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Pocket Casts will give existing desktop customers Plus for life
Earlier this week the popular podcast app Pocket Casts announced some big changes. In addition to making the mobile app free, Pocket Casts unveiled a new paid subscription tier, Pocket Casts Plus. It said customers who previously paid for desktop access (a one-time fee of $9) would be given three years of access to the new Plus version. That didn't go over well with existing customers, so Pocket Casts has backtracked. Now, the company says anyone who paid for the desktop version will be given lifetime access to the new Plus tier.
TiVo is pulling the plug on Series 1 DVRs September 29th
Whenever you buy something with a promise of "Lifetime" service, the question is exactly how long that will last. For owners of the very first TiVo DVRs who shelled out for promised Lifetime service, the answer is about 17 years. Dave Zatz let us know the company is notifying owners that after September 29th, their boxes will no longer be able to create recordings or pull down guide data. The Series1 boxes won't be able to handle guide data provided by TiVo's new owner Rovi, which is why it's ending service.
A&E, History and Lifetime arrive on Sling TV this month
If you're still on the fence about committing $20 a month to Sling TV's "Best of Live TV," the streaming option is adding a few more channels. Before the end of March, A&E, History, H2 and Lifetime will be available on the service that's hoping you'll ditch cable. That handful of channels will be part of the core live TV package, which will tally 20 networks once those arrive. Of course, this means shows like Vikings, Bates Motel, Duck Dynasty and Project Runway are all joining the streaming lineup. In addition to the new channels, Sling TV is adding two new add-on packs that expand the basic channel library. "Lifestyle Extra" includes things like truTV, Cooking Channel and DIY, while the new "World News Extra" provides access to Bloomberg, HLN, and other news networks around the world. If you'll recall, the additional bundles cost $5 per month, and will be offered alongside the "Sports Extra," "Hollywood Extra" and "Kids Extra" packages, bringing the total "Extras" to five. [Image credit: History Channel/Bernard Walsh]
Aubrey Plaza will voice Grumpy Cat in Lifetime's holiday movie
Grumpy Cat, as you probably have heard by now, is set to star in its own motion picture. Worse yet, it's going to be a made-for-TV holiday film on Lifetime. But, before you put your plant to sabotage the production into action (I'm confident your plan involving buckets of cat pee and spiking the water cooler with LSD would have worked), consider this: Aubrey Plaza has signed up to voice the unstoppable cat meme. Now, we're not saying that the Parks and Rec star is enough to save Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever from be an unbearable pile of dreck, but the enigmatic Plaza has made few missteps at this point in her career.
Grumpy Cat's upcoming Christmas special could be the death of cinema
Scene: a theater full of people, laughing at images of butts with farting noises played as a soundtrack. It's satire from the world of Idiocracy, but we may not be that far off -- Lifetime has decided to make an actual motion picture out of a cat-meme. Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever, due out this holiday, is ushering us into an era of cinema where image-macros and animals with comical bone structure are considered legitimate foundations for motion pictures. It's bound to be a terrible age, but we shouldn't be surprised: we live in a world where crypto-currencies and media empires hail from similar beginnings. Lifetime president Arturo Interian expects the film to bring a "fun and irreverence" to the channel that its heartfelt programming typically lacks, explaining the film will a mash up between "Home Alone" and "Die Hard." Oh, and the script is being penned by one of the names behind Spongebob Squarepants: the Movie. Joy.
Halo 4 gets tough on sexist players
343 Industries wants to make it clear: It will brook no further discrimination of any kind in Halo 4. Executive producer Kiki Wolfkill and studio head Bonnie Ross say that sexist discrimination of any kind will be met with a lifetime ban from both the game and the Xbox Live network.Ross says that "most people look at a franchise like Halo, and automatically assume it's run by a guy," but this particular franchise is run by a few ladies, and they're not having any discriminatory nonsense in their latest sequel.We agree with the sentiment, and hope that the harsh penalties make sure that the losers who make sexist and other offensive comments get shown the door for good. The ideal should be to make sure all forms of this offensive discrimination are squashed as far and wide as possible, no matter who's running the show.
Early iOS free-to-play title Eliminate shutting down this month
Here's a weird signpost for iOS gaming. Eliminate was one of the first big free-to-play titles on iOS: It was a core title for Ngmoco when first announced a few weeks after in-app purchases were allowed and helped pave the way to the current freemium-as-standard situation on Apple's App Store. But that part of history is coming to an end, as Ngmoco has announced that Eliminate's servers are being turned off for good. The app is already gone from the App Store, and an in-game message says that the game's servers are going offline on May 25. That means after that, not only will players no longer be able to play the game, but any money or time put into the title will be gone for good. That's a shame for Eliminate fans, though it's unclear just how many of those there still are. And it means you can go ahead and put another mark on the timeline for iOS gaming: A freemium app that helped kick off the platform to begin with has reached the end of its lifetime.
