IBLOG SPACE

In a bid to offer more choice and quality to consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has decided to phase out analogue TV services completely by the end of 2013. The move will have an impact on 105 million households in which television viewers will be able to choose from roughly 800-1,000-odd channels and get more value-added services from both direct-to-home television (DTH) and cable service providers. Better picture quality, access to niche high definition channels and better broadband services will be on offer. Of the 105 million households, 25 million receive television channels from DTH operators. Nearly 85 million are cable TV homes of which only five million homes are digital. “While Trai’s recommendations have created a level playing field and will offer far more transparency in the business, the winner, eventually, is the consumer,” said A. Mohan, executive vice-president (corporate) of Essel Group. Essel Group owns Wire and Wireless (India) Ltd

DTH subscribers in Tier 2 & tier 3 have moved towards the online medium for renewal of subscriptions and cash cards have emerged as the preferred mode for this. Itz Cash Card Ltd., India’s only “Multi Service Prepaid Company” has emerged as the preferred payment option for online renewal of DTH subscription with monthly renewals of Rs80 crore. Haryana, Maharashtra, New Delhi and Gujarat accounted for the highest number of transactions for subscription renewal. While Haryana & Maharashtra accounted for more than Rs25 crore of DTH renewals, New Delhi and Gujarat accounted for approx 5 crore respectively Buoyed by this growth Itz Cash Card Limited has said the DTH market will be a key focus area of the company’s marketing plans. The company will look at customers in Tier 2, Tier 3 and even rural India, where customers are looking at easier options for renewal. ItzCash plans to reach out to these subscribers through direct sales and also through their national network of 2500

For the direct-to-home (DTH) segment, rural market seems to be a bigger revenue generator than the urban areas. Rural viewers continues to generate revenue for all the six private DTH operators. Currently, of the 25 million DTH subscribers, 60% reside in rural areas and small towns. Also, the spread of DTH services is driving television sets sales, the new DTH operators said. According to the new DTH service providers, including Airtel Digital TV, Videocon D2H and Reliance Big TV, around 65% of their new subscribers are from rural and semi-urban areas. Also, 40% of the DTH subscribers are first time viewers of cable and satellite services. For the established operators like Dish TV, Tata Sky and Sun Direct DTH, the ratio between urban and rural subscribers is almost equal. “For every 10 subscribers that we acquire, six reside in rural areas. Also, most of the new DTH subscribers are first time viewers of cable channels,” Bharti Airtel DTH director & CEO Ajai Puri said. Confir

Betaab Dil Ki Tamanna Hai is the new serial by Bala Ji Productions. This serial is directed by Ekta Kapoor. The story moves around the lives of three sister Kanchan, Shamoli and Kakon who live in Siliguri , a small town in West Bengal. They are living a very hard life as a daily laborer in Tea Plantation Company for their livelihood. One day they plan to move to Mumbai to fulfill their dreams. The story of this serial revolves around the experience and incidents they face while living in Mumbai to follow their dreams. Shamoli is the central character of the serial who believes that everyone has the right to have good life. Sumana Das play the character of Shamoi. Betaab Dil Ki Tamanna is expected to start in October 2010 on Sony TV.

Foxit has axed development of its eSlick ereader, intending instead to focus on “platform-independent PDF technology” which it hopes to license to third-parties. Initially unveiled back in December 2008, the eSlick was rebadged Netronix hardware that Foxit loaded up with their own custom software; it was priced at $199 though lacked any form of wireless connectivity. That specification hole – together with the fact that Kobo began selling their own version of the Netronix hardware for $50 less – left the eSlick looking uncompetitive against discounted Kindle and nook devices. According to Erik Bryant, Assistant Vice President Sales at Foxit, “We have been licensing our PDF and ePub technology to a number of eBook vendors. Our decision to discontinue eSlick is to eliminate the possibility of competing with our partners.”

Dell has updated its Studio XPS 9100 desktop series to include Intel’s latest Core i7 processors, bringing a welcome burst of speed with up to hexacore chips on offer. Priced from $949.99 with the 2.66GHz Core i7-920 paired with 3GB of DDR3 memory and NVIDIA GeForce G310 512MB graphics, Dell are asking a further $470 for the Core i7-960 or a cool $1,000 more for the six-core i7-980X. Other options include up to 24GB of DDR3 memory – though it’ll cost you $1,100 – and a choice of ATI Radeon graphics cards up to the HD 5970 2GB, for $580. Storage kicks off at 750GB as standard, but can be expanded with up to 2TB individual drives and a choice of RAID 0/1 array settings. Beyond that it’s the usual DVD or Blu-ray burner, multiple ports – including HDMI, USB 2.0, eSATA and S/PDIF, though no USB 3.0 – all in a reasonably slick tower case. The new Dell Studio XPS 9100 machines are available to order now.

