Gallop Services Blog

Xbox 360 NXE Streaming Netflix: First Impressions

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:42:50 +0000

The XBox 360 “New Xbox Experience” launched today, providing a slew of new features and improvements to the console’s user interface. As a Netflix (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:NFLX) subscriber, I was particularly interested in the newly added ability to stream any of Netflix’s 12,000 online titles to my HD-TV. I gave it a shot, and here is what transpired.

First, the update is wonderfully quick and painless; the XBox automatically prompts me for an update when I turn it on and it takes less than 5 minutes to download and install. Good start. That done, I get to sit through a short but well done CGI sequence and then select a 3D avatar. I didn’t spend too much time there but you can customize the avatar quite a bit. Once at the welcome screen, I intuitively go to Video Marketplace, and there is the Netflix tab. Great. I select it and it tells me that I need to upgrade to a Gold membership (more on this later). No surprise there; I am ready to upgrade. This is where I ran into some small hurdles.

First, instead of allowing me to upgrade then and there, it tells me to go to their website (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/netflix/default.htm). That’s a bit annoying, but no problem. I go there, follow the “Upgrade to Xbox LIVE Gold” link and what do you know? I get forwarded to a page saying the requested page cannot be found and giving me a search box asking “Looking for something at Xbox.com?” Why yes, I’m looking to give you some of my money! Help!

I proceed to try to sign up for Gold through other links on their web site, but I find their site too complicated to navigate to a membership upgrade and decide to instead try doing this again through the console itself. I have better luck there, but have to drill down a bit. Go to My Xbox > (your gamer name) > manage account > memberships > Xbox Live Silver Membership > Modify Membership, and there you can upgrade to Gold pretty easily. Now why couldn’t they just give that right from the start? You can sign up for $7.99 for 1 month, $19.99 for 3 months or $49.99 for 12 months. I signed up for 1 month, and after a reboot, I’m good to go.

So I go back to the Netflix tab on the Xbox, hoping to browse their huge selection and find something to watch while eating breakfast, but alas! You need to add your movies through the Netflix web site. You cannot browse for titles on the Xbox itself. This may not seem like that big a deal, but remember the first iteration of the Apple TV? It didn’t do well, and Apple attributed that failure in part to the fact that you still needed to use your computer to make it work, while consumers want to be able to do everything straight from their TV.

Now on to the (very) positive part of this review. After adding the show to my instant queue, I go back to my Xbox and select it. The Xbox detects my connection speed (I’m on Comcast cable) and decides to show it to me in HD. Sweet! And it looks great. Really great. The video and sound quality are impeccable, the controls easy to use and intuitive. When you add a show, it has the good sense to add the whole season at once, and you can select any episode that you want at any time.

Now as I mentioned, this does require a Gold membership. If you’re using the lowest Netflix plan that allows unlimited streaming ($8.99 / month), the upgrade almost doubles your monthly fee. Also, I tried to cancel my Gold plan a few months ago to save money after I stopped playing videogames, and let me tell you, it takes work. You can’t do it online; you have to call Microsoft, and I’m sure you know what it’s like to call the support line of a big corporation, especially when it’s to downgrade your membership…

But is it worth the money? Absolutely, in my opinion. The sheer amount of quality content available is just amazing. If you subscribe to Live Gold for 12 months and select the cheapest Netflix plan, you’re looking at 12,000 titles for a little over $13 a month. I just don’t see how you can get a bigger bang for your buck. Once you’re past the small initial hurdles, you’re in for many hours, days and months of quality entertainment at an affordable price.

Global Education Through Technology: You Can Help

Phil Hagen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:24:43 +0000

Sometimes we in the United States overlook the “big picture” in terms of technology. To us, it’s frustrating when the Internet service is out and we can’t catch up on email, Facebook, or our favorite iTunes music and TV shows. To many in the world, having the extensive connectivity we often take for granted is a distant goal - one they may not ever live to see.

