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Comcast's 'Project Dayview' does PDA duty across TV, phone, PC and tablet (update: video)
While we expected to see Comcast roll out its X1 DVR platform today at the Cable Show, more surprising is the new Project Dayview initiative. As seen above, it attempts to provide a single cross-platform home screen that combines info from its services and third party sources to give customers a quick look at what's important to them, on any screen. Potential sources include Comcast services (DVR schedule from your cable box, voicemails from the home phone, email, or home security / automation updates when you're away) as well as third party information like your current calendar software, social media and local news. While ambitious, it does reflect a futuristic ability to bring its users relevant information (based on the time of day, it could pull the traffic report before you leave for work or TV listings in the evening, for example) automatically. How well it all works remains to be seen once this is integrated with the new DVR software and apps later this year, but you can get an idea of what Comcast has up its sleeve for your four screens from the pictures in the gallery below. Update: Check out a video of CEO Neil Smit demonstrating Project Dayview on the show floor embedded after the break.
Sony's CEO is ready to launch a four-screen platform 'that can compete with Steve Jobs'
After announcing that it would completely revamp its struggling TV business after yet another quarter of financial setbacks, what's next for Sony? CEO Howard Stringer tells the Wall Street Journal that R&D is focusing on a "different kind of TV set." He didn't specify whether he was talking about the company's efforts with Google TV or any other technology, however he did note the "really well organized" beauty of the iPhone and said that after a five year quest to build a platform that would compete with Steve Jobs, it's finally ready to launch. This all hinges on Sony's ability to pull its four screens (phones, tablets, PCs, TVs) together with network services like Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited (and hopefully make those Qriocity-birthed offerings famous for something other than being a footnote in its hacking scandal). Sony has finally begun to acknowledge its weaknesses in software and providing a uniform user experience, we'll probably find out more about how it plans to turn that around at CES 2012 in January.
