Green Bay, Wis., and Milwaukee . . .?"

Because this audience is incredibly busy getting stuffed with cheese and beer, TW is hoping they won't notice how much it sucks.

Jan 22, 08 - 12:58 pm Comment from: Ampar

To Wandering joe: LOL! Nice!

Did you hear about the Time Warner customer that had $1,900 lodged in his rectum? He wasn't feeling too grand.

Jan 22, 08 - 12:59 pm Comment from: HotinPlaya

They are still stuck with how business is now, not where it is going!

I would gladly pay (a fair price, $9/12 per month) for HBO Broadband, through my AppleTV

Would be great if Apple got some of these guys on board!

Jan 22, 08 - 01:04 pm Comment from: Predrag

Come, come, Ampar, that's not nice... We shouldn't be labeling people just because they live in the cheese&bear;capitals of the world...

But seriously, this venture is so far below Apple's radar it's pretty much just sitting there on the ground, with the ants, bugs, worms...

Jan 22, 08 - 01:08 pm Comment from: mks1

My RR is $44.95 a month... and in my area the only other choice is broadband. Timewarner is a greedy internet provider.

Jan 22, 08 - 01:09 pm Comment from: Macromancer

Id just rather buy the dvds and rip them, or get them from netflix and...er...um...ooops, nevermind.

Jan 22, 08 - 01:11 pm Comment from: Ampar

I don't live there but there's certainly nothing wrong with consuming mass quantities of cheese and beer. You will however, miss some of the finer details as life flies by.

Jan 22, 08 - 01:14 pm Comment from: HMCIV

Ampar, I hope that wasn't a swipe at cheese or beer you just took. Blame the Man if you must. But leave beer out of this!

Jan 22, 08 - 01:21 pm Comment from: Ampar

No, no, no, no, no. Cheese and beer are wonderful inventions. Throw in some beef jerky too. Besides, Packers fans have better reasons to mope.

Jan 22, 08 - 01:36 pm Comment from: Wandering joe

@ Ampar,
ROFL !!

My understanding is this service is -- wait for it -- PC only, and not available for Macs. And probably won't come with a closed caption feed, so the 10% of the audience that's deaf or hearing impaired can't watch it anyway.

Bummer.

Not for me!

I just ditched HBO and my cable tv provider and switched to.... the antenna in the attic for getting over the air HD.

Sorry... too many channels... still nothing on.

At least with Netflix, I get to choose WHAT I want to watch, even if I can't watch it exactly WHEN I want to watch it, since I have to wait for the discs to arrive.

Still this is better than flipping thru 250+ cable channels, and finding nothing worthwhile to watch.

Now, if my cable provider would let me cherry pick my own personal channel line up, and pay accordingly, I'd still be a customer. But they won't and so I won't pay them anymore.

And if HBO would let me watch their shows online for $10.00 a month, I'd be happy to sign up. But they won't so I can't.

MDN word = black

Until content providers really get it, my checking account will continue to be in the black, while theirs are in the red.

I agree with "jltnol"

Got rid of cable and opted for over-the-air HD with an attic antenna. Too much junk on TV, not much worthwhile to watch.
Besides... I live in Wisconsin. There's alot of other things to do here besides sitting in front of the TV consuming mass quantities of cheese and beer. Otherwise (according to Ampar) I'd miss some of the finer details as life flies by.
Ampar, how much time do you spend on here commenting on everything? 4 comments to this article alone! Geez!!
Also got rid of my online Blockbuster movie rentals now that I can rent from iTunes.... no more monthly Blockbuster fee! Now I TRULY can watch WHAT I want and WHEN I want.

Jan 22, 08 - 02:22 pm Comment from: Ampar

"Geez!!"

I'd better switch to decaf.

If HBO would put their original content on iTunes I would gladly subscribe to it, but do not see the value in a greatly overpriced Cable subscription for old movies, boxing , etc.

Real Time, HBO specials like When the Levees Broke and Baghdad ER are worth the money, but you can have the rest.

$42?

You forgot to add in the cost of the TV and rent/mortgage payments on the house that contains it.