What many of us also overlook is that the Internet provides an educational conduit, enabling access to countless volumes of information. This access is be available to all users, regardless of social status or geographic location. One of the reasons we founded Gallop is contained in our mission statement: “We believe that the world should be interconnected to facilitate communication and exchange.” Clearly, the pervasiveness of the Internet and the services it provides have revolutionized our way of life, business, and education. Ensuring access to that information is a tremendous challenge.

For the nearly two billion children living in developing nations around the world, improvements in bandwidth and availability of Internet access, Internet-based applications, and software don’t mean anything if they don’t have ready access to the Internet itself. One major hurdle to worldwide communication has been the lack of reliable, affordable, and resilient hardware needed to access the Internet. This could jump-start their education through increased availability of information.

Arguably, the largest effort to combat this part of the problem has been an organization called “One Laptop Per Child“, or OLPC. OLPC’s mission statement is “To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.” OLPC has created the “XO” laptop computer, successfully deploying over 500,000 laptops in 31 countries, including Mongolia, Ghana, Colombia, and even the USA. Beyond just the laptop, OLPC assists with deploying School Servers and mesh networks that provide the Internet connectivity itself.

So how do we get involved to help put a dent in the global education crisis? Of course, there are a number of ways. Monetary or material donations to charities and other organizations are noble and worthy causes, and those that can should not shy away from such participation. Sometimes, however, these options lack the “community” movement that unites participants in confronting such a global issue.

Today, Amazon.com announced a novel partnership with OLPC. Consumers can buy one XO laptop to donate to a child somewhere in the world, and they can then purchase one for themselves. This is the second iteration of the “Give One, Get One” (G1G1) campaign. Last year, over 160,000 laptops were purchased, and this year, even that admirable milestone should be surpassed.

I personally will be purchasing a G1G1 pair, with one going to my daughter as a holiday gift, and the other being donated per OLPC’s needs. (Fortunately, she doesn’t read many blogs at her age, so the surprise should stay intact…) Those interested in participating in the “traditional” sense can also choose to purchase as many laptops as they want to be distributed to children in need.

You may not want to contribute to the project through the G1G1 program, but please consider contributing to OLPC in any way you can. Whether though direct donation, education and awareness, or volunteering to help with the program, the education of the world’s children is a truly worthy cause that will benfit our increasingly global society for years to come.

Video Game Sales Strong Despite Global Crisis

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:17:52 +0000

It shouldn’t be news that we are in the midst of one of the greatest financial crises of our time. News reports forecast nothing but economic gloom with record unemployment, market collapses and low consumer confidence. Oddy enough, though, the videogame industry is sticking out like a sore (or rather healthy) thumb. In fact, the NPD group, a global market research firm, has released a report stating that Video Game sales for the month of October 2008 were up 18% from October 2007.

The much-hyped Fable 2 has led sales with 790,000 games sold, followed by the Wii Fit Exercise Game. Little Big Planet, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Fallout 3 and Rock Band 2 were also among the top ten. It will be interesting to see the figures for November since some highly anticipated games are coming out this month, most notably Gears of War 2 and the second World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack.

Although it is at this point difficult to say what this means in relation to the larger economic crisis, or how it will affect shopping throughout the holiday season, it does speak volumes for the strength of the gaming industry. More, it begs the question of just how profitable the industry may become once consumers loosen up their wallets and indulge their inner gamers: if sales can be as high as $1.3B in one of the worst financial months in our history, imagine what it could be in a time of prosperity.

Gmail Video Chat First Impressions

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:15:00 +0000

Google launched video chat in Gmail yesterday in what is viewed by analysts as an effort to catch up to the competition in the web mail space, namely Microsoft Live Mail, Yahoo Mail, and of course Skype (Gallop Forum). So how is it? The Gallop staff tested it out today, and here are our first impressions.

