https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2017/08/30/apple-iphone-8-release-date-price-design-specs-ios-11/#2576ec6d7fea

Tech insiders speculated that Apple may ditch the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack in its next generation of iPhones — raising fears that iPhone owners might have to replace their pricey audio accessories if they choose to upgrade

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/new-thinner-iphone-ditch-headphone-jack-report-article-1.2451214

http://lifehacker.com/the-best-windows-10-features-you-probably-haven-t-heard-1721054092

Thousands of gamers reported problems accessing the networks Wednesday and Thursday. Lizard Squad claims it took the networks offline and demanded more retweets and followers as ransom.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/lizard-squad-takes-credit-xbox-live-playstation-outage-article-1.2056736

This isn’t the kind of sneak peek Sony Pictures had in mind for its holiday blockbusters.

Computer hackers have stolen five new movies from the studio — and they’ve already been illegally downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.

Brad Pitt’s war flick “Fury†— which is still playing in movie theaters — and “Annie,†which isn’t scheduled to be released for another three weeks, were among the pirated films.

“The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it,†a Sony spokeswoman told Variety, the show business trade magazine.

Cyber criminals attacked the studio’s computer system on Nov. 24, accessing watermarked versions of the films that were being sent to award voters.

A hacker group dubbing itself “Guardians of Peace†left behind an image of a skeleton on the company’s computers along with the message “Hacked by #GOP.†The thieves also threatened to leak “top secrets†of Sony Pictures.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/pirates-hack-sony-movies-article-1.2028470

Grand Theft Auto V is changing the way gamers see prostitutes. Literally.

The newest addition to the franchise, now available for the Play Station 4 and the X-Box One, gives gamers a first-person perspective when they go on killing sprees, send text messages and even when they have sex.

The game features explicit footage of players having sex with prostitutes. In previous versions, the camera would simply pan out and the player would only see the car move back and forth with audible moaning.

Now, the camera focuses on women engaging in oral sex and climbing on top of a player.

Rockstar Games has not commented on the graphic scenes, but its founder has talked about the new first-person feature.

"This was our chance to push Grand Theft Auto V even further, adding a new first-person mode and working to make the most of the power of the new consoles, " Sam Houser said in a statement.

A call to Rockstar Games seeking comment was not returned.

Gameplay videos are already circulating the Web, like this one — which has graphic content — on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDCd_19ZRII

http://ringtv.craveonline.com/news/360951-video-experience-the-ring-digital-edition-and-app-today

5G will allow users to download a 800-megabyte movie file in one second, compared with 40 seconds using 4G, the science ministry said, adding that such speeds would help South Korean firms win overseas deals. A ministry spokesman said: 'We helped fuel national growth with 2G services in the 1990s, 3G in the 2000s and 4G around 2010. Now it is time to take preemptive action to develop 5G.' 'Countries in Europe, China and the US are making aggressive efforts to develop 5G technology ... and we believe there will be fierce competition in this market in a few years,' it said.

Under the roadmap, a trial 5G service will be rolled out in 2017 and a fully commercial service in December 2020. Priority will be given to developing key features for the new network, including Ultra-HD and hologram transmission as well as cutting-edge social networking services. Related industries will be able to rack up sales of 5G-related devices and infrastructure equipment worth 331 trillion won from 2020 to 2026, the ministry estimated. The government hopes to implement the plan with investment and cooperation from operators such as SK Telecom and Korea Telecom as well as handset makers like Samsung and LG. It also aims to expand the telecom infrastructure equipment industry, which is relatively weaker than the mighty mobile device sector. Led by Samsung - the world's top handset maker - South Korea has a leading 30-percent stake in the global mobile device market.

'But the (telecom) infrastructure equipment industry has only a 4.4 percent share in the global market, with exports very limited,' the ministry said. Chinese equipment makers including Huawei have expanded their presence in the global market from 12 percent in 2007 to 26 percent in 2012. Huawei announced in November that it was looking at a 5G commercial rollout by 2020, with a minimum investment of $600 million to develop the technology. Seoul intends to take up to a 20 percent stake in the world's telecom infrastructure equipment market by 2020, according to the ministry. New opportunities South Korea is renowned for being at the forefront of internet technology with broadband speeds that consistently out-pace those in Europe or the United States. Officials said the new service would also mean people on bullet trains running faster than 500 kilometres (310 miles) an hour would even be able to access the Internet, compared with 300 kph currently.