The Kingston line of HyperX RAM has been on the market for a long time and offers RAM kits that enthusiasts and gamers like for the high performance offered. Kingston has added a new product to its line of RAM called the HyperX H2O . The big feature of the HyperX H2O RAM kits i s the special heat sinks that have ports for liquid cooling built-in. The liquid cooled RAM allows the enthusiast to cool the RAM making it more stable at higher operating frequencies. Kingston offers a few kits in the line including a 4GB kit running at 2000MHz wit 9-11-9 latencies. A 6GB kit with three 2GB modules is offered with the same latencies and 2000MHz frequency. The highest performing of the kits is a 4GB kit with 2133MHz speed with the same 9-11-9 latencies.

Samsung has announced a new addition to its EcoGreen line of storage products. The new HDD is called the EcoGreen F4EG and packs 2TB of storage into a green internal HDD for computers. The HDD hits the 2TB capacity using only three platters inside and it promises 19% better standby time performance and 23% lower power consumption in standby mode than the previous F3EG HDD using four platters. Each of the three platters in the F4EG has 667GB of storage. Samsung has eliminated halogen compounds and BFRs from the drive systems. The HDD also has Samsung SilentSeek and NoiseGuard technology. The F4EG uses the 3Gbps SATA interface, NCQ, and has a 32MB buffer in a 3.5-inch form factor.

Mobile WiFi hotspots are very cool devices that allow us to share mobile broadband connections with other people in the car or office. There are a few on the market already and Huawei has added another option called the E583C . The hotspot offers WiFi connectivity to a HSPA 3.5G connection that any WiFi enabled device can access. The E583C can connect to five WiFi devices and a sixth machine is supported simultaneously via a USB cable. The little hotspot also has a 1-inch OLED color display and a microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB of storage. The upload speed for the device is 5.76Mbps and download speed is 7.2Mbps. Pricing and availability are unknown at this time.

Yanko Design has a cool new concept that is designed for wireless music streaming called simply enough the Wireless Streaming Music Centre . The design is very architectural and cool with its iPod in the middle that looks like it is floating. I could totally see a high-end company like Bowers & Wilkins making an iPod dock that looks like this thing. The concept design has an internal HDD to allow the user to store music directly on the dock. The concept would also be able to support additional units to bring music into other rooms of the home. The designer of the cool concept is Bluelarix Designworks.

Back in late June a rumor surfaced that CBS and Hulu were in talks to bring CBS programs to the Hulu Plus service for fans to watch. CBS is the top broadcaster in the country and was one of the big holdouts that didn’t offer programming via Hulu. That rumor has now been confirmed with CBS CEO Les Moonves telling Reuters in an interview that CBS and Hulu were in fact in talks to add CBS shows like CSI and Two and a Half Men to Hulu Plus. According to Moonves CBS had previously shied away from Hulu to ensure flexibility. The introduction of a subscription service has CBS interested. Undoubtedly, the reason is that the subscription service will get CBS some money. CBS also historically didn’t want to limit itself to Hulu as the only streaming option. Apparently, that sticking point has been solved since CBS recently announced that it signed a streaming content deal with Comcast good for a decade.

NAVTEQ has announced that it is currently running a new beta program that is being conducted privately. The beta program is for a next generation street level imagery solution that gives customers in the private beta a chance to see features that are coming to NAVTEQ products in the future. The participants in the beta program are given the feedback that NAVTEQ says it needs to improve the service ahead of the full roll out to all customers. The street level image program is expected to be available to the general public in early 2011. The participants in the beta program are given access to sample source imagery, image overlays, 3D depth maps, and POI interface along with tech support for the use of the features. JourneyView provides a 360-degree imagery system linked to the NAVTEQ map and POI content.