First, although the video chat is launched right from the browser, you do need to install a client-side component. We were a bit disappointed by that. To download it, just select ‘Add voice/video chat’ from the ‘Video & more’ menu off any contact name in the Chat box. You will then be prompted to download an executable file for your computer. Shut down your browser, install the program, restart the browser and you should be video-enabled in Gmail.

I tried to start chats with a few people with varying degrees of success. Sometimes it connected easily, and other times I’d get an error message saying ‘There was an error with the call. Click here to upload an error log to Google.’

The video quality was okay, not quite as good as iChat or Skype, but definitely good enough just to chat The sound quality was fine. When I initially tried to start a videochat, I instinctively clicked the green video icon. Instead of starting the chat, it minimized the chat window, which I find pretty counterintuitive. As far as I can tell, there is no way to video conference multiple users.

All in all, I was a bit underwhelmed. I don’t see myself ditching iChat for this anytime soon, but then again, this is the first iteration of the service, and I’m sure Google will improve it over time.

YouTube To Stream MGM Full-Length Content

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:38:10 +0000

We published a story last month on various new developments with YouTube, including its plans to become a profitable business by leveraging a massive user-base. The string of proposed developments continues. Last week, CNet announced that YouTube is also soon to start streaming full-length feature films on its site through partnerships with various Hollywood studios.

New details were given yesterday, specifically that YouTube will enter into a partnership with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). YouTube will offer some of the studio’s content to its users, supported by ads. The lineup is a bit underwhelming with older material such as “American Gladiators”, “Bulletproof Monk,” and “The Magnificent Seven”. It is, however, an important step for YouTube, as it will need to create similar partnerships with many more studios. It will be all the more difficult given Google’s history of legal issues with Hollywood during the early days of YouTube when users would post copyrighted content left and right.

This move was keenly anticipated. You can expect fierce competition between YouTube and Hulu (Gallop Forum) in the months and years to come that will no doubt be covered in-depth by the digital media. As we pointed out previously, it is worth mentioning that while Hulu has a significant headstart in terms of both content and revenue generation, YouTube does have the enormous advantage of its 80 million monthly visitors. The good news for consumers is that no matter what happens in this stand-off, we can expect more and more publicly available free content, though it will be sprinkled with ads.

Broadband as a National Issue

Tristan Morel L'Horset — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 23:55:56 +0000

In a previous post about the commodization of broadband, we discussed the ever-increasing availability of Internet connectivity and its importance to the globalization of communication services. Recent reports, however, indicate that the U.S. is lagging with respect to the penetration of broadband. Compared to other countries, America ranks just 19th in broadband penetration worldwide. Although this is certainly in part due to the large size of this country, lack of availability of appropriate connectivity impacts the behavior of consumers who now consider broadband a key criterion when buying property.

This issue has become so important that president-elect Barack Obama has outlined his intention to deploy a modern communications infrastructure. Under the umbrella of his plan for technology, his policy states: ”As a country, we have ensured that every American has access to telephone service and electricity, regardless of economic status, and Obama will do likewise for broadband Internet access.”

Obama plans to reach that projection by using the Universal Service Fund, improving our use of the nation’s wireless spectrum, and bringing about new tax and loan incentives. To accomplish these and other goals, he intends to appoint a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the White House who will oversee these efforts. Several candidates are already being considered for the post.

The rise of broadband and technology as national issues is certainly needed in order to maintain our competitiveness across the globe and ensure our continued ability lead the world by connecting people through affordable and reliable services. We at Gallop view the appointment of a “National CTO” as a positive change that will elevate broadband availability to a national-level discussion. This will have a positive impact on consumers at home and abroad and will ultimately improve both our competitiveness and globalization.

AT&T Expands Wireless Footprint, Hints At iPhone Tethering

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:19:05 +0000

Between the FCC approving the use of the so-called ‘White Spaces’ and Cox Communications (Gallop Forum) getting into the wireless game, it seems that the communications industry is betting big on the future development of the wi-fi market.