'Bullet trains around the world keep getting faster, with some in China running as fast as 500 and 600 kilometres per hour,' said one ministry official who declined to be named. 'If we have the technology to allow fast Internet access in these trains, it can open new opportunities for us globally,' he said. Samsung Electronics announced back in May that it had successfully tested 5G technology, managing data transmission of more than one gigabyte per second over a distance of two kilometres. Samsung said it had found a way to harness millimetre-wave bands which have proved to be a sticking point for the mobile industry to date. The test used 64 antenna elements, which the tech titan said overcame the issue of 'unfavourable propagation characteristics' that have prevented data travelling across long distances using the bands. However, it made clear that the technology would not be available commercially before the end of the decade.

THE 5G REVOLUTION
1,000 times faster than the 4G
Speeds of up to 1gbps
800-megabyte movie file downloaded in less than one second
Trial 5G service will be rolled out in South Korea in 2017
Fully commercial service in December 2020
Chinese manufacturer Huawei looking at a 5G rollout by 2020

Today is the web’s 25th birthday. On March 12, 1989, I distributed a proposal to improve information flows: “a ‘web’ of notes with links between them.â€

Though CERN, as a physics lab, couldn’t justify such a general software project, my boss Mike Sendall allowed me to work on it on the side. In 1990, I wrote the first browser and editor. In 1993, after much urging, CERN declared that WWW technology would be available to all, without paying royalties, forever.
 

This decision enabled tens of thousands to start working together to build the web. Now, about 40 percent of us are connected and creating online. The web has generated trillions of dollars of economic value, transformed education and healthcare and activated many new movements for democracy around the world. And we’re just getting started.

How has this happened? By design, the underlying Internet and the WWW are non-hierarchical, decentralized and radically open. The web can be made to work with any type of information, on any device, with any software, in any language. You can link to any piece of information. You don’t need to ask for permission. What you create is limited only by your imagination.

So today is a day to celebrate. But it’s also an occasion to think, discuss—and do. Key decisions on the governance and future of the Internet are looming, and it’s vital for all of us to speak up for the web’s future. How can we ensure that the other 60 percent around the world who are not connected get online fast? How can we make sure that the web supports all languages and cultures, not just the dominant ones? How do we build consensus around open standards to link the coming Internet of Things? Will we allow others to package and restrict our online experience, or will we protect the magic of the open web and the power it gives us to say, discover, and create anything? How can we build systems of checks and balances to hold the groups that can spy on the net accountable to the public? These are some of my questions—what are yours?

On the 25th birthday of the web, I ask you to join in—to help us imagine and build the future standards for the web, and to press for every country to develop a digital bill of rights to advance a free and open web for everyone. Learn more and speak up for the sort of web we really want with #web25.

Posted by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

The first web server, used by Tim Berners-Lee. Photo via Wikipedia

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/on-25th-anniversary-of-web-lets-keep-it.html

Siri is real , here goes that bitch  , " say a command"

Grand Theft Auto V has crossed the $1 billion sales mark after three days in stores, a rate faster than any other video game, film or other entertainment product has ever managed, its creator Take Two Interactive Inc said on Friday.

The latest installment of GTA, a cultural phenomenon that has sparked a national debate on adult content and violence, received strong reviews and racked up $800 million in first-day sales alone.

That marked a launch-day record for the Grand Theft Auto franchise which is Take Two’s most lucrative and allows players to cruise around a make-believe gameworld based on real-life locations such as Los Angeles.

Take-Two shares were little changed at $17.48 in early afternoon-trading on the Nasdaq.

Gamers had eagerly awaited the fifth installment of the 16-year-old game after Grand Theft Auto IV was released in 2008.

It took more than five years to be developed by Take-Two’s Rockstar Games studio at a cost of between $200 million and $250 million, according to some analysts’ estimates.

Last year, it took Activision Blizzard Inc’s first-person shooter title “Call Of Duty: Black Ops II†15 days to hit $1 billion in global sales after its November release. That game took in sales of $500 million on its first day.

