O Frabjous Day!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Engadget reports today on an "in-the-wild" sighting of a TiVo Series 3.

TiVo has been conducting a small-scale customer beta of the new box. According to the Engadget post, the new TiVo has two CableCard slots ( A CableCard is a PCMCIA card that lets the TiVo directly receive cable signals without a set-top box from your cable company), but the user who has this unit reported significant difficulty getting various CableCards to actually work.

The rumor mill has it that the price of the new TiVo will be a bit steep -- anywhere from $500-800 -- but the feature set is greatly enhanced and the TiVo Faithful and/or anyone who has had to suffer with the appalling DVRs issued by their cable companies will be very likely to bite even at the highest price point. We absolutely and utterly hate our Comcast-provided DVR set-top and I would love to get rid of it at the earliest opportunty, but I have to say that $800 would probably slow me down for a couple of months. If they price it between $300-500, I would consider robbing small children of their lunch money to be able to buy one right away.

Also, if you go to the original blog post where the Engadget guys found this info and read through the comments, one commenter asserts that the Series 3 will be officially announced on September 12 and available to order beginning September 13.

I quiver with anticipation.