Ford has been working hard to increase the safety of its vehicles over the last several years. The company has started to use features like radar to help drivers determine when there is another vehicle in their blind spot and to help call for assistance in the event of an accident. Ford researchers have announced a new system that is in the works to help drivers avoid crashes. The researchers are looking at ways to integrate wireless technology into active safety applications with a new vehicle to infrastructure Smart intersection project. The system uses wireless and GPS tech to allow vehicles to communicate with each other in traffic for accident avoidance. The Ford Automatic Braking Intersection Collision Avoidance System is under development as part of the program and uses radio-based wireless sensors, GPS, and navigation info to detect the location of other vehicles with radio sensors. The system will be able to sense an imminent side-impact collision and will automatically apply

Multimedia management for Android devices has always been underwhelming when compared to the sort of integration Apple offer with iTunes and the iPhone 4, with many users turning to DoubleTwist to fill the gap. Now HTC have stepped in; the new version of HTC Sync (v3.0) adds media synchronization with “popular media players” on the PC, sucking over music, playlists, images and other content and squirting it into – at first – your HTC Wildfire . HTC are promising a future update which will extend support for other Android 2.1+ devices in their range, but for now the Wildfire is the only one. The app can now sync content from a specified folder or, alternatively, pull in playlists. It’s not quite up to iTunes standards – and of course there’s no integrated music store as Apple offer – but it’s certainly better than manually dragging & dropping content across.

MXI Security has announced a new encrypted flash drive specifically aimed at UK government agencies that need an encrypted product for the transport and storage of sensitive documents. The Stealth M600 has the CESG CAPS certification for storing confidential data. The M600 flash drive uses a Bluefly Portable Security Processor that is claimed to be the world’s first hardware security processor for USB devices. The processor promises protection from all types of malware and more. The drive has a metal housing for durability and it is waterproof and dustproof. The flash drive is also FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validated for use by the US government. Pricing and availability for the flash drives are unannounced at this time.

Logitech has been pushing their webcams’ potential for home security for a while now, and with the new Logitech Alert cameras they’ve now got security-specific models to choose from. The new Logitech Alert 750i and 750e Master Systems both record and stream 960 x 720 video, and can be motion-triggered as well as monitored via a web interface, smartphone app (for iPhone, BlackBerry or Android) and eventually via Google TV. The Logitech Alert 750i is the internal system, priced at $299.99 for the master kit, and uses HomePlug powerline adapters so you don’t need to run cables between your computer and the camera. The bundled software allows you to section up the camera’s view into 16 zones, each of which can be selectively monitored for movement; when sensed, the camera begins recording – with both audio and 15fps video, to both an included 2GB microSD card and to your PC for eventual offsite backup – and can optionally send an alert to you via email. As for the Logitech Alert 750e, t

Back when NVIDIA made its GeForce GTX 460 official in mid-July, we suspected we might see some slightly more outlandish production models after OEMs had a little time with the Fermi GPU. Onda has delivered just that with their GeForce GTX 460 ES, an overclocked version with dual fans compared to the reference design’s single spinner, and Expreview managed to get their hands on a sample. The dual 80mm fans and triple set of copper heatpipes – as well as all the cooling fins – certainly add up to a distinctive and thick video card. It sounds like the reference boards will be getting larger, too; Onda apparently struggled to get their chosen ten SMD inductors to fit. Memory is 1GB of Samsung GDDR5, and there are VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors to choose between. This is still a prototype board, according to Onda, and as such will see some physical changes by the time it reaches the market (price and date unknown), but Expreview are still planning to put it through its paces in benchmarki

Amazon’s third-generation Kindle models sold out in less than a week, but the company itself doesn’t sound too surprised at the high demand. According to Ian Freed, VP in charge of the Kindle, 80-percent of ebooks they sell are to owners of physical Kindle hardware, and Amazon still reckons it has 70 to 80-percent of the ebook market, despite what rivals may claim. CNET asked Freed how Amazon’s figures line up with Apple’s suggestion that they have 20-percent market share and Barnes & Noble’s that they have their own 20-percent. Freed stopped short of pulling out evidence, but basically said that his rivals were fudging their numbers: “Honestly, something doesn’t add up because we’re pretty sure we’re 70 to 80 percent of the market. So, something, somewhere isn’t quite working right. I encourage you to do some more research. Obviously, from the beginning of Amazon we’ve been very metrics-focused and we don’t typically throw out numbers we don’t firmly believe in. Take that 70 to

Tokyoflash ‘s latest attempt to bamboozle our wrists is out, and the Traffic does at least have numbers from which you can attempt to decipher the time. Like Frogger meets Tron, the watch has a smoked black plastic front with neon LED lights that show hours with the “city streets”, five-minute blocks with the “subway” and single minutes with the “highway out of town”. The watch recharges via USB and a single juicing is good for a month; we’re also pleased to see that Tokyoflash have outfitted the Traffic with a replaceable battery, so the watch won’t be useless when the battery gives up the ghost. As with other Tokyoflash products, there’s an animation mode for when you’re less interested in telling the time and more in catching curious glances.

