TiVo's Needed in Hotels

It's pretty common these days for hotels to include in-room high-speed internet access and even wireless WiFi connections in common areas. It wasn't long ago I would choose where to stay based on internet access. A company called STSN(now Ibahn) was one of the first high speed hotel providers. Before traveling I would also go to the STSN web site to check which hotels were supported. This was a big improvement over the days when hotels didn't even have modular jacks. I used to pack a knife and screw driver to hook up my 1200 or 9600 baud dial up modem.

Cindi and I are currently on vacation and there's an amenity we both hope to have next year. If we're lucky we can choose our vacation location based on the availability of TiVo or some other in-room DVR. It's not like we're TV addicts but we're seriously hooked on the ability to pause or do a quick rewind.

We're not the only ones. Our grand kids have been raised in a world where entertainment can be paused. Recently at the dinner table our youngest grandson Tristan(4) told us all to "Pause!, please" while he went to the kitchen for a drink.

There was a Slashdot post recently about a TiVo patent which may apply so perhaps there is hope!

The patent application describes the invention as "a multimedia mobile personalization system provides a remote control that detects a user's electronic tag, e.g. an RFID tag." It also promises personalized viewing at a variety of locations, detailing how TiVo might forward stored shows from home to a TV in a hotel room, for example. It remains to be seen whether hotels will be eager to help TiVo undermine their pay-per-view video revenue.

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