TiVo finally updated my PVR's software over the weekend, so now I have the Yahoo features, movie ticket sales and other goodies available for viewing on my TV set. I've been listening to a couple of podcasts through my TiVo and I played one game so far.Overall, here are the new features I received (these are all found under Music, Photos, & More):
- Yahoo Photos. I signed in on my TiVo with my Yahoo username and password, but I didn't have any photos stored there at Yahoo. So I uploaded a couple from my PC using Yahoo's Web site. Then I sslected them using my TiVo and they appeared on the TV screen almost immediately. You also can do a slide show. Seems simple enough.
- Yahoo Weather. There's not much to say here. You enter your Zip code and you get your local weather forecast for five days. This is also an easy feature to use.
- Yahoo Traffic. I don't live in a metro large enough to get traffic reports, so I typed in my location as Detroit. After clicking on the city, you get to see real-time traffic conditions, including accidents. You can change the minimum radius for traffic conditions (four, 10 and 40 miles) and the minimum severity of the conditions (minor, moderate and major).
- Browse & Buy Movie Tickets. This is just what it says. You select your nearest or favorite theater and you can view showtimes. If you want to attend a movie, you can order your tickets right on the TiVo screen from Fandango. There's a $1.25 service fee per ticket.
- Live365. You might be familiar with this online broadcasting service from the Web. You can listen to stations and save your favorite ones as presets. There are hundreds of stations in every genre imaginable. One of my favorites, a trance channel at di.fm, didn't come in so well, however. First of all, without paying for the premium service, the sound quality on many of the stations is low. Also, di.fm was starting and stopping, something that rarely happens on my PC when I listen to it directly and at higher quality.
- Podcaster. This may become one of the more popular services. You can choose from a number of categories, including Featured, Public Radio, News and Talk, Music, Entertainment and Technology. You also can enter your own URL if your favorite podcast is not on the list. Under technology, you can listen to Diggnation, Cnet News.com, The Wall Street Report Tech News Brief and Slashdot Review. I found the sound quality was good.
- Games. There are several games, including SameGame, Wordsmith and Skull & Bones. They can be difficult to play at times using your remote control.
1. The games are pretty good. My whole family (including our 7 year old son) loves Wordsmith.
Posted at 4:32PM on Dec 13th 2005 by Robert Aitchison