News is leaking out that TiVo has planned a partnership with Verizon Wireless for their subscribers to schedule TiVo recording by cellphones, in a new service called TiVo Mobile. Not to be confused with a service that would offer TV viewing on Verizon phones, or viewing of TiVo hard drives remotely by the phone, it's only "yet another way" to schedule your TiVo when you're not home - on top of using the Tivo.com Web site or through Yahoo!'s online TV listings.

Hardly seems worth the bother. How often do you find yourself wishing you could reschedule your TiVo when you're both not at home and outside of reach of the Web by computer? And if you think about it, this only impacts those customers who already have a TiVo Series 2 (online scheduling isn't available on Series 1 DVRs) and who have Verizon Wireless. Sorry Cingular, T-Mobile, AT&T and other customers...

Of course, there's always the chance that either the news is wrong or I simply am too dense to get it. I really want TiVo to succeed, and wish there were more substantive news, but the company isn't exactly blowing me away lately.

(Update: Tivo issued a press release this morning)

Click the image to see larger graphic.

Microsoft's stealth PR campaign on what should be one of the first handheld devices to run full-blown Windows XP is continuing, with more leaked imagery, to match the video and additional source code seen on the Origami project site.

Definitely looks like the goal of the project is to impact Apple's lead with their combined iTunes and iPod combo. You better believe that Microsoft is hoping their Origami will leapfrog the iPod and leverage the installed base using Windows Media Player. Earlier news reports said that Origami is not intended as a gaming machine to act as a portable Xbox.

(Image originally found here: http://dpud.primarydesigns.net/a/origamibig.jpg)

Those in power and those who report on those that hold the power have never had the best of relationships. From Nixon's Watergate details being unveiled through the Washington Post to the innumerable quasi-scandals that dogged Clinton during his eight years in office, the press has often considered itself the fourth branch of government (the other three being executive, legislative and judicial of course). Armed with some stories of success and the need to drive ratings through sensationalism, skepticism or controversy, a hostile press can be very damaging to an administration.

Under the Bush White House, the administration's focus on PR tactics gained them a considerable amount of leeway - as following the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, with Bush's approval ratings through the roof (odd how letting that happen helped others opinions of him), the administration marched into Afghanistan and Iraq on a glimpse of reason, while at the same time limiting privacy at home, and engaging in secret activities. While this "honeymoon" lasted the better part of a year or two, the culmination of bad news and bad publicity around the continued War in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the continued lack of finding Osama Bin Laden, and a series of unqualified nominations for every public position from the Supreme Court on down, eventually turned the press to be more inquisitive, and this is driving the Bush White House nuts.

In the last year, the press has gotten ahold of and aired imagery on Abu Ghraib, uncovered secret international prisons run by the CIA, and discussed secret wiretapping of US citizens. Had it not been for the tenacity of the press in these cases, we could likely still be in the dark, as the administration has not exactly displayed a historic level of openness. Now, according to a story in the Washington Post today, the Bush administration has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their potential sources. This inquisition has extended beyond the federal realm in Washington DC, reaching to places including the Sacramento Bee, who has seen FBI agents from Los Angeles target the paper following a story on a terrorism case in Lodi.

The first amendment to the US Constitution protects freedom of the press to disseminate information - and for those leaders in office who make the laws and are expected to be truthful to be attempting to undermine this relationship and go after those who may have inconveniently revealed data they had wanted sealed only makes the situation worse - not that we would expect anything more from the Bush White House who has made bad decisions and idiocy an art unto itself.