Transition
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491 stations still shutting off analog TV next week
Though the prez still hasn't signed off on the delay, the FCC has already compiled a list of 190 TV stations going / gone all digital prior to February 17, plus 491 more that will go ahead with the shutoff as previously scheduled. The four major networks promised their stations will stay on analog until the new June 12 deadline, however that guarantee only extends to the 100 or so they own. If that's not confusing enough, the FCC could still influence broadcasters to keep analog signals going whether they want to or not based on "the public interest," for example if it's necessary to keep at least some stations on in any given market. As it stands, the linked PDFs below will reveal which, if any, of your local broadcasters are switching on Tuesday; hopefully you've followed our advice so far and continue to avoid any predatory schemes.Read - Appendix A (List of all stations ending analog service before or on February 17)Read - Appendix B (List of all full power TV stations, with the 681 stations ending service on or before February 17 indicated in bold)
Officers' Quarters: Left behind
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.In the WoW universe, a guild can change practically overnight. Someone quits or a new person joins, and the guild is never the same again. Logging off for a while can feel like traveling through time when you finally return. You take a modest break, do some important real-life stuff, and then you come back to an entirely different landscape. This week, one reader wants to know how to readjust to a guild that's nothing like the one he logged out of just a short time ago. Dear Scott, I am a fairly casual player [. . .]. As such, I am a part of a fairly casual guild without strict raiding rules that was founded by a group of friends wanting to do end game content together during the BC days. [. . . M]y two friends eventually quit WoW altogether for different reasons, and I was left as a senior member to a pretty awesome and friendly guild! I don't mind saying that i was a sort of "character" in the guild, and got along with everyone and entertained with my antics and helped with my knowledge and well-geared toon. Especially through WotLK and its patches I proved myself to be very reliable as an officer and a functional part of our core raiding group (I was about 3rd or 4th highest DPS in guild for awhile). Well, I had to take a trip to visit an old friend of mine for awhile, and informed my guildies I'd be gone for a week or so. Well . . . That week turned into nearly a month, as when I returned home my computer decided to explode and fry its motherboard. So i shipped the computer off, hoping to get it back soon so i could continue to play with my WoW buddies and get the guild further along!
Stations can still yank analog plug this month, though many won't
Wow, this isn't confusing. At all. The on-again / off-again digital TV transition date -- which is now formally set for June 12th -- may or may not be honored by the hundreds upon hundreds of local broadcasters across America. You see, when Congress postponed the mandatory cutover date from its original place on the calender (February 17th), it also gave stations the option of sticking to that original date. Thus, what could end up happening is that half a city's local OTA stations would go all-digital in under two weeks, while the others delayed things until June. The good news is that most of the major US television networks (that's CBS, ABC, FOX and NBC) have reportedly decided to hold off until the new June date in order to prevent a chaotic series of events, but it's hard to say if each individual station will indeed abide. The bottom line? Get your converter box now if you need one, and if you're waiting around for one of those $40 vouchers, hats off to you and your patience.Read - Optional cutoverRead - Broadcaster intent
Senate okays another digital TV transition delay
Just to make sure that the digital TV transition gets delayed, the US Senate has approved another measure to postpone the transition date until June 12 and sent it on its way to the House of Representatives. If the House's mere indication that the delay would go through didn't dash our hopes of analog-free airwaves next month, the quick-fire nature of this second bill certainly did. Essentially the same as the first proposal, this version with minor edits cleared the Senate unanimously. With the House in recess until next week, we'll have to wait for any movement, but it's looking like we'll be stuck with analog for a while longer. Hopefully, this whole mess will be resolved, because the longer it goes on, the more people will become confused, and maybe join the 22-percent of Americans who are planning to give up on TV altogether.