AT&T ( Gallop Forum / NYSE:ATT) has certainly caught wind of this, as it announced yesterday its planned acquisition of hotspot provider Wayport for approximately $275 million. The news follows AT&T’s announcement last week that all iPhone customers could now enjoy free wi-fi access at a large number of locations throughout the country. I tested this out a couple days ago at Starbucks and it worked great. However, my MacBook was not so lucky, and I had to pay $4 to be connected for 2 hours.

Well, there may be hope for a solution soon. Ars Technica reports that AT&T will likely launch an iPhone “tethering” service soon. This would allow your laptop or even your home computer to connect to the internet through your phone and its Internet connection. Now, before you get too excited about this, it will likely not be a free service - the pricing has yet to be announced.

Is Verizon The Last Holdout?

Tristan Morel L'Horset — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:31:03 +0000

It would appear that AT&T ( Gallop Forum / NYSE:ATT) has decided to join most other cable providers in implementing monthly caps on internet usage. Starting in Reno and expanding to other places shortly thereafter, AT&T will place caps ranging from 20GB to 150GB, depending on the speed of the plan purchased. As with most providers, many customers using the internet for basic web and e-mail purposes will not be impacted. But those who may be using their connectivity to take advantage of the flurry of data available, whether they are streaming or downloading movies from Netflix (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:NFLX) or iTunes (Gallop Forum), using Vonage (Gallop Forum / NYSE:VG) or other VoIP phone providers, video conferencing, or online gaming, could hit their cap fairly easily.

As we have examined before, most cable and internet providers have begun implementing bandwidth caps on availability with the exception of Verizon (Gallop Forum / NYSE:VZ) which has said it does not plan to place limits. This standardization of how services are offered continues to show the trend towards commoditization of bandwidth, as well as the need for service providers to create or otherwise provide tools allowing whole-home bandwidth monitoring.

Cable TV: Adapt Or Wither

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:49:17 +0000

Compared to the slew of new media delivery solutions that have developed over the past few years like iTunes (Gallop Forum), Netflix (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:NFLX), Hulu (Gallop Forum) or Joost (Gallop Forum), Cable TV seems a bit like a dinosaur. Along with radio, it is one of the older content delivery services, and it shows.

Research group Parks Associates released a study in late October explaining that Cable TV has customer satisfaction issues compared to Satellite TV and IPTV providers. Although the details of the study are not publically available, my thought is that this is primarily due to a shift in how much control consumers expect to have on what they watch and when they watch it. The old, familiar model is that you need to tune in to the right channel at the right time. You arrange your schedule around the TV network schedules and hope you don’t get interrupted. What products like Tivo (Gallop Forum / NADSAQ:TIVO) and the Apple TV have introduced is the ability to make your own entertainment schedule.

The answer to this was Digital Cable, specifically Video On Demand (VOD) offerings which let you select movies, TV shows or documentaries out of a library of media that your subscription gives you access to. But there are still problems. First, VOD tends to have a more limited selection than the alternatives listed above. Second, the interface is often sluggish and poorly designed. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this offering still rides on a service that is very expensive: according to the FCC, cable prices have more than doubled over the last decade!

The main thing Cable TV has going for it is that it has a very large established consumer base, and old habits die hard. But Cable providers should probably realize, for their own good, that we are in the middle of the danger zone: a tough economic downturn that makes everyone try to save money. Once enough people realize the alternatives out there, Cable TV will need to make a choice: adapt or wither.

How To Monitor Your Monthly Bandwidth Usage

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:00:29 +0000

You may have been following the recent news regarding the broadband monthly usage caps that providers like Comcast (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:CMCSA) and Frontier Communications (Gallop Forum / NYSE:FTR) have been implementing. This article does not debate the relative merits of these policies but simply examines ways to monitor your usage. This way, you can avoid accidentally exceeding whatever cap you may be subject to. We’re going to take a look at how to do this, whether you only have one computer at home or several of them behind a router (the latter takes a bit of elbow grease).

