FiOS TV 2.0 hits Northern Virginia!

Well I now have the new Interactive Media Guide (aka FiOS TV 2.0). My inital impressions are that it looks great but is basically the same interface as before just a little prettier. It appears that they used a "blade" style interface a la the XBox 360. The interface is definately one of the nicest DVR interfaces, outside the TiVo. However, it does suffer from some rather annoying deficiencies. Ironically many of these are things lost from the old Interactive Media Guide (1.0).

1. No way to limit the Channels in the Guide: With Tivo and IMG 1.0 you could turn of channels you don't want to see in the channel listing. I typically turn off the foreign language channels, shopping channels, and music channels I don't care for. However, I have not been able to find out how to remove channels. There are some nice pre-defined filters: All Channels, HD Channels, and Favorites. Removing u nwanted channels also helps shrink the database and makes searching much faster and reduces mistakes when selecting programs to records. Its much harder to accidentally record the spanish version of the Discovery channel.

2. The filters are crippled: You can not modify the filters and the HD Channels filter is broken. When you select the HD Channel filter it does not show the local channels.

3. The Favorites feature is now annoying and not useful. When I first realized that I couldn't turn a channel off my first instinct was to just make all the channels I want my favorites and they always use the Favorites filter. Heck there is even a "Favorites" button one the remote. However I eventually figured out that if you pick the english TLC as a favorite you automatically get the spanish TLC as a favorite. I don't speak spanish, so I don't want to have to scroll through those channels in my guide!

4. HD Channel and Favorites Filter jump you to the beginning: Another annoying thing about the "Favorites" Filter is that it jumps you to the beginning of the guide and not the channel you are on! The HD Channel Filter also suffers from this problem but since there aren't that many channels its not as annoying.

5. HD Channel and Favorites Filter don't wrap around. Since these filters jump you to the beginning of the guide, ie lowest channel number, you would think that you could just go up and the channels will wrap around and you will be at the highest number but ohhh no! That would make way to much since.

I have only had the new IMG 2.0 for a few days so I'm sure I'll find more to like and dislike so I will continue to post on this topic. In this post I have focused on what I don't like. In my next post I will try and focus on what I do. There is a lot to the new IMG 2.0 and much of the good stuff is pretty deep in the UI. I personally think that the UI is too deep an needs to be simplified. In my opinion that is the key to TiVo's success.

Google Moving into Healthcare

I recieved my masters degree in Health Systems Management, specializing in IT, from George Mason University last year. During my studies I spent a considerable amout of time studying Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medical Records, and the proposed "National Health Record."

Lets just say the problem is how do we effectively gather, protect, and distribute electronic healthcare information that is useful to clinicians, public health officials, scientists, and patients. At the same time insuring that the most personal of all our information is protected and used against us by the government, corporations, insurance carriers, and society. And, please don't get me started on the potiential "nanny state" implications around electronic health information.

While I was a Mason I heard rumors about Google getting into health care. Soon after I graduated I read and digged an article in eWeek about google getting into the health care space.

The latest which I found on ValleyWag is some screen shots of Google Health, code named Weaver. The interesting thing is that Googles greatest asset in this space is also its greatest weakness. If anyone can lick the electronic health information portability problem Google can. However most people are not real keen on the idea of Google having access to their health information, in addition to our email, browsing history, and shopping habits.

Googles stated goal of indexing the worlds information will come up squarely against there mission to "do no evil." With this much information about individuals the tempation to take advantage of all of that data will be impossible to resist. The results range from the horrorifyingly scarry to the humorously scarry. I have heard fears range from Google putting health information to potential employeers and insurance carriers to a person with Herpes getting Adsense adds for medication during a presentation using Google docs.

On the positive side the benefits to healthcare and science are also staggering. Giving scientists "agregated" data stripped of Personally Health Information (PHI) in a large scale along with the aggregated browsing, shopping, and email habits would be enormous. Think of the connections that could be made: "Porn site visitors have an 80% increase risk of suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." Turns out it isn't the keyboards at work that is the problem its the porn on the computer!

