Last week Comedy Central announced the launch of a new website for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” which features clips from every episode which has aired since 1999. (Is also when Jon Stewart signed on as host) Comedy Central also claims that they will soon add full high quality episodes of every show ever filmed. Viacom, the parent company, made a pretty intelligent move by pulling all their clips off YouTube then launching this site. With this launch, viewers will no longer have to visit YouTube for this content and Viacom will make some big bucks through advertising revenue from their new site. This is also a big win for viewers since the content remains free, is now available in high quality, and is fully organized.

“There continues to be a rabid appetite for Comedy Central programming online,” Erik Flannigan VP Digital Media, Comedy Central. “With thedailyshow.com, we have created an online destination that raises the bar by providing an exhaustive video library for everything ‘Daily Show’.”

In addition to allow users to watching videos, The Daily Show’s website offers sharing the clips on a variety of popular social networking and link-sharing sites such as facebook, digg, and del.icio.us. Bloggers and website owners will also have the ability to easily add the clips to their own page. The content has only been made available due to advertisements and sponsors as expected. As a result users will be required to view an advertisement before they can actually begin watching the requested clip. Despite this, Comedy Central has taken a huge step by launching this site. Although NBC, ABC, and FOX now offer the ability to watch new prime-time shows online, no one (to my knowledge) has made their entire history available for free online. Hopefully larger networks will follow Comedy Central’s lead.

Links: The Daily Show | Comedy Central

I recently purchased a portable fridge for my dorm room on Amazon. When I received the package, everything worked fine, but there was a very visible dent on the side of the door. Being the picky person I am and wanting my full $200 worth, I asked Amazon for a replacement unit. Amazon kindly agreed to replace the damaged unit and since I was in a rush, they even threw in “One-Day Shipping” through UPS. I placed the original unit at the door for UPS to pickup, and when I got home the original package was taken and the replacement was at the doorstep.

The “new” box looked pretty badly beaten up, smashed, and torn. When I opened the box I was horrified to see the fridge’s front door had a HUGE “bullet-hole” looking crater. The rest of the unit was scratched up, smashed inwards, and bulging out. And to top that, the unit was soaked in some weird liquid. I decided to open the fridge door, to make things even worse, it fell right off its hinges.

I once again called Amazon’s Customer Service, to see if I could get a “working” replacement. Amazon didn’t agree to replace it this time, but offered a full refund and free pickup of the trashed unit. I ended up purchasing the unit at Fry’s Electronics, a bay area computer store, which actually ended up being about $25 cheaper since it was on sale. I constantly order items from Amazon and I have literally never received a damaged product. My guess is that this had something to do with UPS’s deliver guy. There have been videos online of delivery personnel throwing packages across driveways to the door step.

As for Amazon’s Customer Support, it was just AMAZING. With a click of a button on their website, they call you, you don’t have to dial a 1-800 number and go through the standard “press one for blah” options. Their representative already has your order number and just requires verifying some personal information for security. The wait times were just 3-4 minutes each time I contacted them, which is quicker than any other experience I’ve had. In addition their reps actually knew what they were doing, they were knowledgeable, polite, and well trained. Without any screaming or yelling they were able to quickly drive me through the return process. In addition the second time I called to return the replacement, they themselves suggested a full refund. I even began to feel a bit guilty for returning that original fridge since it was only slightly damaged, but then realized this is the way Customer Service should be!

Has anyone else actually had a GOOD experience with any big company’s customer service?

Links: Amazon.com

Yesterday, after over six months of development, TiVo finally announced their new program “TiVo Mobile,” which allows recording shows directly from their mobile phones. Verizon Wireless customers can download a “Get It Now” application, which they can use to search for shows and eventually schedule them for recording. TiVo Mobile currently only supports use along with Series 2/3 models and will only be available through Verizon Wireless.

“TiVo Mobile scheduling gives Verizon Wireless customers unprecedented control of their television experience and provides that control wherever they are.” Jim Denney, VP TiVo Marketing

The service does have a few downsides. First off, the Get It Now application will cost customers $1.99/month, which is in addition to their TiVo service cost. Second, it is only available on three phones at the time, one of them being the LG Chocolate. This will probably never catch on unless TiVo figures out a way to offer this for free. I would rather prefer access to a “TiVo Mobile” webpage, which works on mobile browsers.

Demo: TiVo Mobile “Walk Though”
Links: TiVo Mobile Info | TiVo Press

Only a few weeks after the previous firmware release, Sony pushed out another update, version v1.50, for the PlayStation 3. Unlike previous patches this update supposedly fixes larger issues such as the jaggedness which appears while playing certain PlayStation 2 games. Multiple patches have been released since launch which have fixed issues such as display problems with 1080i HDTVs and other minor bugs. If you plan to play ANY games on the PlayStation Network, you MUST update to this version (1.50). You will not be allowed to connect to an online game or even browse the online store unless the update is performed on your console.

Sony PS3 Firmware 1.50 Features:

• You can now select an image to use as the User icon from [Photo].
• [Key Tone] has been added as an option under [Sound Settings].
• [Delete Backup Data] has been added under [System Settings] > [Backup Utility].
• WEP 128, WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA-PSK (AES) have been added as security methods.
• The method for saving your password / signing in automatically under PLAYSTATION®Network has been changed. There are now 2 separate options.
• You can now enter text in Korean using the on-screen keyboard.

We updated our console with no issues what so ever. You may update your console in a variety of methods. Either download the update directly to the unit using the built-in System Update function or downloading the file from PlayStation.com and copying it to the PS3’s HDD. The update file is about 100MB so it may take a while to download.

Update: Sony has just released version 1.51 for the PS3. There is literally no changes since v1.50, but Sony’s changelog states “Support for PLAYSTATION 3 format software titles has been expanded.”

Links: PlayStation 3 Updates
Related: PSP Firmware 3.00

Google Docs & Spreadsheets does have some good features such as online collaboration. Users can easily share files via Gmail, invite users to edit or view, and even track document changes using RSS feeds. Although this may be an easy way of working with documents online, it can be risky to leave confidential information on Google’s servers since Google may index and log your docs for internal purposes.

Google’s greatest intention with this product is probably to take a stab at Microsoft’s “Office Online” product which is supposed to be released soon. Google will most likely succeed since Microsoft’s “Office Online” will not be free. Anyways if you want to try out Google Docs and Spreadsheets you’ll either need to use an existing Gmail/Google Account or create one.

Links: Google Docs And SpreadSheets
Related: Google Acquires Writely