Let’s take the simplest case, where all of your network traffic goes to only one computer. While I would expect that this constitutes a small minority of broadband users, if you are in this category then you are in luck: you can easily download (mostly free) software that will monitor how much network activity goes through your computer and let you report on it.

Here are some candidates if you’re a Windows user:

Netstat Live (free)
Networx (free)
Bandwidth Monitor ($19.95)

And if you’re a Mac user:

SurplusMeter (free)
Coconut (free)
NetMonitor ($12.00)

If you’re a Comcast customer, you are entitled to the McAfee Security Suite for free, which can also monitor your bandwidth, but this is a potentially more invasive solution that includes myriad other features in the package (an advertised $120 value). Some people see all the extras as a downside more than a perk, so it really comes down to your preference.

But what if you have more than one computer? You could put an instance of your monitoring software on each machine and manually compute the total, but there are obvious problems with that:

If you are not using a free program then it is possible that adding it to more computers will increase the cost
If some of the devices generating network traffic are not computers, it may be very difficult or impossible to install a monitoring software (for example an Apple TV, XBox or Roku)
Do you really want to be adding and managing all that data manually?

So until these providers give us an accurate meter, we must find another solution. Assuming that all of your devices are behind one central router (this is very likely), you may be in luck. What you need to do is replace the firmware of your router, which is the operating system (OS) the device runs on. In general, the firmware shipped with the routers has a lot of useful features around wireless security and common administrative tasks but typically does not include bandwidth monitoring. Luckily there are groups out there that are dedicated to building open-source firmwares for various popular routers. Once you take the time to modify your device with this software you will have access to a lot of extra functionality.

I successfully went through this exercise yesterday afternoon. To be fair, this was my second go at the project, following a failed attempt a couple of months ago when I bricked my old Linksys WRT54G trying to install new firmware. So be warned, there are risks involved in doing this! Also, check with your manufacturer, but most consider a firmware replacement to void the warranty. Follow this path at your own risk!!

I went with the dd-wrt firmware, which supports a wide variety of routers. Before you try to do anything though, make sure your device is supported. Please note that although your device may be in the table, it is not necessarily supported. If the note or the ‘min required DD-WRT version’ says ‘WIP’ (Work In Progress) and has a link, don’t go ahead and install the latest version available (this is how I got in trouble the first time). Read the contents of the links and see if the device is supported. Then carefully read the Installation Instructions and proceed with the upgrade. This can be intimidating but is well worth it.

Once dd-wrt is installed, it will start recording your bandwidth usage. You can go to Status > Wan > Traffic and see your traffic for each day and month, and then as you approach your monthly cap you can curb your data consumption.

If you want to look into another router firmware you can give Tomato a shot, which I’ve heard good things about but have not yet tried.

Netflix Distribution Empire Expands Again

Phil Hagen — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:23:59 +0000

In what has become a recurring theme, Tivo (Gallop Forum / NADSAQ:TIVO) announced that its customers will soon have full access to the “Watch Instantly” streaming feature from Netflix (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:NFLX). The move brings over 12,000 titles from Netflix’s streaming library into the homes of TiVo’s many customers.

The service will be available at no additional charge for those who already subscribe to both TiVo and Netflix services. While there is no mention of whether HD content will be included now or in the future, Netflix has already announced an HD streaming service, so it’s a safe assumption that TiVo users will soon have this feature as well. The TiVo hardware that will support Netflix - TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL - is all HD-capable.

Understandably, the press release focuses solely on the announcement of the partnership, but let’s take a brief look at the total footprint now served by the two companies:

TiVo owners can access the traditional content recorded from their cable TV or other video provider, and use streaming services from Amazon (Gallop Forum / NADSAQ:AMZN) Video-on-Demand (Unbox), and now Netflix (Watch Instantly).
Netflix customers can access the full library of over 100,000 DVD titles via the original by-mail model, and can stream a growing subset of that library by streaming to the Xbox 360, Roku set-top box, some Blu-ray players, home PC (and soon Mac), and TiVo units.