While GTA V is off to a flying start, industry analysts are keeping a close eye on Take-Two’s ability to sustain sales momentum.

Grand Theft Auto V is currently only available on Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 consoles, owned by over 160 million gamers. Take-Two is yet to announce a version for the much-awaited next-generation Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, which will go on sale in November.

http://nypost.com/2013/09/21/grand-theft-auto-makes-1b-in-record-time/

http://www.johnlewis.com/samsung-ativ-book-9-lite-laptop-quad-core-processor-4gb-ram-128gb-ssd-13-3-white/p607254#default

Target is putting a bull’s eye on Netflix and iTunes.

The retail giant is set to launch a new video streaming service called Target Ticket that will directly compete with the two leaders in the industry – especially with its promise to have next-day TV shows available for a fee, according to Business Insider. News of the upstart first broke in May when a website advertisement about the service went live.

Target Ticket promises to be a formidable foe with instant access to 15,000 movie titles, new releases and classic movies. The company says the new service will work with Windows, Macs, Xbox, iPhone/iPad and Android.
 

Employees have been told Target Ticket will launch “soon,†though details are unclear, Tech Crunch reports. Currently, it is in trial mode with only employees able to use it.

Movies should cost anywhere from $13-$15 to own a digital copy or $4-$5 to rent with individual TV episodes priced at around $3.

ABC, AMC, CBS, CW, FOX, FX, HBO, The WB, NBC, Showtime, Starz and USA have all signed on to participate. Unlike iTunes, Target Ticket will not have a "season pass" option -- you'll only be able to purchase an entire season of a show after it airs, according to Tech Crunch.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/target_netflix_competitor_featuring_2YKMYAiWHNvsfp6Ebw3uXK

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/ps4-release-date-news-and-features-937822

Inevitably, you’ll probably throw it on the charger for as many minutes as you can afford before heading out, but settle on the idea that you will be incommunicado during the latter portion of the night. That is, unless teenage innovator Eesha Khare’s creation sees the light of day. As told by SlashGear, the 18-year-old developed a means of fully charging a cellphone battery in — count ‘em — as little as 30 seconds.

The soon-to-be Harvard student entered her innovation into this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, in which she was named one of three winners, earning her a cash prize of $50,000. The technology that she created may even help power electric cars. It’s so sophisticated that, despite keeping tight lips on the ordeal, Khare has been approached by Google, which has shown some serious interest.

As of now, Khare says she plans to use her prize money to help fund her education at Harvard, where she hopes to continue researching her project. But she currently has no plans to sell her technology, though it seems like she is keeping her options open.

As presented at the science fair, her creation charges an LED, but she says that it is flexible. It can easily adapt so that it can be used in flexible displays and even in fabric. Right now, it can hold 10,000 recharging cycles, which is far better from the standard rechargeable battery, which can only withstand around 1,000.

We’re eager to see the day that we can plug our phones in (or just rest them on a wireless charging dock), and less than a minute later, be good to head out the door, worry-free.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/dead-cellphone-fully-charge-its-battery-in-less-than-a-minute/#ixzz2Ts6LbNQX

Acting with a stunning degree of cyber-skill and tremendously precise coordination, a network of thieves stole $45 million from ATM machines in 26 countries in two global ripoffs, federal authorities said Thursday.

The breathtaking computer-based capers included $2.8 million in funds stolen with ease from cash machines in New York City, marking the biggest cash theft in the city since the infamous $5 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport in 1978.

The money came from information stolen from databases of prepaid debit cards that was then copied onto doctored plastic cards with magnetic strips. The international thefts were pulled off this past Dec. 22, when $5 million was taken, and again on Feb. 19-20, which proved to be the true jackpot, netting $40 million in 36,000 transactions within 10 hours.

The expertise of the operation, and the rapidity through which so-called “cash crews†drained money from ATMs, revealed the increasingly difficult task banks and investigative authorities face in protecting assets in the digital age.

“Instead of using masks and guns, this cyber-crime organization used laptops and malware,†Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch said in announcing the arrest of eight foot soldiers who helped carry out the plans in New York. The leader of the network’s New York cell was also charged, though he was murdered last month in the Dominican Republic.