Then I read another Valley Wag post by, Owen Thomas, that brought me a completely new perspective. His theory is that Microsoft and Google's entry into healthcare is just a expensive busy work project for executives they can not afford to get rid of. Though I tend to agree with one of the commenter's who said that Google and Microsoft's entry is great if nothing else they will shake up the establishment.

If you think Google and Microsoft are errogant in their business practices you haven't seen the heavy weights of healthcare IT. Nothing says closed, proprietary, legacy like GE, Phillips, 3M, and Siemens. Google and Microsoft will be a big threat to them and that will be a battle of biblical proportions that might actually do some good once the dust settles. The scarry thing again is, this is healthcare and thus human lives that are at risk.

FiOS is Kryponite for DirectTV and Cable

In the first 90 days of the FiOS availability 34 Massachusetts towns, this is how the losses stack up:1. Comcast lost 5,216 subscribers across a base of 204,160, a drop of 2.6%.2. RCN lost 1,813 subscribers, or 7% off its base of 25,895 subscribers.3. 4.5k FiOS TV subscribers came from DirecTV/DISH, or about 40% of their total subscriber4. Verizon’s gain was 11,982 subscribers.I guess that explains why Massachusetts is getting FiOS TV 2.0 next!

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Diagram of FiOS Network

I thought it might be helpful for those considering Verizon FiOS to know what the topology might look like. The diagram shows my current topology.

Two things I am curious about.
1. The STBs show up in the router as Coax IP connections.
2. The internet connection comes into the router through the coax same splitter that connects the STBs.
3. The home media option allows me to access music and photos from my primary workstation.

I suspect that this allows the STB to get OnDemand via IP without going through the router. However, it also means that for the Home Media option to work the STBs have to be punched through the firewall in the router since they are technically connected to the WAN port.

It is also possible that the STBs have wireless capabilities that may get them "inside" the firewall. If this is the case then what happens if I try and change from WEP to WPA? WEP is configured by default and the "key" is etched on the bottom of the Router. I definately plan on moving to WPA so I'll learn pretty quick if the STBs are wireless or coax?

Also the HD DVR STB has an ethernet jack on the back however the installer told me that it wasn't necessary to use.

I will post some screen shots of the router. It has a very polished and slick GUI that I like quite a bit. However, I do want to do some port scans and traffic analysis on both my internal network and from the internet to see how the data is flowing.

FiOS TV 2.0 Update - Verizon Planning Q4 role out!

The update to Verizon's interactive media guide is coming soon. It has been piloted in Connecticut and New Jersey and is headed to Massachusetts very soon. Also, later in 2008 their may be a role out of "games and the ability to program the DVR remotely."

I guess I'll have to wait a little longer. : (

There is also a link on the Engadget page to Verizon's Blog. I believe this is the source of the engadget post.

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FiOS Install Pictures

This is a picture of the FiOS Termination that is mounted to the outside of my house. The installer did a good job of mounting the box as well as enlarging the pentration that was sealed with silicon claulk.
















Here you can see the POT phone line connection as well as the coax connection. The coax carries both TV and Internet access. I will post pictures of my closet in future posts.











This the bottom of the FiOS Termination Box. Unfortuantly I wasn't able to get a picture of the "craft" side of the box on the left. I believe one of the two wires on the left side connects to a UPS mounted inside my house.












This is the box near the street where the fibre from my house connects to the trunk.

Finally: Verizon Wirless to release 5 new phones in August! [PIC]

Models include: Motorola Z6tv, Motorola RAZR 2 Q9M (iPhone Killer), Samsung i760, UTStarcom XV6800. There a link in the comments to a less blurry version of the image.Since my contract with Verizon Wireless runs out in August this is perfect timing!

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