This development brings a number of benefits to consumers. Aside from expanding the menu of choices, increased competition will drive prices down and innovations up. For example, one factor in the development of this cooperative effort between Netflix and TiVo may be iTunes (Gallop Forum) growing customer base and wide availability of movies and TV content.

This convergence of media and products will only become more prevalent as broadband connections become as universally available as electricity and running water. Consumers will also appreciate that they don’t need to purchase a different piece of equipment for each entertainment service that they use.

Box.net Offers Easy Remote Storage

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:02:44 +0000

We’ve been talking a lot about data storage and the importance of having a comprehensive solution to protect your digital content (look at our Featured Article section for links to the excellent series by Phil Hagen). In the last article of the series, we focused on remote storage. Some of the mentioned options were JungleDisk, Carbonite, iDrive and Dropbox.

Today we’re going to focus on another alternative, box.net. Box stores your data in the cloud and makes it accessible from anywhere. It advertises network security (256 bit SSL encryption), data security and a privacy policy. In addition to the core service, Box also comes with additional features such as file sharing and collaboration, version history, and the ability to use third party services such as Zoho to edit your files directly in the browser. Since it offers an open platform for developers to use, the list of its available services is bound to grow.

The pricing and space ranges from 1GB for free to 15GB for $19.95. There is also an offering for enterprises at $15 per user with additional customization options. You can look at this page for more information on the various plans. To make it easier to access your data from anywhere, Box has a mobile specific page at m.box.net and now also offers a free native iPhone application, a huge selling point for me.

Although there were a few turn-offs about this service such as the file-size limits (25MB to 1GB depending on your plan), Box offers a simple and easy solution to your remote storage needs.

COX to Enter the Wireless Market

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:34:52 +0000

Cable company Cox Communications (Gallop Forum) announced today that it plans to have its own wireless network operational in 2009. Cox had previously shown interest in the market by investing more than $500 million in wireless licenses from the FCC. According to an article published by the Associated Press, the licenses that Cox purchased will allow them to provide coverage in Atlanta, New Orleans, San Diego, Omaha (Nebraska), Las Vegas, and much of Kansas and southern New Mexico. Roaming coverage would be provided outside those areas by Sprint.

With this move, Cox hopes to provide content to its customers across multiple platforms. The idea would be that you’d be able to use your cell phone to watch the TV stations that you’ve subscribed to in your cable plan, access saved content, or program your DVR remotely. Basically, it would allow you to take your content with you without the hassle of syncing your devices. You can think of it as a content cloud accessible anywhere.

Cox is well positioned to achieve this, with a strong fiber footprint in the areas it plans to service as well as previous experience with cellular technology development since it previously built an operated a cell network in Las Vegas and Southern California in the 1990s that was later sold to Sprint ( Gallop Forum / NYSE:S). We will definitely be monitoring their progress throughout this endeavour.

Netflix Streaming Coming to Samsung Blu-ray Players

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:15:34 +0000

As we’ve previously discussed, Netflix (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:NFLX) has been investing a lot of time and money into its online streaming offering. In a further development, it announced yesterday a partnership with Samsung to include its streaming service in the electronic giant’s Blu-ray disc players. Netflix currently has 12,000 movies and TV episodes available in its online library. The Samsung models that will include this feature are the BD-P2500 and BD-P2550, both in the $400-$500 price range. If you already own one, you will be eligible for a free firmware upgrade to your player. The partners stated that they intend to expand this offering to a wider selection of Samsung products.

If our article on internet radio piqued your interest, you will be happy to know that the BP-P2550 can also play content from Pandora after you’ve upgraded the firmware. This is in line with the trend we observed that the boundaries of content delivery products are eroding. Your existing hardware is becoming increasingly versatile and the dollars you put into entertainment subscriptions are going farther.

