cable

LAS VEGAS--The highest-end plasma and LED TVs Samsung announced at CES yesterday offer a feature called Smart Interaction, which among other functions allows volume and channel changes at a word or gesture. Most TV watchers, however, use a cable box and not their TVs to change channels.

The solution is an IR blaster, a device designed to send infrared signals (just like a remote control) to operate the box. The little device pictured above handles that duty for Samsung's 2012 Smart Interaction models, namely the UNES7500, UNES8000, and PNE8000 series.

The TVs communicate with the blaster via Bluetooth, as … Read more

A popular TV show and movie discovery app just got a major update during CES that adds social components to its already full-featured cable listing arsenal.

Peel Personal TV Show Guide (free) is an app that changes the way you watch TV by gathering your personal preferences and giving you recommendations on your iPhone based on the data.

The polished interface of Peel asks you a few questions upon launch so it can deliver the type of shows you'll want to watch and tell you when they will show in your area. On first setup, the app has you choose your cable service, and then lists out several categories like Drama, Comedy, and Kids, and asks you to reorder the list by your personal preference with your favorites at the top. You'll then reorder a list of sports in the same fashion. When you're finished, you'll see the main interface of the app, with recommended shows that are currently playing in your area based on your preferences.

What we really like about Peel is how it lays out movies and shows by category so you can browse based on your mood at the moment.… Read more

The cable for charging and transferring data from iPhones, iPods and iPads could soon undergo another major shift, switching to technology that could speed up both tasks.

In a freshly published patent application, picked up by Patently Apple this morning, Apple details a new type of cable that blends together increased power and faster data transfer technologies, including Thunderbolt.

While not going so far as to call out the technology by name, the patent application notes that the proposed cable could support DisplayPort and PCI Express--the two technologies that are bundled together in Thunderbolt's architecture.

Along with the faster … Read more

Nokia's Vertu brand has already staked its claim as a luxury handset maker. Now it's getting into the lucrative accessory market with a $190 USB cable.

I know I shouldn't be so surprised. That's a drop in the bucket compared with the $20,000 price tag for Vertu's Year of the Dragon phone. Even the Vertu wall charger costs $85.

For $190, the Vertu USB cable should be capable of transferring data at warp speeds, giving excellent stock tips, and washing your dog. Alas, it's just a USB 2.0 cable and doesn't appear to have any superpowers.… Read more

Did Santa bring you a new HDTV? Or a Roku box? Maybe a PlayStation 3? Whatever the case, you'll probably need an HDMI cable or two.

While supplies last, Newegg has the Rosewill Pellucid HD 6-foot HDMI cable for $2.99 shipped. That's the lowest price I've seen on a name-brand (as opposed to generic) cable.

Of course, as regular Cheapskate readers know, most generic, low-cost HDMI cables work just as well as their crazily overpriced counterparts. (I'm looking at you, Belkin and Monster.)

I'm running at least half a dozen "cheapies" in … Read more

Verizon Wireless' deal with cable providers is facing scrutiny from the Justice Department.

That's according to a report today from Bloomberg, citing an anonymous source. The report said the Justice Department would look at whether Verizon would control too much spectrum, and whether the cross-selling component of the deal would violate antitrust laws.

Verizon earlier this month shored up its spectrum needs by acquiring a swath owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks for $3.6 billion. As part of the deal, Verizon agreed to resell cable service in its national chain of stores, while the … Read more

Sprint Nextel has sued several cable providers over what it claims is the illegal use of its digital phone technology, further fraying an already strained relationship between the carrier and the cable industry.

In separate lawsuits filed yesterday, Sprint alleged that Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and the Washington Post's Cable One all infringed on 12 patents related to digital phone technology it secured in the '90s.

The lawsuits represent just the latest development in an increasingly rocky relationship. Sprint and the cable providers were once strong allies, partnering up to buy spectrum and resell wireless service, and … Read more

Not long ago, I wrote a piece speculating on what T-Mobile would do if the AT&T deal fell apart.

Well, looks like "if" has come true. So I thought I'd go back to some highlights from the earlier post.

By itself, T-Mobile is a wireless operator struggling to keep its best customers from leaving. Over the past several months, the carrier has aggressively cut prices and made itself a haven for bargain seekers--all for the sake of sparking a little growth. As a result, it resembles a large prepaid carrier more than one of the … Read more

A few months after making the first MHL-HDMI adapter available for existing HDMI displays, Kanex announced today that it's now shipping a 10-foot MHL Passive Cable for use with HDTVs that have built-in support for the MHL standard. … Read more