RCA PVR Will Use Free Guide+ Program Guide

"RCA has announced (among other CES goodies) a PVR/DVD player for this year that uses the free GUIDE Plus+ program guide rather than requiring an oncoming program guide contract. Once we bring the price down (yes, I work there) I may break down and get one, as I don't like the program guide fee required on current PVRs. (This may be the first no-program guide-fee commercial PVR.)" [Slashdot]

Now this would be a big step forward into the mainstream for DVRs - no monthly fee!

TiVo Is God's Machine

"FCC chairman Michael Powell discovered what everybody who owns a TiVo already knows, which is that it's God's machine. He received a TiVo for Christmas and seems to be a rapid convert. Hopefully FCC rulings will reflect how nice it is for consumers to be able to watch programs at a time of their own choosing." [rc3.org Daily]

Whoo-hoo! Excellent move on someone's part. Why haven't we thought of this before? Give every legislator a DVR and watch them fall over themselves to switch sides in the copyright debate! Brilliant!

From the article, since it's on Yahoo News and will disappear in a week:

" 'My favorite product that I got for Christmas is TiVo,' FCC chairman Michael Powell said during a question and answer session at the International Consumer Electronics Show. 'TiVo is God's machine....'

Powell said he intended to use the TiVo machine to record TV shows to play on other television sets in his home, and even suggested that he might share recordings with his sister if she were to miss a favorite show.

'I'd like to move it to other TVs,' he said of his digitally recorded programming. A number of products already allow that."