I'm in desperate need of a DVR, but I don't want to pay a monthly fee to use this. So that rules out Tivo and Time Warner. I haven't been able to find anything that pulgs directly into the TV without a subscription so I've been looking at ones for my computer. So far this is the best I've found. Is that a good one? Do you have one that you use or know of a good one? I wouldn't want to spend more than $75 on one. That one I found for $50 on another site, but it's better presented in the one I'm showing you. I already have software to record through Windows Media Center, so I really just need the adapter to plug my cable into. I like the USB style better, but wouldn't be opposed to installing something into my laptop if there is a noteable difference in quality or price.

Thanks.

pa href="http://flickr.com/photos/jdlasica/50185856/"img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/24/50185856_99b6867d40_m.jpg" align="right" border="0"/AJon Miller, former CEO of AOL and now one of the founders of VC firm Velocity along with Ross Levinsohn, is in the process of raising funds to try and buy Yahoo, a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122823988574372899.html" title="reports WSJ"reports WSJ/a, citing sources. The story says he has been trying to do it for months. Our sources say that WSJ might be reading too much into this: he and his partners at Velocity has been presenting to investors all across the globe, including a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_wealth_fund" title="sovereign investors"sovereign investors/a in Dubai, for raising a new fund for his VC firm. So I would not be surprised if the two things to confused along the way, and someone expressed interest in putting money into a Miller-backed consortium. /p p The story says that Miller believes he can do a deal that would be worth around $20 to $22 a share to Yahoo (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=YHOO" class="ticker" title="YHOO"NSDQ: YHOO/a) shareholders, which means raising about $28 billion to $30 billion to purchase the entire company. I a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-reliance-still-scouting-for-mobile-content-acquisitions-in-us-how-about" title="have said before"have said before/a that the Indian tech-media giant Reliance ADA should look at a Yahoo deal seriously, and it is likely Miller has had conversations with them, considering Velocity's India connections (it is an investor in NDTV there, among other companies). /p p All that said, Velocity itself has not yet been able to close its new fund, and considering the economic market and how funds worldwide, even sovereign ones, have suffered badly, it is unlikely any consortium could come together raise enough money to buy Yahoo, or even part of it. Our sources also says that both bMiller and Levinsohn have met Yahoo in the last few weeks/b, as part of the discussions for the search for a new CEO for Yahoo. /p p Miller almost got appointed to the Yahoo board earlier this year, when he was on an Icahn-backed slate of alternative board members...his nomination was nixed last minute due to a non-compete clause with AOL/Time Warner. /p p Meanwhile, Yahoo's stock is up about 11 percent right now, on this news... /p piSocial Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and MA deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. stronga href="http://www.paidcontent.org/reports/"Visit the ContentNext Reports page/a/strongi/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=s7aLCo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=s7aLCo" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=G4G8O"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=G4G8O" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=l1uBO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=l1uBO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=Zgmmo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=Zgmmo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=3KzjO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=3KzjO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=qBZNO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=qBZNO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/472724583" height="1" width="1"/

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc will likely sell fewer than expected video, Internet and phone subscriptions this year, and expects a further decline next year due to the worsening U.S. economy, Chief Financial Officer Rob Marcus said on Monday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=0wFBHDpg"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=Bo83kl1w"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=Bo83kl1w" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?a=WuHctqEz"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/reuters/technologyNews?i=WuHctqEz" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/reuters/technologyNews/~4/tCTfM6mrvZk" height="1" width="1"/

