Time to cut the cable once and for all?

On the eve of the Oscars, I got this lovely note from Cablevision telling me they’ve yanked WABC programming from my service over their pricing dispute. Lovely. I wish I could feel any sympathy for Cablevision at all. But I don’t. Over the years, my bill has gone up even as I’m bombarded with more crappy programming and attempted upsells. Most of my TVs are analog cable connected through TiVo (with one HD set connected via Cable Card and a TiVo Series 3). Each quarter, more of the analog channel get cut to the point where most of the TVs in the house barely get any programming. A good deal of the HD programming won’t work because they say my TiVo isn’t fully compatible with their signal. The solution to all of this of course is for me to replace all my TiVo boxes with Cablevision boxes and of course, pay even more money to them each month. This morning’s email may really be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Cablevision politely suggested

“While we work to return WABC-7 to the lineup, you can watch WABC-7 free over the air by obtaining a digital TV antenna from your local consumer electronics store. Or, you can watch almost all of ABC’s prime time programming free on the Internet at hulu.com or abc.com.”

Perhaps that’s a good idea. I could still keep my Series 3 for OTA HD, including WABC and as for the few cable shows I watch supplement that TiVo with a MacMini running Boxee and Hulu along with a Loop controller. Add in a Netflx streaming subscription and I probably have more content than I possibly could watch and I’ll save a good deal of money as well.

It’s not a perfect setup but it’s something I’m going to start to put together in my spare time and see how well it works. Perhaps it’s time to cut the cable once and for all. Of course, since i’m not getting TV programming from Cablevision anymore, perhaps it’s also time to look to FIOS for Internet access…

Capturing Caressability

One of the things I’ve been working on for years is how to properly quantify a term I’ve used to describe a certain attribute of some devices. I call it “caressability”, the immediate desire to grab an hold a new device when you see it for the first time. It’s a term where it’s easier to show examples than to explain. For example, iPhones have caressability, Droid’s don’t. The RAZR had it, LG phones didn’t. It’s not something that’s limited to portable electronics either. As was pointed out to me by a friend, Ferrari’s have this attribute as well, Oldsmobiles do not. Breitling watches have it, Seiko watches do not.

It’s an important attribute to understand as it clearly resonates with consumers and can help elevate a product out of ordinary status (even if it only has ordinary features). As i still work to wrap my head around this, I’d love to hear what you think gives a product caressability.