The ATM withdrawals took place across the globe as cash-grabbing crooks fanned out with the fake cards and acted according to a detailed, supervised plan. Lynch called the network “a virtual criminal flash mob.â€

The hackers obtained debit card data, eliminated withdrawal limits on the accounts, created access codes and then sent a network of operatives fanning out to withdraw money in multiple cities in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, authorities said.

In cyber-crime circles, the jobs the network pulled off are called an “unlimited operation.†The name is simple enough: With top-notch hacking that compromises financial networks, masterminds can access nearly unlimited amounts of money if they can recruit effective underlings.

In this case, the big fish are still at large.

The process started when hackers used complicated computer tricks to breach the networks of two credit card processors that handle transactions for prepaid debit cards, according to authorities.

These cards are generally used by employers to pay employees or by charitable groups to distribute disaster assistance, authorities said. The accounts accessed by the cards are loaded with a specified amount of cash — but the hackers tweaked the virtual security protocols to drastically hike the limits or to do away with them entirely.

From there, the hackers sent the stolen information and PINs to the foot soldiers. The cashers took the information and encoded it onto useless plastic cards — anything with a magnetic stripe, like an old bank card or a gift card sold by a retailer. Next came the flash-mob part of the process, as the “cashers†descended on ATMs according to an intricate plan and used the wired cards to withdraw as much money as they could carry.

All the while, according to authorities, the hackers and brains behind the operation were monitoring each henchman’s take through computer networks. Cash crews in the two heists cleaned out ATMs in countries including Russia, Japan, Egypt, Romania, Britain, Sri Lanka, Canada and Colombia — 26 nations in all.

The cash men then took their cut, laundered the proceeds, and sent the ill-gotten gains to the bosses. Crooks in this type of operation often laundered the hot money by buying luxury goods.

The first cyber-attack targeted pre-paid MasterCard debit cards issued by the National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. The second invasion penetrated computers of Bank of Muscat in Oman.

Authorities said the network’s New York cell was based in Yonkers and coordinated withdrawals of $2.8 million from hundreds of bank machines in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Some of them got sloppy once their wallets got heavy. Investigators seized cell phone photos of the thieves posing with piles of dough.

“They seemed star-struck themselves by the amount of money they had looted," lynch reported

The reputed ringleader of the New York crew, Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pena, who was known in the underworld as “Prime†and “Albertico,†was murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27. Lajud-Pena had more than $100,000 in his possession when he was killed, officials said.

Named in the indictments unsealed in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday were Jael Mejia Collado, 23; Joan Luis Minier Lara, 22; Evan Pena, 35; Jose Familia Reyes, 24; Elvis Rodriguez, 24; Emir Yeje, 24; and Chung Yu-Holguin, 22. All reside in Yonkers.

Collado and Yu-Holguin are employed as bus drivers for private companies contracted by New York City schools, prosecutors said. They were arrested Wednesday night and ordered held without bail.

In New York City, the Yonkers crew grabbed nearly $400,000 in 700 transactions during the December attack, according to court papers. The February strike reaped $2.4 million from 3,000 bank withdrawals made during a wild 10-hour spree.

Lynch said no personal bank accounts were compromised.

After kicking up the required share to the hackers, the crew purchased Rolex watches, a Porsche sedan and a Mercedes Benz SUV.

ATM surveillance camera photos taken between 4:31 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Feb. 19 showed Reyes at multiple bank windows as he cut a swath along Broadway in Manhattan. The footage depicted his backpack getting fuller with each stop — like a scene from a crook’s dream.

Officials refused to discuss the ongoing investigation of the computer hackers, but acknowledged they are not based in the U.S.

These cyber attacks were marked by the “surgical precision†of the hackers, the global breadth and the speed in which the thefts were executed, Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorneys Cristina Posa, Kevin Trowell and Hilary Jager stated in court papers.

Because the withdrawal limits on the fraudulently encoded cards have been lifted, the cyber attack is known as an "unlimited operation" because an unlimited amount of cash can be taken from the ATM machines.

In the theft connected to the Bank of Muscat, more than $2 million in stolen cash remains unaccounted for, prosecutors said.

