fios

We're back to start another week of shows, but before Wilson bores us to death with avant-garde filmmaking movements from 1995, we briefly summarize each of our weekends spent swimming at the local "prison gym," watching all-star hockey games, and whatever it is that Wilson spends his time doing outside of work.

After that, look forward to a dynamic chat about the mysterious location of T-Pain's Facebook "Like" tattoo, Dragon Quest VI arriving too late for a gamer grandma, push-up tighty whities for the modest man, and five families in Boston that unanimously decided against ditching their cable TV connection in lieu of various on-demand set-top boxes.

Oh, and the city of Austin, Texas, is launching a Twitter campaign to rename its Solid Waste Services Department to the "Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts." So there's that, too.

A smart-home automation system using Fios, Verizon's fiber-optic communications network, is about to be tested in some New Jersey homes, the company announced yesterday.

The management system, which Verizon simply refers to as Home Monitoring and Control, enables real-time access to view and make changes to a home's lighting, security cameras, locks, and thermostats, as well as appliances and consumer electronics devices connected to the home network.

The software application that offers the real-time monitoring and control can be accessed by smartphone, computer, or Fios TV.

Verizon will be demonstrating the smart-home system at the 2011 International Consumer … Read more

My wife, eBeth, and I decided to disable our Verizon Fios TV service to save roughly $100 per month, and I chronicled the good, the bad, and the ugly in the diary entries indexed below.

At the end, I reconnected TV for what amounts to $35 per month (and $50/month the following year) for the TV portion of my new Fios bill. After a few days back on the cable TV pipe, including an amazing Knicks almost-win versus the Celtics for me and lots of "Watch What Happens" for eBeth, we're both happier, albeit somewhat poorer, … Read more

Last Saturday night, after a few sleepless hours thinking over alternatives and scenarios for how to continue my cable-cutting adventure, I came to the conclusion that I should probably just give up and reconnect Verizon Fios TV. The next afternoon, I did just that.

My household is now back on the pipe, dumb as it may be, and I'm back to being able to watch Knicks games legally. More importantly, my wife eBeth can watch CBS daytime shows and Bravo prime time without having to deal with streaming video from TV.com, a wind-tossed rooftop antenna, or paying for … Read more

It's been two weeks since my wife, eBeth, and I decided to ditch full Fios TV service--complete with a whole-home DVR, local sports channels, HBO/Showtime/etc., and a $100-per-month bill--for "free" TV supplied by a rooftop antenna and the Internet. Check out previous diary entries, from Day 1 and Week 1, if you want to catch up.

Being away from home for most of the recent Thanksgiving weekend provided a bit of perspective. On one hand I experienced a warm, tryptophan-aided fuzzy knowing I wasn't "wasting" three days of pay TV service (a whole $10!) by not being home to watch it. On the other, returning home to our own less-than-stable Internet TV solution--supplied by PlayOn connected to my PlayStation 3--persuaded me to try something else.

Here's the day-by-day.… Read more

TV guru David Katzmaier sits in for Joey this week, talking about his adventures in cord cutting. Like Scott, he also recently ditched his cable service for a mix of over-the-air and IPTV.

Additionally, Dan's iPad gets bricked by the iOS 4.2 update, and even our studio computer crashes, forcing an "a capella" version of the Digital City theme song.

Don't forget: You can download the show's theme song as a free MP3 here for a limited time!

Note: It's usually our video recording that ends up getting swallowed by our temperamental podcast system, but this time it's the audio version that's giving us some trouble--so stay tuned for the MP3 of this week's show.

… Read more

A week has passed since we decided to stop paying for Verizon Fios TV in my household, and the world hasn't imploded. At least, not yet.

Check out my original Day 1 entry to get up to speed. Here's what happened next.

Dear Diary... Tuesday, November 16: Arrived home to my wife, Elizabeth, describing how CBS.com, accessed on our TV via PlayOn, was cutting out in the middle of her show. While over-the-air staples like "Sesame Street"--a morning tradition for our 16-month-old--and "Oprah" were a success, she told me in no uncertain terms she wanted cable back. In the ensuing discussion I promised I'd try adjusting the antenna next weekend to get the currently unavailable CBS. She appeared mollified, for now, and we watched a catch-up episode of "The Amazing Race" together via PlayOn with no problems, my fingers crossed the whole time.

Wednesday, November 17: More issues, this time with over-the-air, where wind caused interruptions during "Law & Order: SVU." It basically made the show unwatchable, causing audio stutter, video breakup and extreme annoyance from eBeth ("That's crappy, does it do that every time it's windy?"). She created a CBS account just to leave comments on my original article in protest (one of which received the most "like" votes of any comment so far).

I understand I should have installed "guy wires" on my elaborate rooftop antenna to prevent wind-caused interruptions, but frankly I'm just happy the thing didn't blow down completely in the 40+ mph gusts. I also checked Hulu Plus, but that night's episode wasn't available yet.

Thursday, November 18: No major issues. I also figured out that TV.com was much more reliable than CBS.com via PlayOn, so eBeth was able to catch up on her daytime TV. … Read more

Verizon Communications is now offering its Fios customers a new service that delivers 150Mbps download speeds and uploads of 35 Mbps.

The company announced today that consumers in its Fios fiber-to-the-home territory are now eligible for the new service. Small-business customers will be eligible for the service by the end of the year.

Verizon has been pushing the envelope in terms of broadband speeds since it began offering the fiber-to-the-home Fios service. The faster broadband is overkill for most people, but Verizon said that speeds such as these will be necessary as Americans adopt more bandwidth-intensive activities such as 3D … Read more

Google has found another partner for its television advertising project in a familiar place.

Verizon Communications' Fios TV service has signed a deal with Google TV Ads to feature video ads uploaded to Google by advertisers wanting to use the search giant's self-service ad tools, the companies announced today.

Advertisers will be able to reach an additional 3.3 million homes with the deal, which will see Verizon and Google collaborating on yet another project, in line with their strong Android partnership and joint efforts on Net neutrality.

Google TV Ads doesn't get as much buzz as other … Read more