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=493465f5796c7a080064ad58maxX=215maxY=249" border="0" width="215" height="249" /"Tomb Raider," a game featuring the adventures of Indiana Jones-meets-Barbie figure Lara Croft, was once just about the hottest franchise in gaming. But Lara's appeal waned, and with it went the fortunes of game publisher SCi Entertainment (SEG.L), which has seen its value collapse 92 percent in a year, from about 600 million pounds (about $920 million American at today's rate) to 50 million pounds now./p pSo this unsourced report in the a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1090356/Tomb-Raider-create-SCi-takeover-talks-US-rival.html"Daily Mail/a makes sense to us -- SCi is in the middle of takeover talks, with Electrionic Arts (ERTS), French gaming company Ubisoft, and Time Warner (TWX) -- which already has a 16% stake in the company -- all named as possible players in a deal. But it's still worth taking such reports with a grain of salt -- SCi has been long been the subject of a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/tomb_raider_maker_rejects_buyout_bid"takeover rumors/a, none of which have come to fruition./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"A source familiar with matter said discussions are at an 'early- stage' and that SCi received approaches from two separate firms within the past few weeks./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"The first is understood to have come from America's Electronic Arts, the world's second biggest computer games company./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"It has always featured strongly in bid chatter that has surrounded SCi./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"But it faces competition for SCi from France's Ubisoft, which the source says has also made an approach./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"EA owns a 25 per cent stake in Ubisoft but they act independently./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Renewed interest in SCi has been sparked by the dramatic fall in value of the company./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"From a peak of 1billion at the height of the dotcom boom it is worth just 50million today./p pstrongSee Also:/strongbr /a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/tomb_raider_maker_rejects_buyout_bid"'Tomb Raider' Maker Rejects Buyout Bid/abr /a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/1/tomb_raider_game_shop_sci_on_the_ropes""Tomb Raider" Game Shop SCI On The Ropes/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/1wStgTBbVSsjsYkVX8tvAqDUPA0/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/1wStgTBbVSsjsYkVX8tvAqDUPA0/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=dzTMlYmy"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=dzTMlYmy" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=OnRddhRO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=n1ZOI1UQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=NVcbd7Wu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=NVcbd7Wu" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=wBmXV2It"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=tQcqeH2f"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xSaUmGTY"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=0I6YVAR0"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/eUy1SM9iHGA" height="1" width="1"/

Pretty much every tech source out there is reporting that the merger between Sprint’s XOHM WiMax service and Clearwire has been finalized with $3.2 Billion in funding coming from Google, Comcast, Intel, Time Warner and Bright House Networks. What a coincidence… Comcast has failed me miserably in the past week and today I purchased a XOHM Wireless USB connection.
This past Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I woke up early to write a couple articles for phandroid. A sigh of WTF billowed out as I could not connect to the internet. Repair network - nothing. Restart computer? nothing. Reset my modem, router and computer? Nada. Zilch. Zero.
So I call customer service and after 1 hour on the line? Nothing. Well that’s not completely true… they scheduled a technician to come out today (Monday) 5 days later. Luckily I have a few alternative places I can “stay” and access the Internet… so a trip it was!
I came back this morning to find that:

• My roomate rescheduled the appointment for Sunday
• They never came
• My roomate called and they rescheduled for Tuesday
• So that left me here, on Monday, without access to Internet. Sure, I could have packed my bags and headed to a little cafe with WiFi. Or I could even make an hour or so drive to one of the several friends/family who would take me in for the day/night so I could leech their interwebs. But I have a bunch of packages on the way and need to be home for the next several days to ensure they arrive.
  But beyond that, I was sick of the uncertainty. This could happen at any given time - Comcast could just POOF go out - and I could be left without a convenient internet connection for days on end. And no, there aren’t any other WiFi signals I can pick up from my house that aren’t painfully slow.
  I took a quick drive to BestBuy and grabbed a XOHM USB hub for $60, came home, installed the software, paid for 24 hours service for $5 and within 10 minutes I had a blazing fast connection to the internet. A blazing fast connection that for all intents ans purposes, can’t go down.
  
  I know I’m opening up the door to* all sorts of agruments in the comments, but I’m simplifying the facts. The point is, even if XOHM service WERE to go down it would get back up and running MUCH faster. Because they are more than likely fixing a tower rather than having to set up an individual schedule to fix my personal problem.
  Comcast is scheduled to come tomorrow between 7am and 10am at which point they’ll either fix the problem or diagnose the problem and schedule another ridiculous time several days into the future that they plan on fixing it. If the latter happens, I’ll probably tell them to take a hike and just start using XOHM full-time.
  