Besides laundering the funds by purchasing luxury items, a haul of 7,491 $20 bills was deposited in a Miami bank account.

Investigators have amassed “overwhelming†evidence against the defendants by comparing surveillance camera images from the ATM machines to the suspects’ driver’s license photos and Facebook pages, prosecutors said.

Each of the seven living indicted suspects faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on each of the money laundering counts and 71/2 years for conspiracy raps.

Tim Ryan, a former FBI supervisory special agent who led the largest cyber-crime squad in the U.S., said the hackers couldn’t be more different but are united in criminal intent.

“They have two different skill sets and are two different groups of people who would never hang out in a bar together, but when it comes to robbing a bank, there’s a trust between them,†said Ryan, a managing director with Kroll Advisory Solutions

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cyber-thieves-busted-45-million-heist-article-1.1339051#ixzz2StgNqeBN

 

Note: ACE Stream uses in its core, P2P (peer-to-peer) technology, BitTorrent protocol, which is acknowledged as the most effective protocol to transfer/deliver «heavy content».

ACE Stream is more than just BitTorrent client for file exchange via P2P-networks!

The main directions of platform specialization: AVoD (Audio and Video on Demand), Live Stream (live broadcast), localization of foreign BitTorrent traffic, decentralized social networks, and IOTT (Interactive-Over-The-Top).

ACE Stream platform provides excellent audio-visual quality for Internet online broadcasts/shows and the most effective system of storing and delivering audio and video content.

Note: ACE Stream users watch online video with audio-visual quality level ten times greater than quality of video on YouTube (provided in 1080p format) and many times greater than broadcasts/shows of all other existing services of VoD and Live Stream provided by OTT (Over The Top) service operators, which do not use P2P technology.

No existing Live Stream service or standard CDN operator using unicast can provide live broadcast with the same high level quality, for the same number of viewers, that can be provided by the average ACE Stream user from his personal computer using home Internet-channel!

http://info.acestream.org/#/about/acestream

Those of us who can never find our cars in a crowded parking garage may one day get a helping hand from Apple.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Trade and Patent Office, an Apple patent application called "Method for locating a vehicle" describes a technology in which your mobile device can talk to your  car through a Bluetooth connection to confirm that it's parked somewhere nearby. The parking garage itself would also have its own wireless system to pinpoint the exact location of your car.

A map would then display on your phone to lead you to your car, similar to the way current GPS systems lead you to a specific address.

OK, now you've found your car, but you can't find your keys. No problem. Your iPhone could lend a hand with that too.

Another patent application published Thursday called "Accessing a vehicle using portable devices" details a way to unlock the door using your mobile device. Your phone would essentially act as a replacement for a key fob, using certain security and authentication methods to gain access to your car.

Once inside, you could then use your phone to start the car, turn on the radio, adjust the seats, activate the headlights, and open the sunroof. Your car could even change certain settings based on the credentials stored on the iPhone. For example, the car seats or mirror would adjust themselves automatically depending on who's in the driver's seat. According to the application:

In some embodiments, the vehicle-related operation can include a personalization operation, in which the vehicle automatically adjusts an environmental setting (e.g., seat position, mirror position, temperature controls, settings for an audio or audiovisual entertainment system) based on the received vehicle access credential and/or on the particular portable device from which the vehicle access credential is received.

That last feature alone would be a time saver. I'd never again have to manually adjust the seats and mirrors after my wife drives my car.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57581354-37/apple-envisions-ways-to-find-and-start-your-car-with-your-iphone/

Check this baby out for a cool $1,449.99 

http://www.cnet.com/laptops/razer-edge-pro-core/4505-3121_7-35561052.html

However, the car needs an auxiliary input or adapter for running audio to the stereo.

The SmartMini Aux, constructed of black plastic, looks like an ultramodern drawer pull. Its offset T shape includes a flared base fitted with a Velcro pad for mounting in a car. A long wire tipped with a 1/8-inch audio jack leads out of the base.

