At first I was a bit sceptical about the Foxtel contractors turning up between their proposed hour of 7am and 12noon. It was 9:45am, and I had decided to call up Foxtel. After waiting for about 5 mins, I got through to a representative who confirmed that the contractor is due to come out today and will call an hour before arriving.
My intercom buzzes at 10:30 and it was the contractor (though he didn’t call me and hour before arriving). I wasn’t going to complain – he walked on in and checked my TV and set it all up in about 10 mins.
Since he had replaced the smart card with a new one, he had to call Foxtel technical support to make the change. At first I thought he would have his special number to get straight through to a support representative – wrong! He had to wait for 20 mins (a taste of their own medicine) before he could get someone at their technical support end to activate the card.
25 mins later, and he started his demo on how to record, pause live TV, schedule a record, and record a series of episodes. All in all, within 40 mins I was up and running with IQ2.
Am I pleased? Very much so.
Is it worth the money? Very much so.
So let me explain why:
1) Pause live TV.
You know the times when you are focused on watching something on TV but the other people around you just want to talk or if your mobile phone goes off, well I now do one simple thing – hit the pause button. That pauses live TV broadcast, and the room is silent to finish the conversation. Once you’re ready, hit the play button and you are back onto watching from when you paused.
If there are ads in this program that have been recorded in the background while you have it paused, you can simply fast forward through them (eventually you will catch up to live broadcast if you keep forwarding).
2) Recording TV
I love watching the F1, but I love sleeping even more. Given the time zone differences, the European F1 races are broadcasted here between 11pm and 2am. I simply hit the record button the scheduler and I can watch it at my own ease on Monday evening after work. And since you can watch the local HD channels through IQ2, I can record it at even better quality. I can keep my recordings for as long as I want, understanding that it takes up hard drive space.
3) Planning my TV from work
Foxtel has an online TV guide where you can register online and link your Foxtel account with your online profile. Therefore from work, I can log on and select what I want my IQ2 box at home to record while I am at work or remind me when I am at home.
4) HD channels
While there aren’t many channels on HD yet, all the local channels are available and the same with Discovery, National Geographic, BBC, Foxsports and ESPN. I never had IQ before, so not having to buy a seperate HD box is a bit of a relief.
The above 4 points are worth the extra $20 a month for me.
An article I read during the week on SMH boasted Microsoft’s Surface application which is being used at a bar in Las Vegas.
Microsoft, together with Harrah’s Entertainment, allows it’s users to use Surface to order drinks, watch You Tube Videos, play touch type games and even flirt with other users.
Being all touch screen, there is not input devices besides your fingers that are required for the interaction. Each of these touch screen devices go for US$10,000
The system is smart enough to record behavioural patterns and can be used, for e.g., to track a user’s gambling habits.
Another application that was used in this Las Vegas bar is called Mixologists. Through touch screen selection, the user can create a cocktail with their choice of alcohol and send the order through to the bartender (that would be something I’d love to see at the bars in Sydney).
Harrah’s claim that they are trying to make systems more networked. So if you order a drink at a bar, and later use of the touch screen applications down at the casino, it will remember your profile and offer you the same drink again.
After making a deal with YouTube, Harrah’s entertainment systems allow people to access YouTube videos to watch on their touch screen devices.
Flirt, is another application used on these devices and it allows users to text or video chat, take and email pictures and exchange contact details – another dimension to meeting people in a bar.
Playing games, seeing the bar menu, getting local information, etc, are some of the unlimited capabilities of this system. You can only but imagine what sort of applications bars, casinos and retail shops can add on to this.
A few companies have signed up to this idea, including some casinos (imagine playing roulette on this!) as well as hotel groups such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts in conjunction with T-Mobile.
One thing I remember reading ages ago, was that if you put your mobile device (or camera) on the table on the Surface application, it will attempt to connect, via bluetooth (or otherwise) and be able to access content from your phone such as pictures taken and so on.
A brilliant concept, and a new way of digital interaction on your finger tips (literally!)
To view some videos by Microsoft, have a look here:
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/videos.html