TiVo pricing changes May 19th: $100 Premiere, $20 / month service, $500 lifetime for all
According to emails being sent out to existing customers, TiVo will streamline its pricing options in a couple of days, offering the Premiere for $99.99 and the Premiere XL for $299 with one year service commitments at $19.99 monthly or product lifetime service for $499.99. The new options are seen above in the picture posted by skaggs at TiVo Community, detailing the pricing that will apply to all TiVos, no matter where they're purchased from. The new pricing drops the total cost for lifetime service, but we'll let you figure out all the arithmetic and decide if you want to upgrade or jump into the Premiere before or after the service plans change. If you still need convincing, there's also word of a new 14.8 software update just starting to roll out, while the Virgin Media TiVo can apparently expect a fix for standard def picture quality to arrive soon.
The Daily Grind: How long do you really plan to play a new title?
Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. While we like to talk about being a lifetime member of a new game, we generally are referring to the game's lifespan rather than our own. No matter how awesome a game is on release, it's going to show signs of age over time, and some of us just don't have the attention span or the will to stick with a game for years on end. It's unusual to even get the chance to be in a game from opening day to closing day, and there are few Ultima Online players who were there at launch and refuse to start a new game until they're completely finished with this one. So we leave. And when we buy a new game, in the back of our minds we pretty much know that an online game is a long-term commitment, but not necessarily a lifetime one. So how long do you expect to be playing a new game once you buy it? Did you purchase RIFT expecting to get a solid six months out of it before you moved on, or did you pick up Aion just for the free trial month? Or did you go the other route, buying Star Trek Online at launch and sticking with it for at least two or three years before changing games? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Breaking: STO lifetime subs now available [Update]
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Star_Trek_Online_offers_lifetime_subscription_at_240'; Cryptic has revealed the lifetime subscription offer for Star Trek Online, which comes with playable Borg (not as a faction, but as liberated Borg) and is only available to those who've pre-ordered the game. Oddly enough, the price of the LS is $40 higher than Champions Online's was when it was announced August of last year. Does this mean we can expect a higher monthly fee than the industry standard of $14.99 for Star Trek Online or is the expectation that Star Trek fans are likely to pay more for a lifetime subscription to STO? Either way, Atari would certainly have to expect the game to be a real winner to make that bet. Additionally, there's no specific mention of whether or not the LS offer has an expiration date; it's only stated that a pre-order is required to make the purchase. We've contacted Cryptic for an official statement on both the pricing and potential expiration date of the offer and we will update as more information becomes available. [Update: The lifetime subscription ends on February 1st at 11:59 PST, thanks tiberium84!] [Update 2: The monthly sub for STO is, in fact, $15 a month.]
Cryptic's official response on sold-out Champions special subscription deals
This last weekend was something of a letdown for Champions Online players waiting to get paid this week and purchase the limited time $200 or $60 special subscription deals, both of which came with goodies both in-game and out. What essentially transpired was that, well, Cryptic unexpectedly reached their limit for lifetime and six-month specials.It wasn't the best of situations, and many community members are understandably upset by the sudden retraction of the offer. We asked Cryptic for their official response, which you can find after the break.
Lifetime and Merscom team up on new iPhone, PC games
As far as we're concerned, Lifetime really only has one thing going for it, and that's reruns of The Golden Girls. Apparently, the channel is much more than that, commanding quite the legion of followers. It's this popularity that has caused Merscom and Lifetime Networks to team up to produce two hidden-object PC games, a downloadable PC simulation game, and an iPhone game, for a total of 4 games based on Lifetime properties. Merscom and Lifetime aren't strangers, as the two collaborated on a previous title, Blood Ties, based on a Liftime series of the same name. It was successful enough, selling nearly 100,000 units in 2008. While many ladies that enjoy the network's site and programming will be delighted by this news, we know of a few men who won't be cheering for Lifetime.
Blizzard employee offering a lifetime pass to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Here's a cool way to donate some money to charity and have a chance at probably the best prize a WoW player could want. Katherine Allen (our own Michael Sacco, formerly known as "Belfaire," says she's a friend) is raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and she's offering a contest with each donation: by giving at least $25 and putting an Alliance or Horde comment on the donation page, she'll enter everyone who does so in a drawing to win one of three one-year timecards for the game. And because donations have already topped $5500 (as of this writing, they're at $7,420), she's picking one more name out of the hat, to win a lifetime subscription. That's right -- donate, win, and you'll never have to pay for WoW again.Very nice -- not only is that an amazing prize, but it's awesome that because of the generosity of WoW fans, they've already met their fundraising goal for the society, and then some. Donations are being accepted until January 5th, so there's still time to get your name in the pot if you'd like. Even if you don't pick up a prize, you'll be helping to try and save the lives of 145 people a day, and while trouncing the Lich King is definitely a thrill, helping people in real life is even better.
