In telling my story my goal was to help save the American consumer millions of dollars, especially during this economic downturn.
When the nice people at AT&T lowered my bill, they did so only for six months.
Well now, my contract is getting ready to expire and after a couple of phone calls to AT&T, they don't seem to budging on price.
So, I have made the decision that if they don't negotiate with me, I am going to kill U-verse Voice and possible U-verse TV, and just keep the Internet service so I can get WiFi and use my big screen TV to watch.... YouTube and Hulu.
Don't get me wrong. I really like AT&T as a company and what they have managed to pull off and execute in bringing a really high quality and reliable service into my home.
But I'm not prepared to pay they price they want for the services they are offering.
I'd rather save my money, and either save it or do something with what would be about a $1,000 a year savings.
AT&T is getting cooler and hipper by the minute. Here's March Tweetness -- a tool that allows the March Madness audience to engage with each other and feed off the excitement and energy surrounding the games. March Tweetness alllows fans to find, follow and engage with the most exciting March Madness conversations happening in real-time. You can follow specific games, teams, players, fan groups.
boxee has just released a new version with the "App Box" (their version of the App Store), an RSS reader optimized for video feeds (including Hulu, Google Video, YouTube, and many others), and a long awaited auto-update feature. These features are included in boxee for Mac, AppleTV, and Windows (I was told that they will send out an update when Linux is available).
There is also an update with regards to our meetings with Hulu and their content providers below. Sadly, they weren't ready to work with them yet. When they are, they look forward to bringing a more robust version of the Hulu application back to boxee with their help.
boxee was started because there was an opportunity in the media center space for a product/company who put the user first, while respecting the rights of content owners. Over the past year and a half, they've listened to users, content owners, investors, working to create that platform. While I very happy with my traditional U-verse services, boxee expands its capabilities -- and to some degree illustrates a true disruption that big telecos and cable companies face.
Like many great product and technology breakthroughs, these guys did not come from an entertainment or cable background. The fact that it’s becoming easy to consume Internet video on a TV brings into question many of the industry’s business models that developed before the web. That’s part of the reason why Hulu asked to be removed from boxee. our meetings over the past week weren’t able to change that. but the people in the industry “get it”. they are users. they read the blogs. they talk with users. they are trying to adjust to a new reality, but they need time.
Users on the other hand, won’t wait. As seen over the past few weeks, users will take matters into their own hands to get the content they want. Witnessing this, the boxxee team decided to enable access to a user's favorite content using a new built-in RSS reader optimized for video. Like IE, Firefox, or Google reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo!, YouTube and feeds from many other websites. while it’s not as attractive or robust as our previous Hulu application, it will additionally support Hulu’s public RSS feeds.
The extended support for RSS is part of a new version of the boxee alpha (no update for Ubuntu, yet). it includes two new features that are still under development:
App Box - this is a first take at an application “store” that makes it easy for users to install new apps and plugins. there is also native support for 3rd party repositories, so you don’t have to rely on boxee as a gatekeeper for what goes into the official boxee app store. for example, you can add dir.boxeehq.com as a repository to get access to all the boxeehq.com apps.
auto update - long time in the making and really bad form on our part for not having it from the beginning. but better later than never. no need to check on Twitter or our blog to know that there is a new version. now you’ll be prompted to update boxee whenever there is a new release ready.
This is a bleeding-edge release. not for the faint of heart since it did not go through much testing. I was told that the company is on track to release a more stable update on March 24th.
Even with financial markets imploding, there is some good news out there.
I just learned that AT&T now has more than HD Channels in every market they are in when compared to the old school cable company.
With recent expansions to the U-verse TV HD lineup, customers can now enjoy ABC Family HD, Disney Channel HD, Disney XD HD, ESPNews HD and ESPNU HD as part of their existing HD service subscription, depending on their programming package. With the additions, U-verse TV offers 100 or more HD channels in every U-verse TV market. AT&T U-verse TV has two HD subscription options.
HD service is included with the U450 programming package and available for $10 a month with any other U-verse TV programming package. U-verse HD customers can get even more HD-exclusive channels with the HD Premium package for an additional $5 a month. All U-verse TV packages include HD-ready equipment, and most packages include an HD-ready Total Home DVR, which gives you the ability to record your HD programs from a single DVR and watch them on any connected TV.
For additional information on AT&T U-verse — or to find out if it’s available in your area — visit http://uverse.att.com. Customers can get more information about U-verse TV programming and television events by visiting http://uverse.att.com/uconnect.
And speaking of weather, the folks at AT&T U-verseSM TV now have a brighter TV forecast. AT&T Texas today announced the launch of Weather On Demand in San Antonio, (it's in other parts of the U.S. as well) that has a very cool, interactive feature powered by AccuWeather.com® that allows U-verse TV customers to find the weather information they want, in the city they want, at the time they want — all at the touch of a button. San Antonio U-verse TV customers can now enjoy the feature at no extra charge.