  XOHM packages are both unique and awesome, if you ask me. You can get 24 hour web access for $5 or a month of web access for $30. The best part? No contracts! Just pay by the month! I’m lucky to be in Baltimore where XOHM made its debut and I’m happy it did. XOHM was a lifesaver for me today and it will probably save me again tomorrow when Comcast shows their incompetence yet again. In fact, many people I know locally are switching their Internet/TV service to Verizon.
  And this is where the story comes full circle. Tomorrow, I might be leaving Comcast to use XOHM full time. But XOHM was part of Sprint and the service will be renamed Clear under the new company, Clearwire. The same Clearwire that was just approved for $3.2 Billion in financing… $1 Billion of which comes from Comcast.
  
  So is this a case of “The Grass Is Always Greener Between The Two Fences Which is Partially Owned By Numerous Neighbors?” You betchya… and that is the main problem that Clearwire will have if you ask me. There are many stakeholders in Clearwire that have priorities and interests pulling in different directions. If execs in these companies sit on the Clearwire board or hold prominent positions in the company, there will be a tremendous conflict of interest that could create huge problems.
  Myself, I’m sure along with many reading this article now, would love to see XOHM/WiMax/Clear used to conjunction with mobile devices, like an Android Phone, to support tremendous growth in mobile web speed and capabilities. Officials at Comcast and Time Warner likely have other ideas in mind. You can spin it however you want but the fact is that resources are never unlimited and at some point, decisions on how and where to use those resources must be made.
  If one were looking at this in the most optimistic of manners than the investment is an insurance policy purchased by the investors. They’ll have a stake in a possible industry juggernaut moving forward and regardless of how their own company performs, Clearwire will provide some balance and diversity depending on which direction the tech sector heads next… its often hard to tell.
  But lets not be naive. Do you think for a second that these huge companies with enormous power not only within their industry but within the world are just going to plop down hunderds of millions of dollars, pat Clearwire on the back and say, “go out and play?”
  Not a chance. They’re going to keep an eye on their investment and make sure the company is being managed properly. And what Comcast or Time Warner views as “properly” could differ greatly from what Google views as “properly”.
  That’s one way to look at it. The pessimistic way to look at it. But you could also look at Clearwire as more of a “meeting of the minds” where the best ideas and actions will be discussed by these various stakeholders and the CEO of Clearwire will attempt to do what is best for the company and its investors moving forward. Sound familiar?
  It reminded me a lot of what Barack Obama said today as he announced more members of his cabinet including Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State:“I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions,” he said.
  “I think that’s how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in group-think and everybody agrees with everything and there’s no discussion and there are no dissenting views. So I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House.”
  And if this Obamian perspective is to be believed, then Clearwire CEO Benjamin C. Wolff had better be prepared to be a strong, visionary leader.
  So as I sit here writing this article with my little XOHM USB plugged in, I am quite literally wondering if I am looking at my solution for today’s problem or if another industry powerhouse is being created before our eyes. Unfortunately, the answer is anything but Clear.
  [Via Clearwire PR]
  
  
  More...

