TiVo Slide in Wall Street Journal
(click pic for larger version)
Wow, this is pretty cool. The print edition of the Wall Street Journal devoted nearly half a page to its review of the Slide remote. I had already read the online version of the article, but to see the print article with a giant photo of the remote is pretty awesome. Either it was a really slow news day or the Slide remote is just that cool. I prefer to think the latter. 
TiVo Slide Remote
Introducing the hands down, coolest remote in the world: the TiVo Slide! I’ve designed a lot of products in my career, but the Slide is, without a doubt, the one I’m most proud of and feel the most ownership over.
One of the most rewarding things for me about product design is being able to go into a store like Best Buy, see a product, and know that I designed it. Most people have no idea about the amount of hard work and dedication, not to mention creativity, that goes into designing and creating great products. Understanding what it takes, seeing the end result sitting on a shelf, and knowing that it is, or will be, used and enjoyed by many people is a fantastic feeling. For me, it provides a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, and is one of the main factors that motivate and drive me.
The Slide remote, however, went a step beyond that. To come up with an idea, push that concept through the company, and then design and bring that idea to production represents to me another level of accomplishment. It’s a big part of why the Slide is so special to me. More…
TiVo Wireless N Adapter
The latest fruits of my labor: the sleek and incredibly sexy TiVo Wireless N adapter. It has the same design language as our original wireless G adapter, but several aesthetic enhancements to the design make it look far cooler.
For starters, the metal base is stunningly beautiful. Whereas the G adapter has a lighter colored brushed metal finish, the N adapter uses a black chrome finish giving it a much classier, sophisticated, and high-end look. It’s drop-dead gorgeous if I do say so myself!
With the G adapter, I was never quite happy with the logo treatment. The logo is printed on a label which is then stuck on – it’s basically a sticker which, perception-wise, just seems cheaper to me. The N adapter’s logo is monochrome silver and back (in and of itself cooler IMO), and the strict TiVo shape protrudes from the antenna, giving the TiVo guy depth. And not only is the face of the TiVo logo silver, but so are the sidewalls of the protruding logo. Most people reading this will probably be rolling their eyes, but these are the kinds of details that some design engineers obsess about.
Design details aside, the N adapter offers much better range and speed compared with our G adapter. And if you have a WPS capable router, then connecting the adapter to your router is as simple as pushing a button on your router and then pushing a button on the adapter.
Here’s some pics of our N adapter. It’s available now on tivo.com and various retailers.
Disclaimer: Any and all content posted on this website regarding TiVo represent the views and opinions of the author only and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of TiVo, Inc.
TiVo Premiere & Premiere XL
Today, we introduced the Premiere and Premiere XL which both feature the cool new wide-screen HD UI (High-Definition User Interface for the lay people). They also feature remote controls designed by yours truly.
To the casual eye, the Premiere XL remote probably doesn’t look much different from the current Series3 / TiVoGlo remote. However, there are some important changes. More…
Dave & Susan’s Wedding
Pics from Dave and Susan’s wedding and reception including a mesmerizing dance performance by Preston!
Lounging Latte
A few pics of the lazy Latte lounging.
Ryan & Connie’s Wedding
Pics from Ryan and Connie’s wedding and surprise announcement (Connie’s pregnant!).
AVP San Francisco 2009
Judy and I met up with a bunch of friends at this year’s AVP in San Francisco where Judy was able to get a bunch of photos with some AVP stars.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrel Dog
I spotted Latte romping around outside with a big leaf stuck to her head. It was quite comical so I decided to snap some photos. In addition to the leaf, I found that she had stuff hanging from her lip as well as a bug crawling on her forehead. Latte is truly a dirty rotten scoundrel dog.
The RohJuh Dance Has Gone Global!
As many who read this site know, Judy and I showed off our, uh, “dance skills” during our wedding reception. Well, it looks like our little routine has gone global. Yesterday, I received an email from a soon-to-be-married couple from Iceland (yeah, Iceland!) who wants to do their own “surprise first dance”. They stumbled upon the video of our first dance, liked what they saw (or at least the music 
) and asked for a copy of the dance mix I created. How cool is that?