Panasonic gives you 100,000 reasons to pick its 1080p plasmas
The amount of dis-information in the marketplace about plasma TVs never fails to amaze us. While we personally haven't overheard a salesperson talk about refilling the gas in a plasma TV in a while, we also haven't seen customers choosing between plasma and LCD -- that decision has already been made in favor of LCD. Credit Panasonic for fighting the good fight by introducing an easy-to-understand and relevant spec to the marketplace: its 2008 plasmas boast 100,000-hours plasma life for the 1080p sets, 60,000-hours for the 720p sets. That's the time you'll have before the plasma brightness falls to half of its original value. So if you leave the set on 24/7, that translates to 11-years of viewing. There are certainly reasons to pick an LCD over plasma, but these figures close the book on lifetime arguments -- a plasma today will last you well into your OLED/SED/hologram Jetsonian future.[Image courtesy HappyEntertainment]
TiVo brings back $399 Lifetime Service plan
Hard to say if this is just another fling that will expire as soon as some TiVo exec feels that it should, but for whatever it's worth, interested users can now purchase a Lifetime Service plan for their TiVo. Those operating sans a TiVo HD DVR can actually still take advantage of the Blue Moon special, but for everyone else, you can snag the Lifetime package for $399 (or $299 if adding it to your second, third, fourth or twentieth TiVo box). Remember, however, that the "Lifetime" subscription only applies to whatever deck you currently have, and with all this talk of tru2way, we might suggest holding off and letting the dust settle before pulling the trigger.[Via Zatz Not Funny, thanks MegaZone]
Lifetime Networks grabs popcorn, gets cozy with Cox
After tying the knot with AT&T and Verizon, it seems that Lifetime HD has wooed Cox Communications as well. Lifetime Networks has just announced a "wide-ranging agreement" that will bring all of its multi-platform channels -- including Lifetime Television HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD, Lifetime On Demand and Lifetime Movie Network Espanol On Demand -- to the cable carrier. Of course, the network took the opportunity to restate just how many females aged 18 to 54 will be absolutely elated to hear the news, but they'll all have to patiently wait until June before it begins rolling out to Cox systems.
TiVo's Blue Moon special: TiVo HD, lifetime service for $698
Yeah, TiVo's Blue Moon special has been alive for a few weeks now, but for those unaware, we figured it prudent to pass along the deal in case you're interested in grabbing hold. From now until June 16th, interested consumers can snatch up a TiVo HD DVR, TiVo Wireless Adapter, a lifetime of service on the unit and an incredibly amazing TiVo plush doll for $698. Yes, that's less than the original price of the Series3 alone. So there you have it -- at least you've got ample time to think it over before deciding either way.[Thanks, Jonas]
Lifetime: Games for women
There are moments you just couldn't make up the story if you tried -- this is one of those times. Lifetime network, television for women, and RealNetworks (yup, they're still around) are joining up to make downloadable games for women. The first game will be Sally's Salon and releases July 25. The game has players "direct Sally through a virtual beauty salon by performing and customizing beauty services and hiring employees." Kind of sounds like Diner Dash and Cake Mania, but minus the entrepreneurial feminist ideals.The game will be promoted online and on Lifetime's television network between reruns of Unsolved Mysteries and Golden Girls (oh Rose, you still bring a smile to our face). Apparently Lifetime and RealNetworks have been collaborating since 2004 and the games section of Lifetime's website is its most popular with million of games played on topics such as "makeovers, prom dresses and cleaning." Ah yes, Lifetime casual games, doing its part to show women their place in the 21st century.
Lifetime Network joins iTunes
Lifetime Network, best known for its woman-centered programming, and it's multi-kleenex "Lifetime Movies" offerings, has joined iTunes. New shows include Cheerleader Nation, Off the Leash, Lisa Williams: Life among the Dead and Lovespring International as well as a collection of those Lifetime Movies. Cheerleader Nation focuses on the Dunbar High School cheerleading squad and their focus on snagging their third national championship. Off the Leash introduces celebrity A-lister pooches. Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead focuses on the supernatural advice from a British clairvoyant. Lovespring International is a "hilarious improv series" about a dating service. Despite being a member of their target demographic, I've never actually watched Lifetime.
Transfer current TiVo lifetime sub to Series 3
So, you purchased that lifetime TiVo subscription but want one of those shiny new Series 3 boxes. TiVo has you covered -- kind of. It is going to cost you a mere $199 one-time fee (heard that before) to transfer over your Series 1 or Series 2 subscription. There is a catch though. It looks like the new TiVo needs to be purchased before December 31st and the transfer has to happen before January 31, 2007. That old box isn't going to be rendered useless though as TiVo will endow upon it one year of service for free. Awful nice of them considering you spend at least $299 for the lifetime on the older TiVo, $800 on the new box and $199 to transfer the original lifetime subscription. You would think that for $800 bucks they would throw in the transfer but they do have all those legal fees to deal with.