p style="padding-left: 30px;"a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN0151494720081201?rpc=44"img class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=48567ec2796c7a0f00aece9fmaxX=372maxY=226" border="0" alt="bewkespauliewalnuts.jpg" title="bewkespauliewalnuts.jpg" width="372" height="226" /Reuters:/a Time Warner is asking its shareholders to vote for a reverse stock split, in a bid to boost its languishing market price and improve the shares' liquidity, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.span/spanspan/span/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"The media company, which owns cable news network CNN and movie studio Warner Bros among its media properties, is proposing the split after it separates from its Time Warner Cable Inc unit early in 2009./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"span/span/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"A special meeting of stockholders will be held on Jan. 16 at its New York headquarters. It said in a proxy filing that stockholders will be asked to vote on a reverse stock split in a ratio of either 1-for-2 or 1-for-3, as determined by the board./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"span/span/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Time Warner owns 84 percent of Time Warner Cable and its shareholders will receive a special one-time dividend of $10.9 billion when it separates from the cable unit./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"span/span/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"The media company said its board believes that following the separation, the market price and trading ranges for Time Warner stock may be significantly lower than the current market price due to the fact that Time Warner will have distributed all of its Time Warner Cable shares to Time Warner shareholders./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"span/span/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"The board said it believes that increasing Time Warner's absolute share price will make it a more liquid and marketable stock. It said some institutional investors and investment funds are prohibited from investing in lower-priced stocks./p pAnother benefit: The new stock price will be less embarrassing./p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/P0ZOQZkfQj72oCqEfsMG79f-n00/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/P0ZOQZkfQj72oCqEfsMG79f-n00/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=v8cd0iiC"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=v8cd0iiC" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=oeCFweQa"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=gfYZPeVG"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=tXPtVUo8"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=tXPtVUo8" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=rIbUJW8e"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=dIF4KHee"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=xOxSUoaR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=pipBivyP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/H4aLj0H8MxQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/12/voltron_wimax.jpg" width="494" height="496" /The Sprint/Clearwire joint WiMax venture a href="http://gizmodo.com/388132/wimax-just-might-make-it-sprints-wimax-and-clearwire-officially-merge"announced back in July/a is a href="http://investors.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=198722p=irol-newsArticleID=1231015highlight="a done deal/a, as is the $3.2 billion investmenta href="http://gizmodo.com/387852/wimax-joint-venture-sprint-clearwire-comcast-and-time-warner-with--from-google-and-intel-maybe-announced-tomorrow"from Intel, Google and others/a. The WiMax network will branded Clear, replacing the stupid Xohm moniker./p pInitially, the network will deliver an average of 2-4Mbps downstream, with the first devices outside of laptops and USB modems arriving in the middle of next yearmdash;stuff like mobile internet devices and MP3 players. Another interesting tidbit: Clearwire is building the Clear network with equipment that can be used for LTE, meaning they can upgrade to it if they have to. And the way things are going for LTEmdash;emeveryone/em is on board with it as the pick for 4Gmdash;that's a pretty smart move. [a href="http://investors.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=198722p=irol-newsArticleID=1231015highlight="Clearwire/a via A href="http://gigaom.com/2008/12/01/despite-downturn-clearwire-gets-xohm-and-32-billion/"GigaOM/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=38a5d71f95ad147a5c5e250248f7dcc3p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=38a5d71f95ad147a5c5e250248f7dcc3p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=38a5d71f95ad147a5c5e250248f7dcc3" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=rpz58gF4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=RQXIz8BY"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=61CBqIdv"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=61CBqIdv" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=WqfhEY8D"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=WqfhEY8D" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/9kfMDFMC1sg" height="1" width="1"/

centerimg border=0 title="Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal" alt="Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal" src="http://www.uberphones.com/photos/2008/12/clearxohm.jpg" style="margin: 0 0 0 0;" //center br/pClearwire Corporation and Sprint Nextel have announced that they have completed the deal to merge their next-generation wireless Internet businesses. Sprint will contribute all of its 2.5GHz spectrum and its WiMAX-related assets, which includes its XOHM business. Clearwire has also received a whopping $3.2 billion cash investment from giants such as Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. The transaction was completed based on the terms that were originally announced on May 7th 2008. The new company will retain the name Clearwire, and its headquarters will still be in Kirkland, Washington. /p pPermalink: a href="http://www.uberphones.com/2008/12/sprint_and_clearwire_complete_wimax_deal/"Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal/a from a href="http://www.uberphones.com"Uberphones/a | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a | Hot: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/11/blackberry_storm_review.html"BlackBerry Storm/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/354Lx2gk2obHjtYKwP8D2err2CQ/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/354Lx2gk2obHjtYKwP8D2err2CQ/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

centerimg border=0 title="Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal" alt="Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal" src="http://www.uberphones.com/photos/2008/12/clearxohm.jpg" style="margin: 0 0 0 0;" //center br/pClearwire Corporation and Sprint Nextel have announced that they have completed the deal to merge their next-generation wireless Internet businesses. Sprint will contribute all of its 2.5GHz spectrum and its WiMAX-related assets, which includes its XOHM business. Clearwire has also received a whopping $3.2 billion cash investment from giants such as Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. The transaction was completed based on the terms that were originally announced on May 7th 2008. The new company will retain the name Clearwire, and its headquarters will still be in Kirkland, Washington. /p pPermalink: a href="http://www.uberphones.com/2008/12/others/sprint_and_clearwire_complete_wimax_deal/"Sprint And Clearwire Complete WiMAX Deal/a from a href="http://www.uberphones.com"Uberphones/a | a href="http://www.uberbargain.com/"Good deals/a | Hot: a href="http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/11/blackberry_storm_review.html"BlackBerry Storm/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/lg0g6AKF4l2sht9H1B1eoaazrn8/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/lg0g6AKF4l2sht9H1B1eoaazrn8/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc plans to offer limited wireless services in late 2009 or early 2010 using the WiMax high-speed wireless network that Clearwire Corp is building, the cable company's finance chief said on Monday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?a=OuWyi4Gk"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?a=SsH2Ikbx"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?i=SsH2Ikbx" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?a=LEctdUCW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/Reuters/InternetNews?i=LEctdUCW" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Reuters/InternetNews/~4/KvEiBg-XkhE" height="1" width="1"/