Anyhow, the mix is too big for email (28 MB .aif file) so I’m posting it here so they (or anyone else for that matter) can download.
Here it is: Roger and Judy’s Reception Dance Mix
Glorious Day for TiVo
Yesterday, Judge Folsom finally made his ruling in our long-standing patent litigation case against Echostar. When I joined TiVo nearly 4-1/2 years ago, this case had already begun, and it was one of the main reasons I was so optimistic about TiVo’s future. Well, the wheels of justice turn a lot slower than I had expected, but they do turn, and fortunately the outcome is as I had hoped.
Who knows what shenanigans Charlie Ergen (Echostar’s CEO) has planned next, but this ruling is very significant and most analysts seem to agree that ol’ Charlie has just about run out of options. The market seems to agree with TiVo stock up nearly 50%.
Injuries and Muscle-Ups
From an injury standpoint, the last 6 months haven’t been very good for me. I developed a pretty bad case of climber’s elbow (basically the same thing as the more commonly known “tennis elbow”) last November. Prior to the injury, I had already committed to going on a climbing trip to Joshua Tree, and although I tried to take it easy on that trip, I’m pretty sure I ended up aggravating my condition.
You know things aren’t good when you can’t even lift an empty glass mug without feeling a shooting pain. With climbing injuries, I’ve learned the hard way that the best course of action is to entirely cease all climbing and to just let things heal. So I did the right thing and put my climbing gym membership on hold which meant no climbing for at least a month. Much to my dismay, the nature of the injury also meant no volleyball either since the act of passing or bumping the ball would hurt my arm (although strangely enough, it didn’t really hurt when hitting).
Despite depriving myself of climbing and volleyball, the healing process was aggravatingly slow. I ended up having to extend the hold on my climbing membership to two months. By mid-January, however, my arm was finally feeling better and I was optimistic that I would be back in action soon.
January marks the beginning of snowboarding season and I was happy that my climber’s elbow wouldn’t affect my ability to snowboard. Well, as (bad) luck would have it, I ended up spraining the MCL on my left knee during my very first snowboarding trip of the year. So just as my arm was almost healed, I screw up another part of my body. 
More…
Kirkwood & Heavenly
Here’s some pics from our weekend snowboarding trip to Tahoe. We went to Kirkwood on Saturday and then hit Heavenly for the first time on Sunday. The weather was absolutely beautiful as you can see from the photo above.
My dilapidated knee held up much better than I thought it would. In fact, it actually felt stronger after the trip than before. Hopefully that means it’s well on its way to a full recovery.
Sierra at Tahoe & Northstar
I decided to join Mike for a weekend snowboarding trip to Tahoe. Judy wasn’t quite in the mood to go on such a last-minute trip (the notion of going didn’t cross my mind until late Friday afternoon), and since several of Mike’s buddies flaked, it ended up just being Mike and myself.
We stayed at Mike’s timeshare in the Tahoe area and hit Sierra at Tahoe the first day. It was my first time there and I wasn’t too impressed as the resort is quite small with not a lot of varied terrain. My favorite part of the resort was one of the parks which had perfectly sized (for me) jumps and boxes, but I only got two runs through it before they closed it off for some kind of class. 
The next day, we hit Northstar which I liked much better than Sierra. Conditions were much improved as well and we were able to find quite a few stashes of good powder in the trees. We were having loads of fun until about mid afternoon when I took a jump slightly off balance and somehow hyper-extended my leg/knee on the landing. I tried doing another run, but quickly realized that the injury was serious enough that I couldn’t finish out the day. I headed back down early while Mike did a few more runs.
At first, my knee didn’t feel too bad (not good for sure, but not that bad), but I did have a noticeable limp. As time passed and my body cooled down during the drive back, things really stiffened up and by the time we got home, I had a seriously pronounced limp. Hopefully I can get over this soon. Oh well, I guess that’s what I get for going snowboarding without Judy.
I only took a small handful of pics.
Steamboat Springs
Some photos and vids from our first trip to Steamboat Springs.
