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Damascus next Oregon town to receive FiOS TV
You downtown Portland residents must be cringing right now. Shortly after Happy Valley received word that FiOS TV was on the way, yet another locale on the outskirts of town is getting the same notification. Damascus is one step closer to having yet another option when it comes to programming, as the City Council voted to grant Verizon a cable franchise just this week. At this rate, the entire city of Portland will be surrounded with this stuff in a matter of months, but we all know how Verizon is about infiltrating actual metropolises.
Happy Valley, Oregon all set to receive Verizon's FiOS TV
As the competition heats up between Verizon and Comcast in the Greater Portland area, the former has just announced that Happy Valley -- located just southeast of Portland -- will be the next locale in the Beaver State to receive FiOS TV. Just this week the Happy Valley City Council voted to grant a franchise to Verizon, paving the way for its fiber-based television services to arrive in the city. Once rolled out, 18 communities in Oregon will have access to FiOS TV, though we're not given any sort of time frame in which to expect a launch date.
Comcast comes through with 11 HD channels in Oregon, SW Washington
Over a month ago, we heard that Comcast would be bringing a respectable helping of new high-def options to the Portland area, but given the carrier's history of promising and not delivering in the region, we held off on celebrating prematurely. Break out the champagne folks, as we've received numerous reports from the area that the operator has indeed delivered on the day it said would, adding in Disney Channel HD (741) , ABC Family Channel HD (739), Discovery Channel HD (707), TLC HD (738), Science HD (772), Food HD (766), Animal Planet HD (743), SciFi HD (759), CNN HD (744), AMC HD (771) and TBS HD (755) to Oregon and Southwestern Washington. Also of note, Comcast launched its AnyRoom On Demand service to all digital cable subscribers, and for those kosher with a bit of SD every now and then (crickets?), NHL Network is also landing on slot 418.[Thanks, Brad]
Verizon brings HD VOD to Oregon FiOS TV customers
Not even half a year after Verizon strung its FiOS TV service to Oregon, those very subscribers are now getting access to HD VOD. The carrier has been on quite the roll of late, dishing out HD VOD to a slew of other states just a month prior, but this marks the first time Beaver State residents can yell "me too!" For starters, you can look forward to seeing content from CBS, Discovery Channel, Music Choice, HDNet and Ovation TV, and if Verizon has its way, it'll be offering up 1,000 HD VOD titles per month by the close of 2008.
Comcast readying 11 HD newcomers for Portland, Oregon
Just months after Verizon expanded its FiOS TV service to reach even more of the greater Portland area, Comcast is making moves in a presumed attempt to keep locals hooked on cable. According to several users in the area, Comcast has notified them that 11 new HD channels will be emerging on May 1st. Granted, we're a bit concerned about how they'll actually look once launched -- and considering the history here, if they'll launch -- but those curious to know what new additions are slated to hit Portland's HD lineup can click on through for the full list.[Thanks, Brad and Keith]
Comcast TiVo headed to Portland, Oregon?
Along with gigantic patches of FiOS availability, New England is also basking in the glory of having Comcast TiVo all to itself. Thankfully, all that could be changing. According to a report from a Comcast user in the Portland, Oregon area, two different installers informed him that Comcast TiVo would be making its way into the area in the not-too-distant future (read: summertime). Of course, we kinda sorta knew the technology would eventually spread from the Northeast, but we're eager to see if in fact it'll hit up any more states on its (hopeful) trip west.[Thanks, Justin]
48000 more Portland-area homes getting FiOS services
Right before our very eyes, Portland, Oregon is quickly becoming a mecca of all things HD (not really, but you get the idea). Not even a full month after we learned that FiOS TV was coming to the area and its local NBC affiliate started newscasting in high-def, Verizon has now announced that some 48,000 more homes in the Portland Metro area will soon have access to FiOS. You heard right -- hordes of domiciles in the communities of Beaverton, Sunnyside / Damascus, McMinnville, Forest Grove, Gresham, Tigard, Tualatin and Camas / Washougal can look forward to receiving access to FiOS TV and high-speed internet. No word on a launch date for any of the aforementioned locales, but hold tight, VZW is blazing a path to those areas as we speak.
KGW NewsChannel 8 first newscast in Portland to go HD
The good news just keeps on coming for HD junkies in Oregon, and now you can finally sit down after a long, hard day cramped up at the office and enjoy your news in high-definition. After five months of acquiring / installing new equipment, KGW NewsChannel 8 is broadcasting live in HD; furthermore, it will be utilizing an HD sky-cam to show "live, detailed pictures of the weather in Portland." As the first news station in the area to go HD, it's also getting a leg up by promising HD video from its Sky8 aerial camera. Now, if only Greg Oden would get healthy, all really would be well, eh?
More states cracking down on phone use while driving
Add Oregon and Washington to the list of states that now officially frown on yapping while driving. Oregon's sporting the less restrictive legislation of the two Pacific Northwestern states, preventing teens from using cellphones in the car as of January 1. Washington already banned the idiotic practice of texting while driving last year, and will ban handsets altogether (except for handsfree devices) this July. Of course, with lawyers eternally in the mix, let's just hope the fine lawmakers out there have dotted their I's and crossed their T's lest these new laws spend more time in court than they do on the road.
Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval
It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]
Verizon FiOS TV goes to Oregon
Here's some news that will most certainly make many in the greater Portland metropolitan area very happy, FiOS has obtianed carriage agreements for TV service and will start offering service almost immediately to Aloha, Beaverton, Cornelius, Dundee, Durham, Hillsboro, King City, McMinnville, Newberg, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville. And, customers in Forest Grove and Sherwood can expect service later this month. This expands the nations largest fiber to the home provider to thirteen states and 410,000 potential subscribers. Having viewed their HD channels first hand, we can tell you that the picture quality is hard to beat, as long as you don't mind waiting around for them to add capacity for all the new HD channels they are planning on adding.