The business end, a short, curved bar, is tipped with a microphone. A single button on top works as the SmartMini Aux's sole control. Blue and red LEDs hidden in the button serve as mode indicators.

http://reviews.cnet.com/home-entertainment/gogroove-smartmini-aux/4505-6449_7-35636377.html

Of course, the current Xbox 360 is getting long in the tooth, and the next-generation model is expected to be announced soon, and to be available as early as the end of 2013. And TV services look to be just as central to the core of that device as gaming.

Last week, The Verge reported that Microsoft plans to enable live TV access on the upcoming console:

The functionality will work by taking a cable box signal and passing it through to the Xbox via HDMI, allowing Microsoft's console to overlay a UI [user interface] and features on top of an existing TV channel or set-top box.

That story would seem to confirm earlier rumors that the next Xbox would have support for live TV input, among other upgraded entertainment options, including Blu-ray.

So, the "Xbox 720" is taking a page from Google TV. But is that wise? Gigaom's Janko Roettgers asks, "Really, Microsoft? Your vision for the future of TV is...an HDMI cable?" He makes some solid points, ending his argument with "HDMI pass-through is the ultimate admission of defeat."

Maybe so. Google TV, after all, was hardly the sort of game-changer we've seen from Google's search engine or  Android OS. But, ironically, Google TV-style HDMI pass-through -- in which media from your existing cable box or DVR is viewed through your Xbox -- might be a necessary, and even genius, short-term move on the way to owning the doorway to the future of home entertainment.

Here's why.

The future of cable TV is apps... but that future's not here yet

Yes, video apps are beautiful. They're fun. They're becoming ubiquitous. But they're not cable-box or DVR replacments yet. HBO Go is the reigning example of the shining future of apps, but most other cable TV networks don't have anything like it. Cable providers themselves have a cluttered hit-and-miss landscape of apps. The result: most wannabe cord-cutters can only go halfway.

Using an Xbox 360 for video is an awesome experience, but it's a cable TV accessory, not a cable replacement. The Xbox 360 currently boasts a huge assortment of video services, including Netflix, Vudu, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, and HBO Go, as well as apps for Fios and Comcast. Those cable apps are nice, but they fall short of the "cable TV as an app" experience that many are looking for. Channel selection is limited: the Fios app offers 75 live channels, while Comcast's Xfinity app offers only on-demand programs (no live TV). There's also no integration with programs you've recorded on your DVR.

And that's the problem. The current TV experience on Xbox seems to be an either-or proposition: on-demand or live, but not both. And that's hardly limited to the Xbox -- even Roku's promising Time Warner Cable app lacks on-demand content, at least for now.

An HDMI input lets the Xbox get full access to all of your cable content -- both live and recorded -- without having to wait for cable and satellite companies to improve their apps. The future of pay TV is undoubtedly streaming, but Microsoft can use an HDMI input as a bridge until the industry catches up. Given the cable industry's tortoiselike pace of innovation, it makes sense not to wait.

Google TV's main failing: Not clever enough about HDMI-in

If all this sounds familiar, that's because it's precisely the same pitch made for Google TV when it was introduced over two years ago. And we know how that went.

Still, Google TV's problem has always been the execution, rather than the concept. Aggregating and searching between all the content providers you pay for is still a good idea, it just needs to be done in a way that doesn't involve a 70-button remote.

With the Xbox 360, Microsoft has proven it "gets" the living-room experience, much more than Google has so far. Everything about the Xbox 360's video offerings is geared toward the "lean back" experience, whereas Google TV tried to bring Google's Chrome to your TV, a la Web TV. Voice search via the Kinect remains one of the fastest ways to find content and one of the few times it's worth using voice commands. It feels like the future. All it's missing is your cable and DVR data.

The real challenge will be working with cable and satellite providers to get the "hooks" needed to interact with their set-top boxes in a meaningful way. (Many cable and satellite providers already offer apps that permit smartphones to double as remote controls via Wi-Fi, for instance -- much more reliable and faster than relying on IR blasters.) Google TV only integrates well with Dish Network; Nintendo's TVii (the TV control scheme built into the Wii U controller) is similarly limited to TiVo. In other words, if you're using another company's DVR -- Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Cox, whatever -- you need to fire up your box's EPG and find the program yourself, defeating the purpose of aggregating the content in the first place.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-9020_7-57579656-222/how-the-next-xbox-can-win-the-cable-tv-war/