C'mon. It's a no-cost add-on to existing service. Naturally, if you don't already have the existing service, you'd have to pay to get that initial step up.

Subscribers who already have HBO and broadband pay an additional $0 for the new additional service. Sounds like free to me.

Well, it sounds "free" to me. I mean, no one expects them to make it cheaper than the way people currently get HBO, right? You got to have cable or satellite service, and then the broadband is never free to begin with.

I get TW Roadrunner turbo, which allows me to upstream my Slingplayer across the net, to my 2nd home. I'm getting 20+ HD channels for $30, total, so I'm pretty happy with TW's service so far, because it allowed me to drop my expensive $82 cable bill at my 2nd home. That's better than "free"!

Jan 22, 08 - 03:27 pm Comment from: effwerd

Are these the same test markets where they are testing their tiered bandwidth scheme?

Jan 22, 08 - 04:17 pm Comment from: TowerTone

"Are these the same test markets where they are testing their tiered bandwidth scheme?"

No, that's down in Texas, where they don't care if people bitch.

HBO rentals...who would have thought? I told my employers 5 years ago that we would eventually become a utility, offering only a pipe of bandwidth to the home.

FIOS will determine who owns a municipality. Once that is done, the cost to overbuild will be too much. Some may be bought out by the town itself and then have hired companies like Comcast to just manage it.

We will go through a period of tiered pricing as cell service did until it becomes standardized enough (equipment, methods of delivery) to offer unlimited download as now, with up to 100MBPS down and maybe 5MBPS up for video conferencing and other features.

Wi-Max will offer some competition to this, until it is married to become a method of complete coverage for Joe Homeowner to be able to always be connected. Big time.

This is the market the Air and iPhone ll will thrive in.

Wisconsin people are tightwads. So, its clearly a test market.

Jan 22, 08 - 05:06 pm Comment from: effwerd

No, that's down in Texas, where they don't care if people bitch.

Ah, that makes sense, actually. Keep the two schemes separate so no one notices that they're setting everyone up for a major bilking.

Jan 22, 08 - 05:09 pm Comment from: Brau

The problem for Apple is: If you already own a set top box (as many do) and can download your movies from there, plus download them to your PC, then why would you go to iTunes or pay extra for an AppleTV? In 2009 (the switch to digital broadcast only) it will only get worse as everyone will be forced to buy a set top box just to continue receiving their TV signals. That's a huge market opportunity to sell to folks who won't have AppleTVs.

Jan 22, 08 - 05:38 pm Comment from: TowerTone

"it will only get worse as everyone will be forced to buy a set top box just to continue receiving their TV signals"

No. Just people who receive over the air signals and don't have a TV made in the past couple of years.

If you have cable or satellite, you won't need a box, other than the one you currently use. I believe it is until 2012 that cable systems have to offer analog signals OR offer a converter box.

Also, you are eligible for vouchers from Uncle Sam to offset the cost.

It seems everyone is missing one fine point, it requires MS DRM to operate. That means we Mac users are left out, again.

Jan 22, 08 - 08:09 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Penelope Pickles,

That doesn't sound kosher to me.

@LorD1776

Sorry, the Reuters article explains the need for XP with a Mac version in the works. Every company that signs up for MS DRM says the same thing 'a Mac version is planned in the future'. Think about the BBC iPlayer and you get the idea.

Sorry, forgot link:

Reuters Article

Jan 22, 08 - 09:03 pm Comment from: Hm...

Interesting that Time-Warner via HBO is trying this high bandwidth eating "free" service when they've also announced "test marketing" a capped service where customers have to pay extra for exceeding the bandwidth limit. Talk about greedy...

Jan 22, 08 - 09:17 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Penelope,

Uh, that was my sad excuse for humor.

Kosher? Pickles? Sorry about that.

MDN is free.

Let's see, annoying ads in my face and several blocked pop-ups. How do you put a price on that? Let's say a $2 annoyance fee.

Broadband, $30 a month.

Hey, $30 + $2 = $32. So, the "free" MDN only costs viewers $32 per month.

Isn't stupid logic fun?