Digital TV transition delay bill fails to pass in House
In an absolutely shocking move, the United States House of Representatives has failed to pass the digital TV transition delay bill that was all but certain to fly through just days ago. The bill needed two-thirds of the votes of the House under "special rules adopted for the vote," and reportedly, the vote was just 258 to 168 in favor of changing the date. As it stands, an estimated 6.5 million Americans are not yet prepared for the switch -- which is now back on track for February 17th -- and the money well for government-issued vouchers has ran dry. Honestly, we're elated to hear the news. The February date has been blasted from the rooftops for years now, and changing it this late in the game would wreak all kinds of havoc in the industry, not to mention instill even more confusion. Soon-to-be-vacated airwaves, we're ready for you. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Boost Mobile pulling the plug on CDMA promotion
The writing was probably on the wall, but no one's paying close enough attention to what Boost Mobile's doing to even notice. phonescoop has it that the company famous for pushing its services with giant sized humans uttering one liners such as "yo" and "where u at?" is getting set to slowly (but surely) phase CDMA out of its life. According to company spokesperson Tatum Hawkins: "Boost Mobile will still operate, support and service its CDMA-related products, but it will no longer promote them. If customers wish to sign up for CDMA-based services, they may still do so. However, Boost will no longer create new CDMA products and/or services, nor will it add new CDMA phones to its roster of devices." From here, the firm hopes to focus on "building up the strength of its iDEN-based services and devices," so from us to you -- good luck with that Boost Mobile.
Breakfast Topic: Is 68 too low for Northrend?
My Shaman and I have been becoming best friends lately. I've been doing about a level every other day with her, and as I said in the WRUP last Friday, my goal was to get her into Northrend to have some fun. To do that I needed to bring her to 68 and head over to my preferred starting zone, the Howling Fjord.But when I got there I was in for a bit of a shock.Everything wasn't dying as fast as it was in Outlands. At 67 my Shaman was plowing through mobs left and right, outfitted in mainly greens and a few quest reward blues. With Shamanistic Rage, and my two ghost wolves I could pop out at a regular interval, I had nearly no downtime.Enter Northrend, and enter the difference.
5.7% (6.5 million) U.S. homes still not DTV ready
One one hand, it's nice to see that the number of U.S. households not ready for the coming analog TV shutoff dropped to 5.7% from 7.7% back in October, but then comes the sobering realization that with 26 days to go, around 6.5 million homes still don't have the necessary equipment to get digital TV. Coming straight from the latest Nielsen report, Albuquerque-Santa Fe, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston top the charts for digital unready markets, with African American and Hispanic households still lagging in percentages of unready homes. Of course, we still don't know if things will take place on schedule, but barring a delay, have a look around and make sure people in your community are ready (or as ready as they can be until the coupon program is back up and running.)
Verizon CEO joins AT&T in backing digital TV delay -- as long as it's short
After initially opposing the Obama administration / Jay Rockefeller digital TV delay -- pushing the analog TV shutoff date back from February 17 to June 12 -- Verizon CEO Ivan Seiderberg has jumped on board with competitor AT&T in support of the plan. Considering Verizon just dropped $9.63 billion on the soon / not-so-soon to be vacated airwaves for its 4G wireless rollout this is an interesting position to take, but it appears that as long as the delay is a mere 115 days he can join AT&T ($7 billion or so invested) in waiting for the DTV converter coupon program to work itself out. Of course, if anyone wants to take advantage of the extra time to subscribe to FiOS or U-verse, we're sure that wouldn't be problem either.
Obama's administration supports June DTV transition postponement
Well, wouldn't you know it. It seems like West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller has the same idea as the Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), as he introduced legislation on Thursday that would effectively postpone the digital TV transition from its current date of February 17th to June 12th. On top of that, John Podesta -- the co-chairman of Barack Obama's transition team -- has issued a letter to Congress signifying that the president-elect supports the aforementioned proposal. The delay would supposedly give the government more time to find funding for the now 2 million-deep voucher waiting list, and we're told that House lawmakers are "considering similar legislation and may schedule a vote as soon as next week." Here's a thought -- why aren't we spending our time getting the money now and keeping the confusion to a minimum?