Poor Beaumont. The tiny Texas town gained fame in the technology world when Time Warner Cable said in January that it would use it as a testbed for its tiered broadband trial. Then Hurricane Ike hit in September. And right before Thanksgiving, AT&T told the local paper it would start trialing its own brand of tiered broadband service there. When I ask AT&T why it would pick on Beaumont, a spokesman told me via email that, “While we are aware of Time Warner’s local trial in Beaumont, our decision was based on Beaumont’s good representation of many of our other markets.”

Perhaps, but it’s also a classic example of why we need competition in the broadband arena. Beaumont is a small market and as such, doesn’t offer a lot of choice when it comes to broadband providers — making it easy for the dominant players to implement anti-consumer initiatives such as overage fees and tiered plans. AT&T will charge its Beaumont customers $1 for every gigabyte over 150 GB per month, while Time Warner Cable has a set of plans that allow users to download between 5 GB and 40 GB per month before facing overage charges. The FCC is attempting to bridge the broadband gap by encouraging new wireless technology, but I’m not sure those networks will be robust enough for the home, which will require fast speeds and the ability to stream video content. That means the digital divide will continue to exist even as companies and the government attempt to eliminate it.

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=47b5adec4b5437ee00eb9182maxX=161maxY=64" border="0" alt="xohm-logo.jpg" title="xohm-logo.jpg" width="161" height="64" /Clearwire's (CLWRD) newly formed wireless joint venture with Sprint Nextel (S) has already made one smart move, a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE4B04KM20081201?feedType=RSSfeedName=technologyNews"Reuters reports/a: It's dumping the "Xohm" name that Sprint tried using for its WiMax Internet service./p pWhy? Because Clearwire's "Clear" brand sounds a lot less silly. And unlike Xohm, it already has some traction. Per Google (GOOG) Trends:/p pimg src="http://static.10gen.com/www.alleyinsider.com/~~/f?id=493416b2796c7ab500f46efa" border="0" alt="clearwire-xohm.gif" title="clearwire-xohm.gif" width="591" height="294" //p pClearwire closed its $14.5 billion deal with Sprint last Friday. Other investors include Intel (INTC), Comcast (CMCSA), Google (GOOG), and Time Warner Cable (TWC)./p pClearwire shares are up 2.9% today to $7.20./p pstrongSee Also:/strongbr /a href="../../2008/11/sprint-loses-a-key-executive"Sprint Loses A Key Executive/abr /a href="../../2008/11/sprint-nextel-winning-the-mobile-internet-war-s-"Sprint Nextel Still Winning The Mobile Internet Wars/abr /a href="../../2008/11/new-wireless-deals-tech-to-shake-up-industry"New Wireless Deals, Tech To Shake Up Industry... Maybe, Someday/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0sGHeBdSB4l3nSfh-dYxqmli6WI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0sGHeBdSB4l3nSfh-dYxqmli6WI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=tX5pE5xe"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=tX5pE5xe" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=X9vPgoXm"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=QipvBTs5"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=SlLERejh"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=SlLERejh" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=1uf2d4cF"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=dW2PmVdc"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=TkHm4kBg"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=fyn8FfD0"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/IDMZg6vnaCI" height="1" width="1"/

pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=486b8404796c7aa8003a1b3amaxX=320maxY=231" border="0" alt="blockbusterstore.jpg" title="blockbusterstore.jpg" width="320" height="231" /Like rival Netflix, Blockbuster (BBI) is hoping to build its a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/blockbuster-web-movie-rental-box"new streaming service/a into as many living room gadgets as possible. Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes, a href="http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Elbowing-Into-the-Set-Top-Scene-Q-and-A-With-Blockbuster-CEO-Jim-Keyes-65310.html"via E-Commerce Times/a, a href="http://newteevee.com/2008/12/01/blockbuster-vod-going-to-blu-ray-players/"via NewTeeVee/a:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"We'll be able to put the same capability into a Blu-ray player. We'll go into DVRs (digital video recorders), game consoles, etc., just as others are doing to make the same capability available through other devices./p pSmart (if obvious) strategy, but Blockbuster is about a year behind Netflix (NFLX), which already has deals to build its streaming service into Samsung and LG Blu-ray players, Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox 360s, Roku Web video set-top boxes, and TiVo (TIVO) DVRs./p pThe good news: This game is far from over, and as far as we know, none of Netflix's deals are exclusive./p pThe bad news: a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/netflix-ceo-cable-cos-not-very-excited-about-netflix-streaming-nflx-"Neither company is close/a to getting its rental service on the set-top boxes a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/why-video-on-demand-is-still-cable-s-game-to-lose"where they'd make the most impact/a -- the ones you rent from cable companies like Comcast (CMCSA) or Time Warner Cable (TWC)./p pstrongSee Also:/strongbr /a href="../../2008/11/blockbuster-web-movie-rental-box"Blockbuster's Web Movie Rental Box: Good Deal, Lots Of Competition/abr /a href="../../2008/11/netflix-ceo-cable-cos-not-very-excited-about-netflix-streaming-nflx-"Netflix CEO: Cable Cos Not 'Very Excited' About Netflix Streaming/abr /a href="../../2008/9/why-video-on-demand-is-still-cable-s-game-to-lose"Why Video On Demand Is Still Cable's Game To Lose/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NLLFo6OlvoH3x7xobw25m2NCjWM/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/NLLFo6OlvoH3x7xobw25m2NCjWM/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=kbNyn3cP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=kbNyn3cP" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=2YOD5jCT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=TVEA1kpp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=vQ2sDKfb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=vQ2sDKfb" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=CKYyy4Lb"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=72A7QiR2"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=ZqwIMNAs"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=vGHzHcYP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/gtJrzT44ctg" height="1" width="1"/

Clearwire said today that it has closed several transactions that will allow it to build out a nationwide WiMAX network, including gaining control of Sprint’s Xohm network and a $3.2 billion investment from several large companies. These deals were announced in May, and despite the downturn that has pummeled stocks since then, the terms of the deal have not changed. The new nationwide WiMAX service will be branded Clear.

Clearwire received the $3.2 billion investment from Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks. The cable providers will also resell the WiMAX service, even hinting that they will integrate wireless into some of their other broadband and entertainment offerings, much like AT&T and Nokia each hope to do. Sprint will also resell access to its current 3G network to the newly created Clear, paving the way for dual-mode 3G and 4G devices that will ensure that WiMAX devices work even where there’s no WiMAX network. This will be important in signing up mobile users. Below are other important bits from the call:

• Baltimore, Md., and Portland, Ore., will be the first cities to go online, with no mention of Chicago and Dallas which were to go live under Sprint’s Xohm brand soon.
• Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff says most of the $3.2 billion investment will go toward building out the nationwide network. Many of the pre-WiMAX markets that currently have Clearwire service will get Clear service in 2009.
• Wolff also said that Clearwire is building the Clear network with equipment that can also be used for LTE deployments, meaning if LTE becomes necessary, Clearwire can upgrade its network more easily.
• Barry West, the former CTO of Sprint Nextel and head of the Xohm efforts, will become president and chief architect of Clearwire.
• Atish Gude, formerly senior vice president of Sprint’s XOHM mobile broadband operations, is now senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Clearwire.
• First products on the market are embedded WiMax chips in laptops and USB modems, but by mid-2009 consumers will see more mobile Internet devices, MP3 players and other consumer electronics that can run on the Clear WiMAX network.
• The Clear network should provide customers with average download speeds initially of 2-4 megabits per second and peak rates that are considerably faster.
• Clearwire now has 100 MHz or more of 4G spectrum in most markets across the U.S.

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