Expand your DVR

If you’re like us, the digital video recorder has changed the way you watch television. Fast forwarding commercials, storing movies for later watching, recording a whole series, these things have become part of the usual television experience.
One problem: The box fills up too fast, especially if you’re saving a lot of high-definition programs.
Iomega just released [...]

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Will Voom make it?

Cablevision’s slate of high definition channels, Voom Networks, could be in jeopardy. Which means its HD edge over bitter rival Verizon could come to an end.
In May, satellite television provider Dish Network decided to drop the 15 HD channels, which include Monsters HD, Gallery HD, Equator HD and Rush HD, because it claimed Cableivision did [...]

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Cablevision is under attack

The Consumerist, one of the most widely-read blogs on the planet, is going after our local cable company. And we’re not sure why.
According to the blog, Cablevision customers who do not subscribe to digital service — who plug their televisions directly into the wall instead and receive Cablevision’s Sixty-ish analog channels — received notice from [...]

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NYC, FiOS is on the way

Talk about the Western Front.
While Verizon is warring with Cablevision on Long Island for television/Internet/telephone dominance via its FiOS service, the New York-based telecommunications company will attack its city base next.
New York City has announced it will now accept proposals from new cable companies, and Verizon is reportedly ready to submit one.
Perhaps that’s why we’re [...]

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Cablevision is over its Rainbow

Cablevision tried and tried, but it just couldn’t get shareholders to approve the ruling Dolan Family’s plans to take the company private.
It looks like it’s time for other options.
The Dolan’s are reportedly looking to unload their Rainbow Media division, which operates cable networks The Independent Film Channel, the American Movie Channel and WE: Women’s Entertainment, [...]

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Clear Skies ready for its closeup

Massapequa Park-based Clear Skies Group, which installs systems that convert solar power into electricity, just wrapped a documentary for the Discovery Channel’s new series, unhappily named “Greenovate.” CSG installed a residential solar system for a homeowner, or rather, a “greenovator,” in Claremont, California in under four hours, upgrading, according to a press release, [...]

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Local plastic surgeon heads to Discovery

Next time you visit plastic surgeon Kaveh Alizadeh’s office in Garden City, you might just want an autograph with that face-lift. The Long Island Plastic Surgical Group physician said today he will be featured as an industry expert on an upcoming special on the Discovery Health Channel, and will speak about managing skin care and [...]

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Verse after verse after verse after verse

So as of right now, Cablevision has one clear advantage over Verizon’s FiOS television service, its lineup of HD Channels. With the recent addition of Food Network HD and HGTV HD, Cablevision now offers 44 high definition channels, and it’s not going to let you forget that.
But that doesn’t excuse this classic case of PR [...]

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Cablevision adds Food HD and HGTV HD

So, despite the faster speeds, and sleeker features, this FiOS subscriber is wondering why he’s sticking with Verizon (and I know for a fact there are few people at Cablevision who are devilishly delighted to hear that).
On the good side, Verizon has come out with Internet offerings on the speed front, including the symmetrical upload [...]

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Verizon’s NFL perk

Verizon just intercepted Cablevision’s pass.
Today, Cablevision announced Caller ID in the television, and true to the never ending hair pulling between the two telecoms, Verizon announced a sweet extra for FiOS, and DSL subscribers.
Customers will be now be able to watch live online broadcasts of football games from the NFL Network, namely Thursday night and [...]

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In case you missed it

The other day, David Reich-Hale delivered a first-hand report on Cablvision’s new Caller ID feature which displays incoming phone numbers right on your television screen.
It looks like the Associated Press (and the rest of the world) finally caught up.
Here’s this morning’s story:
Couch potato alert: If you get telephone service through your cable TV provider, you [...]

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FiOS adds Discovery HD

But doesn’t FiOS already have Discovery HD?
Yes, but no. The Discovery HD Theater that FiOS and Cablevision subscribers have been watching, which features nature programs, documentaries and programs independent of the regular Discovery Channel, is now called HD Theater on FiOS.
Discovery HD features all of the programming from the Discovery Channel, only in HD, much [...]

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What is happening at Cablevision?

This morning, Cablevision announced a wider third quarter loss but said its operating income actually rose because existing television customers added phone and Internet services. That means, existing customers picked up the Triple Play.
However, the number of subscribers actually fell.
From The Street:
Cablevision saw both a sequential and year-over-year increase in monthly subscriber defections. This so [...]

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Cablevision adds CNN HD

Cablevision is not sleeping when it comes to adding high-definition channels.
The Bethpage-based cable company said today it is adding CNN HD to its lineup, its 42nd HD channel.
Verizon’s FiOS television service does not carry that HD channel. In fact, when its comes to HD channels, Cablevison is thumping Verizon, boosted by its addition of the [...]

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FiOS adds Hamptons TV

Cablevision may have News 12, a channel I’d guess it would rather dissolve than share with Verizon’s FiOS television service, but it no longer has complete control over Hamptons news.
Verizon announced that WVVH-TV Hamptons TV will now be available on FiOS and can be viewed on channel 14 by all Long Island subscribers.
Time Warner also [...]

