It's about time, no? TiVo has finally cut a deal to get its heralded time-shifting box into hotel rooms, and while the first agreement is relatively small in scope, we can see huge potential for this initiative. The outfit has signed on with Morgans Hotel Group -- which owns the Delano in South Beach, Royalton and Hudson in New York City, and Sanderson in London -- in order to bring TiVo functionality to every guest room in the soon-to-open (December 1st) Mondrian in South Beach (Miami, FL). There are no specifics given as to which model will be installed, but it definitely doesn't mention TiVo HD nor the word "high-definition." Still, we'd take an SD TiVo as part of the stay, but we won't stop wishing there was a way to transfer all of our currently unwatched programs at home to the box in the hotel room. Full release is after the break.

Update: We've received word that the units will be TiVo HD boxes connected to HDTVs. Stellar!

Got U-Verse? Then you should have the Total Home DVR record on one box / stream to all functionality now that AT&T's rollout has finished ahead of schedule. Up in all 69 markets where the IPTV service has a foothold, the final ten markets launched today were: Bakersfield, Dayton, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Little Rock, Miami, South Bend, Tulsa, West Palm Beach and Wichita. Honestly, we're not sure what AT&T (or us for that matter) will do now that it's over, the leading candidates are a "Remember the Rollout" reunion tour in early '09, or the somewhat less likely possibility that confused AT&T techs start adding the functionality to random areas without U-Verse service.

It took awhile, but the rumor finally proved true. AT&T's U-verse has at long last made it to South Florida. Just days after Verizon announced that its competing FiOS TV service was available to some 800,000 members of the Sunshine State, in soars AT&T to bring its fiber-based programming service to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Currently, consumers in parts of dozens of communities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties can place their order, while folks in Palm Beach county will be forced to wait until July 28th. No word on how soon it'll reach your neck of the woods down there, but the carrier has vowed to "make U-verse services available to more homes throughout South Florida on an ongoing basis."

While AT&T has been making a play for business in the south, the Sunshine State has remained largely untouched by hints of U-verse arrivals. Until now, that is. We're hearing the faintest of whispers that U-verse may actually be on its way to Miami, and better yet, the first service could be flipped on in as early as three weeks. Unfortunately, this will have to be regarded as a rumor for the time being, but we won't be waiting long to find out the truth.

There's been quite a lot of HD action down in South Florida of late, and out of seemingly nowhere, here comes a bit more. As of now, DirecTV subscribers in the region can tune to channel 39 WSFL in order to watch WSFL-TV in high-definition. Just last week, the region's The CW affiliate was still not viewable in HD via DirecTV, and while the station's own website still assures you that you'll need an OTA antenna in order to receive its HD signal, we've got photo evidence proving otherwise. We've no idea what sparked the addition, but hey, we certainly aren't complaining.

[Thanks, Michael]

No sooner than Comcast announced that it would be upgrading its infrastructure in sunny South Florida, along comes word that WTVJ (NBC 6) has finally made the leap to HD newscasts. Believe it not, the switch -- which happened without much warning yesterday -- makes it the first in the Miami / Ft. Lauderdale area to broadcast local news in high-definition. It's shaping up be an excellent Spring to sit inside down there, isn't it?

[Thanks, Josh]

If you'll recall, Comcast went out of its way to enhance the infrastructure and add a number of new HD channels to much of the Northeast late last year, and now it's finally time for South Florida to experience the same. Reportedly, a "major upgrade" is currently underway on Comcast's South Florida cable system, and we're told that said changes will provide a platform for DOCSIS 3.0 -- set to roll out in 2009 -- which will enable 100Mbps download speeds. Furthermore, subscribers throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe Counties can look forward to a new slate of HD VOD choices to go along with six new HD channels: Food Network HD (414), USA Network HD (420), History Channel HD (422), Discovery Channel HD (424), Animal Planet HD (426) and Sci-Fi HD (427). Best of all, those newcomers are only part of the "phase one" HD expansion plan -- go on, let those imaginations run wild.

So there we were watching the Pistons playing like the good 'ol Pistons when my fiancee said something profound. "Look! You can see Dwyane Wades butt sweat." As much as I didn't want to see that, she was right. There it was and it really didn't add much to the game. But then they cut to a camera that showed Shaq's sweaty face. I mean it was dripping and boy did 720 progressive lines of resolution really make it pop out at ya. Gross.

Is this really what is necessary anymore. Are we this conditioned to high-def that we need to see these details in order to keep our attention? Yup. Any high-def owner will agree that, yes we need it.

Am I right or am I right?

It was good while it lasted Miami. Daktronics, the same company who built the Dolphin Stadium twin-monster HDTVs has been contracted by the University of Texas to make one even bigger. As a part of renovations to their south end zone they are installing a 134x55-foot scoreboard, 370 square feet bigger than Miami's. As Engadget points out, it's actually slightly narrower and a little taller, bringing some conflict to the question of who is the biggest. All the same, if you want to check it out while everything is still bigger in Texas, you better hurry as a horse track in Tokyo is installing a 197-foot wide display.

If they had announced this last year, maybe Vince Young would have returned to lead them to another National Championship.

[Thanks for the tip Scott M!]

A while back we told you the Miami Dolphins were building the largest high definition television in the world,  They showed it off yesterday for the season ticket holders and now we have video. Even in this relatively low resolution video you can see the incredible clarity and detail present in the 720p LED screen. Although having high definition at the game may seem like overkill, we're sure many of you are buying Dolphins' tickets right now and with good reason.

There are actually two of the screens, as you'll notice in the video, both high definition but one is bigger at a stunning 1750 inches. Is Dolphin Stadium going to be the first one where fans buy tickets for a better view of the big screen? Allow stadium jealousy for every other NFL team to begin now.

[Via digg & IseWise thanks for the tip!]