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[telecom] From Comcast, TV as data center

From Comcast, TV as data center

Boston first up to get advanced set-top boxes

By Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff / May 22, 2012

A new service from cable television giant Comcast Corp. could turn the home TV into a home data center, tracking everything from business appointments to household security.

Comcast demonstrated the service, called Project Dayview, Monday during the opening day of The Cable Show 2012, the industry's biggest trade event.

"It's your own personal welcome screen," said Neil Smit, chief executive of Comcast Cable. "It's tying your entire life together."

At the Convention & Exhibition Center on Monday, Comcast also confirmed Boston would be the first US city to see full-scale deployment of X1, a new TV viewing system that uses an advanced set-top box to deliver Internet-based apps and social media services alongside traditional cable offerings. For instance, X1 includes a customized app for Facebook, so viewers can inform friends of their favorite shows by clicking the "like" icon.

The X1 service will allow users to control their viewing with software apps on an iPhone or iPad. The result is an interface far simpler and more powerful than a traditional remote control. For example, the app allows users to set up "quick links" to favorite types of programming, like comedy films. By touching an iPad or iPhone link, a list of relevant films instantly appears.

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***** Moderator's Note *****

This is a case of swatting a fly with a sledgehammer, or of making a memorial to Rube Goldberg, I'm not sure which. Using a phone to control a set-top box that controls a TV set is, IMNSHO, an extreme example of a solution in search of a problem.

Bill Horne Moderator

Reply to
Monty Solomon
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Now I get Comcast's "Xfinity" rebranding campaign -- they want to outdo George Gamow's "1, 2, 3, Infinity" and just do "from X1 to Xfinity" :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

..........

I can see a near future where criminals will make big money "kidnapping" (physically or electronically) people's devices and only returning them after a small ransom is paid.

The more people become dependant on one item, the more vulnerabilities open up in all sorts of areas.

Reply to
David Clayton

We already have this. It's called a PC with Internet service. Many viewers, including myself, have already taken to using it as a complete substitute for "television" in all its other forms.

The only remaining step is for the remaining content providers to figure out that they have more to gain by moving there than by continuing to pretend that their use of old equipment protects them against copyright infringement. (Or that their vertical semi-integration with cable and satellite TV companies can continue to keep them afloat.)

The music and talk shows I care most about, including Glenn Beck, have already made the move. Most of the rest of us have nothing to lose by following them.

Reply to
John David Galt

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