Poll: Are you ready for the digital TV transition?
Hard to believe that next month will mark the official (though not really) end of analog broadcast signals here in the US of A, but it's true. February 17th is within spitting distance, and we get the feeling that loads of voucher requesters will be filing into retail outlets in order to get their DTV converter box soon. Our question is simply this: are you already prepared, or have you yet to become DTV ready? %Poll-24543%
FCC proposes Analog Nightlight Act to keep old spectrum on 30 day life support
As most of you know by now, February 17 is the cutoff date for analog television in the US... or is it? The FCC has proposed the Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act (SAFER -- get it?), a.k.a. the Analog Nightlight Act, which lets full-power TV stations keep broadcasting on the antiquated spectrum for 30 days after the DTV transition. The idea came from a similar program used with Wilmington, North Carolina's early shutoff back in September. Of course, the proposed programming is a bit dry -- public safety messages and information on the transition -- but we hear the finale will rival The Sopranos' sendoff. Hit up the read link and see if any of your local stations are on the list of proposed nightlights.[Via Ars Technica]
Confusion still running rampant in run-up to DTV transition
Oh, dear. You all point and laugh now, but as Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group, has stated: "On February 18, there will be a tremendous amount of finger-pointing." Richard also makes another point that we certainly agree with in that "this transition is possibly one of the worst understood consumer education programs in modern times," with millions of Americans still unready for the impending change. 'Course, if you've ever attempted to help your grandmother troubleshoot a VCR over the phone (let alone in 30-second blips), it's somewhat easier to understand why this process is so difficult to grasp. As of today, legions of people are still perplexed at what's coming, and we believe that many are apt to simply sit around and do nothing. The government / NAB is ramping up advertising and sending out DTV transition-mobiles in order to get the word out, but one must wonder, is it too late to save those who have already delayed this long?Read - Nielsen statisticsRead - Confusion in DTV Transition
Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player
var digg_url = 'http://wow.joystiq.com/2008/11/20/obamas-fcc-transition-co-chair-is-a-wow-player/'; I've had a political dream for a while now that I think all of us WoW players can agree on: someday, I hope, we will have a President in the White House that plays videogames. We're not quite there yet, but we're closer -- apparently, Obama's FCC transition co-chair is a WoW player, and has played in two different endgame guilds, including Joi Ito's famous We Know guild. This is a guy who knows all about the communities that these MMOs create, and just how awesome it is to run through Karazhan, or grind PvP for a Merciless Gladiator weapon... and he's been selected by the incoming President of the United States to run the FCC. That's beautiful.Too many government officials (both Democrat and Republican, this isn't partisan at all) suffer from the "series of tubes" mentality -- they are being asked to regulate and coordinate things that they don't understand at all. But getting guys like Kevin Werbach in there, no matter what your political affiliation, is a great step forward for all of us gamers -- we'll have people behind the regulatory wheel who know how important and wonderful virtual worlds like Azeroth can be.Waltermonkey on Livejournal actually uncovered the guy's Armory profile (and has some great insight), and yes, though I'm sure some of the comments below will be about how you'd never be able to run a transition team AND get to level 80 at the same time, Werbach's been playing recently -- while he's still only level 70, he's actually got the Jenkins title. We've got a Resto Shaman helping run the FCC -- how awesome is that?
Number of digital TV ready homes jumped in October
The digital TV transition message may be getting through, with Nielsen stats for October showing the biggest drop in "digital unready" homes in the last six months, going from 8.4% to 7.7%. Could be the tests, the FCC warnings, PSAs, or just procrastination finally wearing off, but whatever it is lets hope the pace keeps up. Amusing & informative viral ads aside, the February 17 deadline continues to approach, although we're sure you're more than ready, right?
