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Apple is announcing their iPad 2 on March 2. MacWorld had a good breakdown of things we'd all like to see. Most important is the camera's and display improvement. Look forward to Apple's conference.

Nice comparison sheet of all the different streaming services. Netflix officially has competition. Though, to be honest, the selection for streaming of all services is pretty poor.

A review of the first full-screen competitor to the iPad, the 10" Motorola Xoom tablet, which is also the first of many coming tablets to run the special tablet version of Google's Android platform, Honeycomb.

Walt has a nice article on the exciting Xoom by Motorola. We first saw this device at CES, and now its coming mainstream. Too bad its features, except for camera, only match that of the current iPad - the new iPad will be announced in a week, with probably many more features, and a lower price point. Good start though.

I know the netbook at my office hasnt moved in the almost full year I have had the iPad.

In 2010, Netflix spent roughly $550 million on postage fees, a sum that has declined significantly from years past and could drop even lower in 2011. Thanks to ramped up streaming efforts, the number of DVDs Netflix is mailing out to subscribers is beginning to slow, says Steve Swasey, VP of corporate communications. That's good news for the Los Gatos, CA-based company, which pays about "$1 roundtrip" per DVD, according to Swasey, and significantly less to deliver that content online.

But such success in the digital market has also increased competition from the likes of Amazon, HBO, and Hulu--not that Netflix feels any of these companies have become direct competitors yet.

"There will be [competition] at some point--Netflix won't run without pure competition for long," Swasey says. "Right now, there are three models, and Netflix is running uniquely with the subscription model."

The other two models, he explains, are the pay-per-view model, which is "the Amazons and Apples and Blockbusters," and freemium, ad-supported model, such as Hulu--not Hulu Plus--and YouTube.

Swasey wouldn't comment on Amazon's reported entry into the subscription market, beyond saying the service is "still speculative." Asked about Hulu Plus, Swasey described the service as a bit of a wild card, which the company is still trying to figure out.

"We haven't seen anyone replicate the subscription model yet," he says. "Even Hulu Plus has ads in it still--it's still supported by advertisments, and that's not a pure subscription model."

But Hulu is positioning itself as a direct competitor, locking in deals for new television content that Netflix does not have access to. Would Netflix consider ads if it would mean generating more money for content? The subject "has been broached," says Swasey, but "every time we shoot it down." What's more, Netflix is not trying to market itself as a home for brand new content. "We're not so optimized for new and fresh, as much as we are for complete," Swasey says. "We like to have complete seasons of the series rather than day-after broadcast."

I also asked Swasey about HBO Go, the new streaming service from HBO. Once that service launches, many have speculated that deals with Time Warner, HBO's parent company, would become difficult to ink. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes has been especially harsh on Netflix in recent months.

"Netflix is a new money provider--this is new money in the system, which is good for content owners," Swasey retorts, ticking off the benefits of deals with Epix and Relativity Media. "HBO Go is no new money to HBO."

"I think the thing with Mr. Bewkes and Time Warner is that this is an evolving ecosystem, and Netflix is visible in that ecosystem," Swasey says. "Sometimes you can be the target of somebody's concern--we'll leave it at that because we've definitely been a target of his concern."

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I welcome all the competition and choice for us, the consumers!

I just tried this and it worked. I guess AT&T is trying to keep some of its iPhone customers. I got an immediate reply saying I got 1,000 free minutes. However, it said it would take up to 4 weeks for processing. Really? In 2011?

Ad agency Hill Holliday recently conducted an experiment, asking five families to give up cable TV in favor of connected TV devices for a week.

The growing availability of online content and video subscription services, coupled with an exploding market for connected devices, has pushed the idea of cord cutting — or dropping a traditional cable TV subscription package in favor of online video sources — into the mainstream. But how viable is the concept, really?

For its experiment (which the agency stresses was not intended as a scientific research study), Hill Holliday provided each family with a different connected device: the Roku, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Boxee Box and Google TV.

The agency conducted interviews with the participants at the beginning and end of the week, and also had the participants record their own thoughts throughout the process. Hill Holliday compiled that footage into a short video clip and presented the results of the experiment at last week’s TVnext summit.

Check out the video:

Mashable recently posted an article from the ad agency HIll Holiday. They asked 5 families to cut the cord and see what would happen. I think the discussion is getting very serious for a lot of families to be able to do this. For all of us with young kids, we dont get to watch much TV anyways. Its usually recorded TV for them or DVD's. For us, its a network DVR'd show once in a while. Except for the Food Network, I can still get what I want from Network TV (American Idol, NFL, etc). This is getting perilous for Cable companies. No one sees a need for their $60-$100 monthly bills anymore; just like no one sees a need for landlines anymore.