Customers can access AccuWeather.com information for their home city and any other U.S. city they specify on their “My Cities” list by tuning to Channel 227. Customers can then:
·View weather information for cities throughout the country that they select.
·View current local conditions, including high/low temperatures, humidity, wind, visibility and barometric pressure.
·Get local and nationwide forecasts, including hourly and six-day outlooks.
·Access animated local and national radar imagery and satellite views.
·Watch current videos of meteorologists presenting the local weather updates.
·Search and select cities by name, ZIP code or by looking at a U.S. map.
Weather On Demand is the latest addition to the constantly evolving suite of features that has been introduced to all U-verse TV customers since the AT&T U-verse launch in June 2006.
At no extra charge, U-verse TV customers can also enjoy several other integrated features, including Total Home DVR; the ability to program DVR recordings from your mobile phone or any Web-connected PC; personalized, on-screen weather, sports, traffic and stock information via AT&T U-bar; the ability to view personal photos on your TV that you have uploaded to flickr.com; and more.
For additional information on AT&T U-verse TV — or to find out if it’s available in your area — visit http://uverse.att.com or stop by the nearest retail location.
While AT&T offers a great Video on Demand solution, there is one thing missing to their service offering: when you view content on U-verse's Video on Demand, you don't get true HD.
Now, enters the XStreamHD solution that enables consumers to build unparalleled in-home entertainment networks and enjoy Premium HD content; including 1080p movies, lossless music, electronic games and HDTV anywhere in the home.
XStreamHD’s whole home HD entertainment solution includes the revolutionary XStreamHD Media Server that networks with multiple DLNA® compatible devices including the compact XStreamHD Media Receiver, TV, PC and game consoles.
Here's my interview with George Gonzales, XSTREAMHD's CEO....
I just saved almost 50% on my AT&T U-verse TV / Voice / and Internet service. No, they don't promote this. And no this is not a bail-out. And no, this is not part of Mr. Obama's promise of change.
You just have to call 800-288-2020 and ask for a discount by telling them you are thinking of switching to your local cable or satellite provider.
U-verse Voice went from $35 to $25 U-verse 400 went from $99 to $59 Yahoo Broadband Elite went from $30 to $10
My bill went from $164 to $94 per month by just asking.
Another tactic: if you're a guy, tell them you're wife thinks you watch too much TV and the family has to save money so AT&T's gotta go.
And if you're a gal, tell them your man done left you--- or just come up with a Jerry Springer like story saying that you gotta cut back on the household overhead.
I am in San Antonio and your market may vary, but press hard and you just might wind up with some pretty amazing savings. I did not cut back on services.
Note: the deal they offered was only for six months. I told them to note it on my record that I was going to call back in May to ask for the same thing again.
Tell them Alan from 3Screens sent you.
Share your story with me with comment on the blog or email: alan at weinkrantz dot com.
Over the past 6 months a small startup named boxee has been making big waves in the digital media space. The company makes downloadable software for your computer (Mac&Linux at the moment) that weaves personal media, streaming Internet content, and social networking with a visual interface that makes your media come to life.
Boxee is, if you will, sort of what I could call PBS – not Public Broadcasting Service, but rather the Peoples' Broadcasting Service. As you add friends to boxee, you can see what shows they're watching and exchange recommendations with each other. In this way, you have the opportunity to create a bottom up approach to video programming that includes most of the mainstream online TV sites like Hulu, CBS, theWB, and more. It's the people and not the broadcaster who decides what merits viewing in what is becoming and increasingly noisy and crowded marketplace for attention and viewership.
The best way to demonstrate the power, freedom and social community aspect of Boxee was to shoot the video that follows below. While the focus of my review remains on the video content portion, my review illustrates how to use boxee on an iPhone, a laptop and a big screen TV. You get a pretty cool way to enjoy moviews, TV shows, music, photos and streaming content from sites like Hulu, CBS, Comeday Central, Last.fm, Flickr, etc.
I'm just now starting to make new "friends" on boxee and listening to recommendations for programming that I can follow.
But Wait! There's More!
Today, the company will be announcing that Netflix subscriber can play, browse and queue Netflix 'Instant Watch' movies from within boxee. If they're away from home, they can queue movies from their computer or phone, and then watch them on the big screen when you get home. I was told that Netflix on AppleTV is not currently available as they are working to overcome the hardware limitations of the AppleTV. Check back with boxee's blog for progress on this initiative.. The boxee Netflix application was created using the embeddable Silverlight plug-in for Netflix, and they are now recognized as a Netflix affiliate.
Other announcements today include news services and channels such as:
New Content - TheWB - shows like Angel, Buffy, Firefly, The O.C., Smallville, and In Living Color - The Boston Globe's Big Picture blog - amazing photos from around the world - MTVMusic - songs/artists in your collection are now linked with music videos
Updated Content - Hulu - enhanced UI with access to personal queues from Hulu.com - YouTube - newly developed interface with improved browsing/playback as well as h264 support - CNN, Flickr, Picasa - custom interfaces with improved browsing and playback
All in all, a very cool approach to delivering a three screens experience.
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