Got an HTC EVO 4G and a hankering for some frozen yoghurt? The good news is that Sprint and HTC are finally pushing out the promised Android 2.2 Froyo update for the WiMAX-enabled smartphone, offering both the updated OS and HTC’s Sense UI. The update is going out OTA but can apparently be triggered manually via the EVO 4G’s settings page. Instructions on how to do that – which basically amount to finding the “HTC Software Update” option in the “System Updates” menu, and tapping it when you have an AC connection and twenty minutes or so to spare – can be found here. According to the changelog, the new update (3.26.651.6) contains the following changes: Android 2.2 FroYo OS, including: Ability to install applications to external storage Improved Bluetooth device support Bluetooth Voice Dialing Flash Player 10.1 Improved OS performance New version of HTC Sense, including: Ability to view and add comments to Facebook images in the Gallery New Dialer which includes the caller’s Facebook

On May 22nd, 2009, OQO confirmed that they would be closing their doors, and that the Model 2+ would never see an official release date. A few months after that, a Model 2+ actually did show up on eBay, and it went with an extravagant price tag of $5,100. There were still days to go on that auction, too, so it could have sold for even more. But, that was supposed to be the end of it. Thanks to a UMPC Portal forum member, they just happened to find themselves at the official Chinese version of the OQO website, and, low and behold, there was a UMPC right there, staring at them. With some digging, and plenty of translation, that UMPC is actually known as the Model03, and yes, it apparently exists. However, there’s no mention of a release date. Though, there is plenty more to look at, with the included spec sheet.

We all know the Dell Streak is coming to AT&T, we just don’t know exactly when, quite yet. But, for a few lucky individuals out there, who happened to be included in Dell’s beta tests of the Mobile Internet Device (MID), they’ve been able to use the device to their heart’s contents for a little while now. Handed out in Austin, Texas, the users were supposed to test the device as they would any other, and apparently they were going to be able to keep them after the tests completed. However, if these new reports coming out of the MoDaCo forums indicates anything (and we’re sure it does), it looks like those same test units are now being blocked from AT&T’s network. How? According to the reports, it looks to be an IMEI block, as all calls being made from the test Streaks are being routed to AT&T customer service, and all data on EDGE or 3G is completely blocked. If the beta testers were told they could keep their units, then there should be no surprise that many of those unt

Not only do you want to get the full experience visually, but the same goes for audio, too. Especially when you’re playing a video game. If you’re just going the mediocre route, then your experience just won’t be the best it can be. That’s why when a gamer looks at headphones, they have to be sure they’re getting the best of the best. Especially for the money they can potentially drop on the pieces of hardware. Asus has a new pair available, called the CineVibe , and just as you might imagine, that “vibe” part is more than just a cool name. While hearing your opponents is great, and getting that full effect like you’re really there makes it worth it, the CineVibe feature one more thing: rumble feedback. That’s right, there are rumble feedback vibrators inside each earpiece, and they’re designed to rumble, or vibrate, at certain parts of a game. It’s also tied to an enhanced bass system, so that when a grenade goes off right next to you, you’ll know . The CineVibe comes in white or blac

Right now, Sprint’s got 4G down. Their WiMAX-backed next-generation wireless technology is popping up in cities all over the country, and they’ve got their first 4G-enabled device out there, in the hands of customers. But, that’s obviously not stopping the largest wireless carrier in this neck of the woods from moving right along with their own next-gen connection options. Verizon, though, will be using Long Term Evolution, and not WiMAX , and according to a newly leaked document detailing the future of the roll-out, it looks like Verizon is right on schedule and moving along quite nicely. As we have heard in the past, and is being relayed in the newly leaked document, Verizon is still planning on having a large part of the United States covered by LTE by the end of 2010. That equals to be about 120 million people, which is based on population, and not the number of Verizon subscribers. Major cities in Georgia and Texas, like Atlanta and Austin, respectively, were named specifically in