Apple apologizes for its MobileMe mess, admits bungle on "push," offers 30-days free
After six long days, Apple has issued an official statement on the debacle that was / is the MobileMe transition, and has offered a 30-day extension to contracts as an olive branch to disgruntled users. According to a form letter being sent to subscribers, the company openly admits that the switch to MobileMe was "a lot rockier than hoped," and claims that the service is now running smoothly. Additionally (and somewhat surprisingly) Apple rescinded its use of the word "push" to cover all of its services, conceding that while there is indeed push to-and-from iPhones and the "cloud," computers are still being polled every 15 minutes... which is the same as .Mac (and honestly Apple, you didn't know that wasn't technically push?). We suppose this would be all well and good provided that MobileMe was actually functioning as advertised, but indications from readers -- and our own testing -- suggest otherwise. Customers are still having difficulties with email and syncing between iPhones and the cloud (duplicate messages, deleted messages that don't leave the inbox, etc.), the advertised "auto-complete" on mail addressing doesn't function at all, and calendars are plagued with small moving / deletion problems, as well as being unable to sync subscriptions... and that's just off the top of our head (see the company's support forums for more). The 30-day extension is a nice gesture Apple, but we're thinking customers would prefer a service that works as advertised.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Apple extends MobileMe subscriptions by 30 days
Apple has extended every MobileMe subscription by a month, due to the exceptionally ornery transition this past week. "The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told Macworld. "We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge." An email sent to subscribers noted that "we have worked through those problems, and the web apps are now up and running," but several pages of comments from our readers suggest otherwise. TUAW staff with MobileMe accounts agreed yesterday that the service is mostly working, but still quirky. Also in the email, the MobileMe team has promised to stop using the word "push" to describe some aspects of MobileMe's functionality "until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too." This might suggest they're closing the loop on MobileMe's push technology for all connected devices. Hopefully this goes a long way to assuage the burning, burning rage that MobileMe users have been feeling recently. (You can read the full letter, after the jump.) Thanks, Rick, Frank, Mark, Chuck and James for the tip!
Three more DTV converter boxes get reviewed, compared
Even though we just know you'll disregard this information until the last possible moment, we'd like to point out that three more digital-to-analog converter boxes have been reviewed over at Sound & Vision. The $60 Zenith DTT900 -- one of the very first DTV boxes to get outed -- was pit against the $50 RCA DTA800 and the $60 Digital Stream DTX9900. Believe it or not, reviewers actually found quite a bit of difference in the three units ranging from looks (clearly) to on-screen interfaces. If you're one to care about the minutiae (and admit it, you are), head on over to see which of these three most deserve your $40 voucher.
Digital TV switch facing hurdle over...postage stamps?
We expected some potential issues concerning the analog TV shutoff next year, but even we (and apparently the Commerce Department) could not have predicted they'd run low on stamps necessary to send out $40 discount coupons for digital television converters. Apparently nearly 60% of the coupons sent out expired before they were actually used -- maybe people are waiting to see which digital converter to buy -- resulting in n unexpected number of new mailings. Funds from the unused coupons goes back to the program and will still be available for more requests, however the budgeted administrative funds to actually mail the things is limited, and may need to be expanded. According to Reuters, the NTIA should have a clearer picture after July 1, but this could cause some issues for those still waiting to request the discount.
Orlando getting in on analog shutoff testing
Sure enough, as soon as Wilmington, N.C. announced its early switchover plans, eleven stations in the Orlando, FL area have announced that they will be simulating analog doomsday throughout the summer. Participating stations include WESH, WKMG, WFTV, WCEU, WKCF, WMFE, WVEN, WRDQ, WOTF, WTGL and WBCC. A set of three tests is planned, beginning with one on June 25 just before 8pm. Much like the drill that played out in Las Vegas, the tests will get lots of promotion on the local stations. These analog shutoff drills seem to be a growing trend, and we're happy about that; no matter how enticing the carrot or menacing the stick, nothing gets response like actually being struck by the stick. Certainly, there will be folks who ignore or entirely miss these drills, but at least for now we're putting a hold on our plans for a nationwide fleet of EngadgetHD vans stocked with converter boxes.
