First off, you've got to be kidding us. Okay, now that we've got that out, get a load of this. After the FCC told Comcast earlier this month that its data discrimination tactics weren't kosher, the provider has decided to react by simply slowing all internet traffic on its heaviest users. More specifically, Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services, stated in a recent interview that the top internet speeds for "targeted customers will be reduced for periods lasting 10 minutes to 20 minutes, keeping service to other users flowing." Right now, this may not affect you one iota, but what's to happen when your kid spends his summer sucking down content on the VUDU / Hulu / etc.? We can think of quite a few reasons to legitimately use a huge chunk of bandwidth, and having Big Provider keep watch and determine when enough is enough frightens us just a wee bit.

[Via CrunchGear, image courtesy of Kansas]

After being accused of slowing traffic on peer-to-peer applications and eventually fessing up at least somewhat to controlling throughput, Comcast has went and sunk some cash into a P2P video-delivery startup. Seattle-based GridNetworks announced this week that the mega-corp would make "an unspecified investment in the company and collaborate on developing so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing techniques that are friendly to internet service providers." Outside of that, what the deal means for either party has yet to be fully revealed, but regardless of future plans, one can't help but chuckle at the glaring irony of the whole ordeal.

If you're scouting a decent media server that just so happens to double as a NAS drive and BitTorrent server, we'd probably wait out this weekend. Apparently, the Popcorn Hour website is set to go live in T-minus two days, but an eagle-eyed individual manged to pull down what appears to be a screenshot of the firm's forthcoming Networked Media Tank. The NMT reportedly enables users to "watch, store and share digital content on your home network," and it also allows for "seamless integration between your digital media and your entertainment system." Best of all, buyers can toss in a hard drive of their choosing, and the 1080p output is sure to please the HD buffs. According to the capture (shown in full after the jump), all this functionality will only run you $179 (sans an HDD), but we'll out find out for certain in a matter of hours.

UPDATE: Seems this could be a rebadge of another product -- guess we'll wait and see, eh? Thanks for the update, Gabriel M.

[Thanks, Johan W.]

Azureus announced today that its HD internet video portal, dubbed Vuze, is experiencing "unprecedented growth," and celebrated reaching seven million users in its first six months of operation. Additionally, July saw content downloads "grow well over 100-percent compared to June," and now the company is offering up the complete two seasons of The Office UK (plus its specials) right here in the United States. Better still, the first episode is being made available completely free of charge. So, dear readers, how many of you have dipped into Vuze to check out, say, the vast array of BBC programming?

There's nothing we enjoy more than not even leaving the comforts of our Aeron chair in order to catch a program in HD, and now we've got reason to believe that even more high-definition content could be coming down the internet pipeline in the not-so-distant future. Neokast, which "streams live broadcasts and on-demand content over the Internet via advanced P2P protocols, has formed a partnership with MoveDigital, an online digital delivery service," in order to deliver streaming HD media "to the masses." Essentially, MoveDigital is looking to provide Neokast with the extra capacity necessary to ensure that "an HBO or an NBC's HD content" is available fluidly to customers over the internet. Of course, recent BitTorrent flops attempts have been less than enthralling, but considering the outright lack of HD available through it, we still see a door left wide open for someone to seize. Unfortunately, there was no word on a timeline, nor a mention of what type(s) of media would eventually be available, but considering just how far we have to walk from the PC to the living room, this stuff can't get finalized soon enough.

We're thinking that companies are just starting to mash-up popular buzzwords just for now. Take the P2POD from AHT International, play a little "Wheel of Fortune", buy a vowel and combine "P2P" with "iPod" and whaddya get: we're not sure other than a mash-up name. The P2POD is touted as an HDTV device, but we don't think you'll be watching any broadcast, cable or satellite on this. No, the P2POD looks like a peer-to-peer vessel to get high-def and other audio or video content from the Internet. There's no display, just a box with 64MB of RAM, an HDMI port, and a video decoder. There are more hardware buzzwords on the product page, but even more interesting is the MyMo Media service that provides an interface and content database. It also provides a nominal subscription fee, so we'll likely pass.

[via Engadget]