For years Google, Apple and Microsoft have been dancing around the idea of revolutionizing the living room with their perspective living room solutions. While devices like the 360, Google TV and Apple TV have helped change the way we watch content in the living room– they haven’t really reached a true revolutionary status either.

Tired of waiting for one of the big three to make a move, a new rumor arrives courtesy of TechCrunch suggesting that the revolution will not be lead by any of these companies. Who instead will be the first to truly change the way we interact with our multimedia content in the living room? Intel, that’s who.

Citing an unnamed source, the rumor suggests Intel is preparing to deliver set-top boxes with DVR that will be rolled out in a city-by-city basis. Outside of being a DVR and cable set-top box, the device is said to have quite a few interesting features inside.

Some of the feature include facial recognition and the possibility of creating individualized viewing settings, favorite settings and more based on who is “logged in” to the box. There will also be targeted and individualized advertising for online content.

The idea here is to create a hybrid that would have both online and traditional cable content working together. There would also be a “Catch Up TV”-style service that would let users view anything airedi in the last month on the channels that they are directly subscribed too.

Other ideas include having the options to buy specific channels instead of having to just have one big package. All the ideas here sound fabulous, but there is one major obstacle that is holding back these kinds of revolutions– that’s dealing with content creators and providers.

If Intel can manage to create a marvelous piece of technology and woo the content creators and providers, this will truly be a feat indeed.

Do you think that Intel could truly play a part in bringing the living room to the next level?

With the PC market on the decline, perhaps Intel wishes to focus on new areas in case the day comes when there isn’t as much demand for their x86 chips?

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Running out of storage space won’t be an issue with the new Boxee TV. It’s been proclaimed as the first DVR to offer virtually unlimited storage. They do this by uploading your videos to the cloud, rather than storing those recordings on a local drive. In fact, there’s no on-board storage at all.

In addition to the more traditional DVR function of recording live television, the new Boxee TV also lets you enjoy several streaming services, like Netflix, Vimeo, VUDU, YouTube and Pandora. The Boxee TV is a dual tuner unit too, so you can watch one channel while recording another. By uploading your recordings to the cloud, it means that you can watch your recorded TV shows on screens other than your living room TV. Go ahead and watch Big Bang Theory on your laptop and Game of Thrones on your smartphone.

That’s the good news. The other good news is that the Boxee TV will retail for a very reasonable $99 when it ships next month. The bad news is, because you’re using the cloud, you’ll have to pay the monthly subscription fee of $14.99. Ouch! The initial launch is also being limited to just eight cities: New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philly, and Washington, DC. They’ll add more markets next year.

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With an iPhone in your pocket, you’ll never have to miss an episode of the Jersey Shore again.  AT&T’s new U-verse Mobile app lets premium subscribers download and watch programs directly on the device. 

The app lets you easily click ‘subscribe season’ to automatically download future episodes and access an abbreviated list of your favorite TV channels.  Although limited to several popular networks, AT&T is adding more content on an ongoing basis. 

However, in an effort to spare the wireless carrier’s 3G network from more data, programs can only be downloaded over Wi-Fi.  With no Wi-Fi connection, users still have a chance if they have digital video recorders, as the app allows subscribers to remotely manage downloads to their DVRs at home.  Therefore, no matter where you are, whether you’re at home, the office, stuck in traffic, the situation looks pretty good.

U-Verse Mobile by AT&T [iTunes Download Link]
AT&T Launches U-verse Mobile So You Never Have To Miss Desperate Housewives Again [Mobile Crunch]

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