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Chyron scores international deals

The company made famous for creating the scrolling headline tickers that are now ubiquitous in the world of network news just got picked by NBC Universal Inc. to supply graphics support for several of it television properties. And in addition to that, Chyron will supply character generators for NBC’s coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic [...]

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A TV from AT&T

A few months ago, Verizon celebrated its 1 millionth FiOS installation by throwing a party for the lucky Long Island family who decided to make the switch to the “phone company.”
Now it’s AT&T’s turn. Its U-Verse television, phone and Internet service is a bit behind Verizon in its rollout, but the Texas-based company just registered [...]

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FiOS a hit with the AP

Henry E. Powderly II isn’t the only one singing the praises of FiOS, Verizon’s new bundled television, Internet and phone service.
Associated Press business writer John Wilen wrote Thursday that he loves FiOS, is thrilled to have extra sports stations in HD, including the NFL Network and called the Internet service “exemplary.”
Here are a few graphs:
I [...]

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The China effect

First, a batch of tainted wheat gluten caused several pets to die and led to a major pet food recall. Then tainted beef from China made people sick. Then tainted green seasoning from China used by a Long Island company in its Veggie Booty snacks was contaminated with salmonella, causing a recall. Now, for the [...]

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Long Island startup grabs Amazon’s attention

Major online retailer Amazon.com is betting on a few Ivy Leaguers from Long Island.
Brown University graduates Joshua Boltuch, Elliott Breece and Elias Roman have been running their startup AmieStreet, an online music download service, from Long Island. AmieStreet allows independent artists to sell their songs online, only, instead of the fixed-price model made popular by [...]

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Bob’s to open second store

Six months after Connecticut discount furniture retailer Bob’s opened its first Long Island showroom in Farmingdale, it said it’s opening a another store located in Freeport.
Bob’s will unlock the doors at 240 East Sunrise Highway on August 2 at 10 a.m.
The company contends in its press release that huge crowds of customers have frequented the [...]

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Ship it from Stony Brook

Going to the movies? Don’t forget to bring the sunglasses you sold on E-bay and still need to ship.
A new UPS Store just opened in Stony Brook right next to the AMC Loews Movie Theater in the Waldbaum’s shopping center (located across the street from the Smithaven Mall).
Kenneth J. Ryerson, who said in his press [...]

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The Harry Potter countdown

The last Harry Potter book goes on sale tonight at midnight, and many will pack into various Long Island booksellers to get their copies the minute they can.
And bookstores aren’t the only place expected to pack the house with Potter fans tonight. For example, the Stop & Shop in Ronkonkoma is throwing a Potter party.
So [...]

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This looks familiar to me

It seems Starbucks is not welcome in the North Fork, at least that’s what we’re hearing.
Here’s a bit from the Associated Press story:

Residents of the North Fork of Long Island are apparently suffering from Frapuccino rage.
The Starbucks global chain of coffee shops has moved into Greenport, Southold and Mattituck. The towns have long resisted [...]

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Entenmann’s finds perfect pairing

One of the country’s best known coffee cake makers said it will offer a new line of products that’s perfectly suited to accompany its baked goods.
The Bay Shore-based company said it entered into a marketing agreement with Coffee Holding Co. Inc., a major coffee distributor, to create an Entenmann’s-branded line of coffees.
Coffee Holding, which essentially [...]

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On LI, who’s up for an iPhone

There seems to be only tech story this week: The iPhone.
The reviews are in, and they mostly say the same thing, that the device is just plain wonderful.
In New York, lines are forming at the Apple store in SoHo.
On Long Island, the Apple stores in Huntington, Lake Grove and Garden City will close from 2 [...]

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Cablevision’s frenemies support network DVR

Cablevision’s network DVR idea is so fantastic it’s attracted the company’s major competitor to stand behind the concept.
USTelecom, a group that represents Verizon as well as AT&T, said it filed a brief in support of Cablevison’s recent appeal of a federal ruling that thwarted the network DVR plans.
Cablevision wants to centralize the digital video recorder, [...]

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Starbucks hits LI in the belly

A latte on Long Island just got 1.25 percent healthier.
Rife coffee chain Starbucks announced today it is switching from using whole milk in its beverages to using 2 percent milk.
Whole milk contains typically 3.25 percent milkfat.
Starbucks said it is following a national move away from the more fattening milk to the lowfat variety. Customers can [...]

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Got an old iPod?

Rather than throwing out those vintage non-color, non-photo, non-video iPods, a Selden retail company wants you to recycle the devices.
The Gadget Locker.com said it launched a “green” initiative that will pay anyone who sends their iPod to the company for recycling $20 in store credit.
The online retailer, which also runs a shop in Selden and [...]

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The FiOS Affair: And finally, the television service

Where to start. So much good, so many channels, so much HD, and on-demand too.
First, the HD picture is surely cleaner, and Ken said that’s due to the lack of electric interference picked up by the fiber optic line in its long trek from Verizon to my doorstep. I accept it could also have to [...]

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