I love Tivo!  My old satellite receiver that came with Tivo recently died and we got one from the company that had its own DVR software.  It can’t compare to Tivo so my wife and I bought another Tivo box also.  With the new version of Tivo, you can connect to your wireless network if you buy a special USB wireless card for it.  Not only do you not need a phone line to update the guide, you can download your programs to a computer.  I have wanted to do this since we first got a DVR.  I love old movies and I can burn copies of them to watch later and not constantly keep them on the DVR like I was doing before much to my wife’s consternation.  She was a secret deleter of my recordings.

Tivo is the epitome of one of the new trends happening now.  I’m not the first or the hundredth person to discuss this trend of the user/consumer being in control of the mass media messages.  They can skip commercials and watch their shows whenever they like.  There is no primetime anymore; it’s all the time.  IPod and other mp3 players are replacing radio which has become bland, boring and repetitious.  The more this trend happens, the more companies operating under the old paradigm try to reach out and make the old methods work again.  They try to force old marketing ideas on a new marketing arena just like dinosaurs trying to feed themselves after the meteor hit.  Eventually new marketing methods will prevail.