Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"If you want to watch Web-enabled video on your television, you could buy a number of gadgets that will hook up directly to your TV set. But most of these contraptions offer only a narrow hallway of content and don't allow full access to the Internet or a Web browser. Now Warpia offers a device that plugs directly into a laptop and lets you stream everything from the computer wirelessly to a television or computer monitor."

I'm not sure what to make of this streaming device from Warpia. Considering it does the same job as plugging a laptop in to the TV via a cable, I just can't see a need for it. If anything it just adds more complexity to a home setup that you could really do without. From a corporate view I can see this being used for presentations and demo's but not in the home. What do you think? Is this something you could use at home?

"Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, and Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment & Devices Division, deliver the pre-show keynote address in Las Vegas to kick off the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Coverage begins on Jan. 6, 2010, at approximately 6:30 p.m. PST with the live, streaming keynote. The Microsoft 2010 CES Newsroom will be updated throughout CES with the latest news, videos, photos and press information from Microsoft and its partners."

CES is here! Tune in to the live webcast at 6:30 PM (PST) today (world times listed below) as Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach talk the latest and greatest in Windows 7, Office, Windows Live, Windows Mobile, Xbox, Zune, and other consumer technologies. But if you'd rather digest it all in one hit, keep your eyes peeled for our post-keynote report.

• Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle: Wednesday, 6:30 PM
• Chicago, Houston: Wednesday, 8:30 PM
• New York, Washington, DC: Wednesday, 9:30 PM
• London: Thursday, 2:30 AM
• Paris, Berlin: Thursday, 3:30 AM
• Moscow: Thursday, 5:30 AM
• Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Perth: Thursday, 10:30 AM
• Tokyo: Thursday, 11:30 AM
• Sydney, Melbourne: Thursday, 1:30 PM
• Auckland: Thursday, 3:30 PM

"Blockbuster Inc. caught up to the competition last week by introducing a set-top box that brings rentals from the Internet to the television. Now, the Dallas-based company hopes to pass the pack by teaming with Microsoft Corp. on new mobile services that will let customers watch even more movies on more devices. "Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen," said Keith Morrow, Blockbuster's chief information officer."

Blockbuster news continues to trickle out. Last week Blockbuster announced a new set-top box and over the weekend it was announced they would eventually support downloading to some Blu-Ray players. Today, the news broke that they are teaming with Microsoft to deliver a new set of mobile services, in part based on LiveMesh. Details are sketchy and this is more of a directional announcement than an product announcement. However, it sounds like Blockbuster is seriously considering how to better compete in this new media environment.

Now if they can just do something about the paltry size of their Blockbuster OnDemand library...