Jail guard busted for incriminating City of Heroes forum posts
Not all villains wear the proper attire. Take 30-year old David B. Thompson, for example, who posts on the City of Heroes message boards as Trafalgar (and has since changed his name to Deadwalk). In real life, Thompson is a corrections officer from Portland, Oregon with a penchant for using his taser, perhaps an unnecessarily excessive amount, and bragging about it online during work hours.Thompson is currently being investigated after a fellow message board member tipped off the Portland Tribune for some disturbing messages, such as this one from August 25: "I don't know about that. I crushed a dude's eye socket from repeatedly punching him in it, then I charged him with menacing and harassment (of me) he took a plea to get away from me."Also of concern is the amount of posting, which might average 13 posts per shift. In one 24-hour period in particular, Thompson posted 64 times across across 13 threads, according to the Tribune.[Thanks, Bill]
Oregon attempts game bill because Timmy broke Mary's arm
GamePolitics reports the Oregon House of Reps. is trying to blaze new trails by introducing a law making it unlawful to sell "ultra-violent" video games to people of the great state under 18 years of age. The bill was introduced by Rep. Arnie Roblan (D) and has no provision on what punishment would be given for those breaking the law, it also grants exception for parents who choose to purchase the game for their child. So, what's the point of this thing again?Anyway, best part of the bill is the definition of "ultra-violent." The bill states, "'Ultra-violent video game' means a video game depicting serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel." So, killing an alien, smearing its blood all over your avatar and then eating its entrails would be fine -- it's not a "human." That's quite speciesist, I hope the great state of Oregon has an excuse set up when the aliens arrive.
Blame the games defense fails in Oregon
Note for future lawyers: "The games made me do it" defense isn't going to work. Patrick Morris, 19, was found guilty in the 2006 shotgun murder death of a 15-year-old boy and sentenced to life in prison.Morris' mother, Irma Espitia, said she tried to connect with her son but, "He would just go into his room and play those video games." Morris' attorney defended his client with the video game defense, also adding a history of emotional and behavioral disorders -- oh, and use of mind-altering Mario mushrooms. Prosecutors said the drugs and emotional disorders were probably a greater influence on Morris' disturbing behavior and decision to murder than the video games.See also: The other side of a disturbed teens tale[Via GamePolitics]
Public transportation and GTA: Vice City Stories
GamePolitics has a roundup of the Portland, Oregon public transportation system removing GTA: Vice City Stories advertisements. They've also linked to The Oregonian's columnist Jerry Boone's editorial about how GTA might cause a small percentage of gamers to go on "stealing, killing and raping binges." At the end Boone says the transit system lost $71,250 removing the ads, but the value of a cop's life is "priceless." Boone is right, a small percentage of gamers might kill cops, because it never happens the other way around. Wonder how much the life of a dead unarmed kid and his bullet filled dog are worth? On the other coast, the head of Boston's public transportation system told the politicians to go take a long walk off a short Boston pier. The GTA ads are staying up. The outrage in Boston was pretty faux and created by the local tabloid paper The Boston Herald. Maybe The Oregonian made the whole crisis up to sell papers like The Boston Herald did. Sadly, the Portland public transportation directors have no spines and blew over like a house of cards to "media issue of the week" pressure.Meanwhile, in England ... GTA: Vice City Stories is advertised on a double-decker bus.
Oregon man sues Acer, Gateway, et al. for violating hinge patent
Earlier this month, Mr. Khalil Zaidan of Portland, Oregon, sued Acer, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, IBM, and Fujitsu for violating his 1996 patent "Hinge Assembly for Electronic Devices." A closer reading of the patent indicates that Zaidan seems to have patented the basic principle behind a tablet PC, allowing a computer to perform "rotational adjustment." Still, the case -- filed in United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division -- seems like a pretty easy way to milk these big companies for some cash, given that tablet PCs have been around well before November 2006. Nevertheless, while Zaidan is asking the court for damages on patent infringement be decided in a jury trial, we're betting that this gets settled out-of-court pretty quick. We're pretty sure that if Zaidan could actually build a Commodore 64-esque tablet (that's what his diagram is supposed to represent, right?), he could just make money from that instead of going through all this legal nonsense.
Apple throws out plans for Portland store
Just as the battle for Apple Store Boston continues, ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple has decided not to further pursue plans to construct one of its retail stores in Portland, Oregon. Apple initially showed interest in building a store in the city in November 2005, when it presented the city's Historic Landmarks Commission with a proposed design. The Commission felt that Apple's trademark metal paneled exterior didn't mesh well with the "historical image" of the Northwest District which it is charged with administering. A second proposed design was rejected by the Commission late last month.Apple previously canceled plans for a store in New York City's Flatiron district due to similar problems involving design approvals.Via MacNN
Video games curbing violence in Oregon prisons
The Oregon prison system has been experimenting with a new item in its non-cash incentive program, video games. Inmates earn the right to purchase a $35 gaming console, pre-loaded with 50 titles, after 18 months of good behavior. In the case of Kodi Dodgin, the games have helped him to stay out of trouble for almost two years—Dodgin had been placed in disciplinary segregation seven times prior to his good behavior efforts. Dodgin's game of choice? Star Ally."You get all these weapons and you've got to beat the four boss men," Dodgin told The Associated Press. "You kill your enemies. They let off these bubbles sometimes. You collect their bubbles, and you get all these weapons." Hmmm, he sure sounds excited about all 'dem weapons...