When you’re playing a video game, you want to feel like you’re actually in there, doing stuff. And while playing on your huge HDTV may be one way to get that done, there’s another way to make sure that you get the full experience. 3D, of course. And, when you start using your multi-display rig to get totally immersed , you’ll finally understand what it’s like to be jumping around your favorite video game world. Digital Storm’s gaming PCs are no stranger around these parts. The BlackOPS lineage of hardware has been around for quite some time, and they’ve always utilized the best hardware to stay at the top of the pack when it comes to avid PC gamers. Now, with their announcement that they’ll be utilizing NVIDIA’s 3D Vision to bring in a new world of gaming, even more doors are opening up. Utilizing NVIDIA’s GTX 400 Series GPUs, you’ll be able to experience 750M pixels/second, spread out over three displays, in breathtaking full 1080p HD 3D. That would put the resolution at 5760×1080, b

The baby of HP’s second-generation ENVY premium notebook range has arrived on the SlashGear test bench, and we have to admit it’s a pretty appealing machine. Packing a 14.5-inch display, Intel Core i5 CPU and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics, it may look a little like a MacBook Pro but happily HP has also carried over the solid build quality. Still, are good looks enough to ween users off their Apple addiction? Check out the full SlashGear review after the cut. While the ENVY 14 range kicks off with Core i3 CPUs, our particular review unit gets Intel’s Core i5-450M dual-core paired with 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 500GB hard-drive. Graphics include both the integrated Intel HD chipset and a dedicated ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5650 with 1GB of its own GDDR3 memory, driving the 14.5-inch 1600 x 900 display. Connectivity, meanwhile, includes WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth, HDMI and a trio of USB 2.0 ports (one of which doubles as an eSATA). There’s also Mini DisplayPort, gigabit ethernet, a multi-f

As our gadgets get more advanced, one of the things that seems to be getting left behind, more often than not, is our battery life. As we use our toys more and more throughout the day, our patience gets tested when we see that the battery quickly goes from green to red, and we’ve no way to charge it while on the go. But, that’s why portable battery packs exist, we imagine, and thanks to DigiPower , we’ll have a remarkably small one available for purchase soon enough. The Jump Start Slim Battery Pack is a quarter of an inch thick, and only weighs two ounces. Basically, that’s small enough to forget that you’re even carrying it with you. DigiPower says that they’ll sell this little guy for only $29.95, and the battery inside of it will be of the 1100mAh variety. But, the big question: how much extra time will it get us in our gadgets? Well, DigiPower suggests that if you use it with your 3G-enabled smartphone, you’ll get about 3 hours of extra talk time. As for video playback, that will

When it comes to the mouse, there’s basically one design that we all have to get used to. Conform to, if you will. Sure, there’s been plenty of variations out there, with some that include more buttons, and still others that have no buttons at all (at least, not visible ones). But, at least to the best of our knowledge, we can’t remember the last time we saw a mouse that actually looked like a hand. More specifically, a mouse that fit into your hand, like a one-side glove, and conformed to you , and not the other way around. That’s exactly what the G50 Vanguard mouse concept is. It’s designed to show that a mouse can, indeed, fit into the palm of your hand, and still be functional. On top of that, it’s designed to help your wrist and fingers, so that you don’t get carpal tunnel from using it too much. The only real unfortunate part of this, is that it really is just a concept, and there’s no word on when, or if, it will ever see the light of day. But, then again, Apple did just releas

When it comes to CTA Digital , we can’t say that we’re surprised anymore. Truth be told, we actually look forward to seeing what the company has in store for the video game industry next. Their peripherals are some of the most inventive out there, even as they border on slightly ridiculous at the same time. This time around, following in step with the Inflatable Race Car and Rowing Machine accessory for the Nintendo Wii, we’ve got the Ultimate Boxing Gloves for Sony’s PlayStation Move. And sure, they may look like any other pair of boxing gloves out there, or training gloves, but if you look close enough you’ll notice that they’ve got something else going for them. That’s right. Perfectly placed, snug, and revolutionary velcro pouches, that make it easier for you to hold your PlayStation Move’s controller, without having to actually hold it . Though, we don’t recommend you completely unwrap your grasp from it, because while velcro may be amazing, it’s not perfect. If that wasn’t enough

So far, small robots seem to be the best kind. They tend to be ridiculously cute, and if they’re small enough, then we know that we don’t have to worry about them taking over the world. Unless you include sheer numbers. In any event, here’s the WowWee Roboscooper . He does pretty much what you might imagine from his title: he scoops up things. But, before you think he may take the place of your robotic vacuum, there’s a catch. That catch, unfortunately, is that the little guy won’t pick up anything that weighs more than one ounce. Yeah, that’s right — there’s a weight restriction, and it’s a pretty bold one. Basically, that means if you’ve got some paper clips lying around the floor, or something of similar stature, then you’ll have some use for the little robot. But, if you tend to not drop things that small, or just don’t care that they’re down there, then the WowWee Roboscooper probably won’t be your next purchase. Roboscooper will work just fine on his own, wandering around your ab

