satellite TV

With the exploding popularity of smartphones, wireless laptops and, if Steve Jobs has his way, tablet computers, it's fast becoming a wireless world. But the breakneck growth of all things wireless is threatening to cause a traffic jam -- of the airwaves that deliver calls, Web searches and video to those data-hungry devices.

House Republicans defeated a bill Wednesday that would have delayed the USA's transition to digital TV by four months to June 12 to give consumers more time to prepare.

Unless a new bill is passed quickly, the USA will become an all-digital TV market on Feb. 17, as originally planned. Digital TV, or DTV, offers clearer pictures, more choice and more channels to people who receive over-the-air TV signals. Cable and satellite TV customers aren't affected.

It's a new year, but economically it still feels like the old one. Everywhere you look, things are being downsized: companies, paychecks, parties, trade shows and so on.

Writing about personal technology at times like these is sort of a weird job. It entails reviewing products that are often expensive and definitely elective. At first glance, it would seem as though spending on electronics would be one very easy place to cut back.

Apple's recent embrace of HDTV is putting the spotlight on a growing trend of renting high-definition movies and TV shows online for up to 24 hours of viewing. Rivals such as Sony and Vudu are already preparing to make high-definition video a bigger part of their online entertainment offerings, and additional providers are expected to join the fray.

Google will begin selling ads on some cable networks owned by NBC Universal in a new partnership that will expand Google's efforts to become a force in television advertising.

Under the agreement, NBC Universal will make a relatively small amount of advertising time on networks like MSNBC, CNBC, Sci Fi and Oxygen available for sale through Google's TV Ads program in the coming months, the companies said. The partnership could later be extended to other NBC Universal properties.

AT&T announced Tuesday the latest addition to its IP-based U-verse system, dubbed Total Home DVR. The DVR lets customers view recorded content on up to eight attached TVs simultaneously.

Eight Up-Manship

Consumers are losing patience with cable and satellite TV customer service operators who are supposed to help solve their problems, according to a survey out today.

Customers who've called for help rate their satisfaction with cable's and satellite's service desks at a score of 66 out of 100, research and consulting firm CFI Group says in its second annual Contact Center Satisfaction Index study.

Comcast Corp. said Thursday that by early 2010 it plans to offer consumers in most of its markets Internet service so fast they will be able to download a high-definition movie in minutes.

The nation's second-largest Internet service provider -- and biggest cable TV operator -- will deploy a technology capable of delivering up to 100 megabits of data or more per second in 20 percent of its markets by the end of 2008, Comcast senior vice president of investor relations Marlene Dooner said at the Merrill Lynch U.S. Media Conference in London.

There may be 50 ways to leave your wireless carrier. Just don't do it before your contract is up -- or you'll be forced to pay a fat early-termination fee. That's the lot facing most U.S. consumers of communications services, from mobile calling to cable TV to high-speed Internet access.