Comcast Announces 50Mbps ‘Wideband’ Service

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:10:28 +0000

Comcast (Gallop Forum / NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced yesterday that it is rolling out two new tiers of high-speed internet that they are calling ‘wideband’ (as an upgrade to ‘broadband’). The services will be available in the next few weeks in areas of New England, Southern New Hampshire, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnestota. Comcast plans to expand the offering to other regions in the upcoming months.

The two new tiers are ‘Ultra,’ offering 22Mbps downstream and 5Mbps upstream for $62.95/month, and ‘Extreme 50′, with 50Mbps down / 10Mbps up for $135.95/month. Keep in mind Comcast’s fine print on all of its Internet offerings: “Many factors affect speed. Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed.” Also, keep in mind that these prices require subscription to Comcast Cable service.

In addition to the two new tiers, existing Performance and Performance Plus tier customers will have their speed upgraded to 12 and 16Mbps downstream, respectively, at no additional cost. It is unclear whether this will go into effect when wideband is rolled out in those specific regions or sometime sooner. Upstream will remain at 2Mbps for these customers.

For businesses customers, Comcast is rolling out a Deluxe (50Mbps/10Mbps) tier for $189.95/month, which includes extra features and support, as well as new Premium tier with 22Mbps/5Mbps for $99.95/month. Existing business customers are also getting their speeds upgraded at no additional cost to 12Mbps/2Mbps.

You can go to www.comcast.com/fastestfast to find out whether your area has these new services currently available. If not, you will get this very helpful message: “The new Comcast High-Speed Internet is on its way. Quickly. Give us your info and we’ll e-mail you as soon as it arrives.”

It is worth noting that Comcast still has a 250GB per month bandwidth cap and that they have not communicated any plans to increase that cap (or to create a new ‘wideband cap’). These faster speeds will make you hit that cap faster, and the penalty for the second offense is steep, with a year-long suspension of your account.

Lala.com Puts New Spin On Digital Music

Thibaud Morel L'Horset — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:51:28 +0000

Just when you though the music industry had seen it all, web service lala.com re-launched today with a new spin on digital music. This is the third iteration of Lala, which has been around since 2006. First, it was a CD-swapping service, then a free (ad supported) web-based music streaming service. This time around, Lala has come up with a cheap, ad-free way of exploring new music with different levels of ownership.

Here is how it works: you can listen to any song on the site for free once. Then, you can buy “web songs” for 10 cents each and stream them from the website whenever you want. If you then want a downloadable DRM-free version of the song (so you can play them on your iPods), you can get it for 79 cents more. This allows you to gradually explore new music in a space that is ad-free. In the current advertisement-overloaded web, this is a refreshing and welcome approach.

Lala makes it easy for you to discover new songs by adding to the mix social networking features that let you ‘follow’ other people and see what they listen to (you can see who is following you and block them if you are uncomfortable with the idea). You can also upload the music that you currently own into the Lala cloud by downloading their ‘Music Mover’ client. As it finds music that you own on your computer, it will automatically give you ownership of the songs on the web site so that you can now play them from any browser. If some of the MP3s that you have cannot be matched on Lala’s digital library, you can just upload them.

Essentially, lala.com is similar to an implementation of iTunes in the cloud that allows you to create a copy of your music in a remote location and to explore new music inexpensively. In addition to allowing you to access your music from any browser without any other client installed, this lets you easily backup your music remotely. As we’ve covered in our data backup series of articles, remote backup is an important component, and Lala could add an extra layer of security for you when you consider the persistence of your entertainment media.

Although lala.com is entering one of the most competitive markets out there today, it seems to be off to a solid start with over 6 million songs from all four major recording labels (Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI) and a well thought-out, comprehensive solution that does not involve bombarding you with brain-washing advertisement. Best of luck to them.