Having all of the options that used to come in a giant tower, shoved into a tiny box that you can use to hold your iPhone is a pretty cool thing. And we can see why plenty of people out there would want the smaller form-factor, rather than the hulking tower. But of course, with a smaller body and all of the same features, the price tag can generally spike up. And, although the Steal Computer Mini PC isn’t cheap, you can be the judge whether or not it’s worth it. The LPC-100 Mini PC is the smallest form-factor released by the company to date. It measures in at only 4in x 6.1in x 1.45in, and it weighs only 1.2 pounds. However, they didn’t skimp on the details. On the inside of this little guy, you’ll find a 1.9GHz Intel Dual Core Celeron processor in the standard package. However, if you’re feeling like you need an upgrade, you can order the 2.26GHz version instead, which will be made-to-order. The little PC would be perfect for anyone who needs to save on space, like for those cramped

USB 3.0 may not be the mainstream way to transfer data right now, but it certainly will be. Just the way progression works, right? And if you’re someone that has a notebook with that ExpressCard slot that’s completely ignored, then it looks like Transcent has the perfect piece of tech for you. Especially if you’re a fan of transferring data at high speeds. These two ports on this USB 3.0 ExpressCard Adapter work just as you’d think they would: fully supporting SuperSpeed USB 3.0, which will see connection speeds up to 5Gb/s. But, just in case you don’t have the USB 3.0 cable you need, the adapter will also work with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1, so no worries about that. By allowing for that backwards compatibility, the ExpressCard Adapter will allow for a full range of connectivity through USB devices, which means you’re not limited in any way. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a price or release date mentioned anywhere at the time of this writing, but we’ll stay on top of it. As for th

The show doesn’t air until tomorrow so if you don’t like any spoilers, look away now. WINNERS OF “ TEEN CHOICE 2010 ” ANNOUNCED Teens Cast More Than 85 Million Votes The following were honored today at TEEN CHOICE 2010 at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, CA. TEEN CHOICE 2010 airs tomorrow evening, Monday, Aug. 9 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT), on FOX. This year, teens logged on to www.teenchoiceawards.com and cast more than 85 million votes in support of their favorite celebrities from film, television, music, sports and fashion.

I like the folks at Rentrak and I’m not snarking on their data. I don’t blame Rentrak at all for riding any and every anti-Nielsen wave generated by the media. Besides, data-based businesses can be extremely lucrative, even if you are the redheaded stepchild

Variety has an article noting that on the heels of Modern Family and Glee single-cam is the “predominant comedy format du jour.” But… But as evidenced by the recent sale of “Big Bang” to TBS and Fox Television Stations — Warner Bros. TV will net roughly $1.5 million per episode — traditional multicam comedies are still the best bet for collecting rerun coin.

“I kept thinking ‘This is pointless. How can we possibly afford a boardwalk, or an empire?’ We can’t call it ‘ Boardwalk Empire ’ and not see a boardwalk,” Terrence Winter who wrote the pilot for HBO’s upcoming Boardwalk Empire.

HBO FILMS AND HBO MINISERIES LINE UP STAR-STUDDED CASTS AND FILMMAKERS FOR 2011, INCLUDING: TOMMY LEE JONES, SAMUEL L. JACKSON IN THE SUNSET LIMITED; KATE WINSLET, GUY PEARCE, EVAN RACHEL WOOD, MELISSA LEO, HOPE DAVIS, MARE WINNINGHAM IN MILDRED PIERCE; DIANE LANE, TIM ROBBINS, JAMES GANDOLFINI IN CINEMA VERITE; NICOLE KIDMAN, CLIVE OWEN IN HEMINGWAY & GELLHORN

HBO SPORTS(R), NFL FILMS AND THE NEW YORK JETS JOIN FORCES FOR A NEW SEASON OF THE ULTIMATE SPORTS REALITY SERIES WHEN HARD KNOCKS : TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NEW YORK JETS, CHRONICLING THE RIGORS AND DAILY DEMANDS OF NFL TRAINING CAMP, DEBUTS WEDNESDAY, AUG. 11, EXCLUSIVELY ON HBO

HBO EMPLOYS UNIQUE SCHEDULING STRATEGY FOR FIRST EPISODE OF DRAMA SERIES BOARDWALK EMPIRE THIS SEPTEMBER