My Kindle Screen is Broken–Now What?

When you’re carrying around a paperback book you can treat it as careful or carelessly as you wish.  Most people would toss it in a backpack with a pile of books and other heavy items without a worry.  If you drop that book, accidentally drop a glass of water on it or most any other bad behavior the worst that could happen is that single book might be partially damaged.  But do that with your eReader or Tablet reader and your risking more of an investment.  That is what happened to my adult daughters Amazon Kindle 2.

As you look at this photo from the screen you can see the lines on the screen.  Looking at it closely you’ll notice the text is not as dark and after a few moments the text gets even harder to see – mostly unreadable.  We don’t know exactly what happened to this poor eReader, but from the looks of it, the LCD screen had what Amazon calls “impact damage” which is a nice way of saying “the screen got pushed on too much” or “you dropped it.”  If your eReader isn’t too awful old, Amazon will replace it with a refurbished model for free.  My situation today was not quite that good as this is a Kindle 2nd Generation that we purchased the day it was available which means out of manufacturers warranty.  Amazon replaced many that were beyond their 1-year warranty, but they are not going that far back. 

I thought about selling it on E-Bay for parts, but first called Amazon support to see what they would offer me..  After clicking “contact me” on the Amazon website, the Customer Service Rep contacted me instantly and a live, native English speaking person was talking with me in a matter of seconds AND they had all of my information ready for the call.  The CSR told me it was beyond the manufacturers warranty, but they would replace the broken Kindle with a refurbished model (same 2nd gen with 3g) for $40 with a 3 month warranty.  I’ll be receiving this new Kindle in 2 days and will mail the broken one back to Amazon within 30 days.

Pretty good customer service compared to most any other company I’ve dealt with.  If I were to sell this refurbished Kindle on E-Bay I could sell it for over $115.  Not a bad return for a Kindle that was very likely abused in the first place.  Then again, it’s pretty difficult to make that much-cheaper paperback so damaged it’s unreadable.

The End–Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Tonight my family will go to the theater to watch the last of the Harry Potter movies together.  We typically only see the action adventure movies at the theater for the sound and video  experience – even though the finished basement in our home has a pretty nice setup for Blu-ray viewing.  But once in a while we’ll over-pay to watch a show or two.

We’ve watched all of these Harry Potter movies.  I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with them.  As with most movies translated from books before them, the movie leaves out so much or changes the story enough that I’m disappointed to some degree.  The Harry Potter movies are definitely that way as well.  The first few were pretty weak, but they seem to have improved in quality wth each new movie.  But I still recommend to anyone who likes the movie adaptation to check out the actual book as they are almost always better.

I still look forward to this final chapter of the movie series.  Here’s the trailer for those of you who haven’t seen the movie itself yet.

Spotify Arrives for US

This morning brings the States a nice little musical gift.  Spotify, one of Europe’s favorite music services began it’s U.S. launch with a invite-only beta.  I received an invite this morning so I’ll be giving the service a good look over the next few days so I can share with you how it works and how it compares to competing music services.

What is Spotify?

Spotify brings the U.S. 15 million tracks of music with on-demand access, import of your MP3 music collection, offline mode, social media integration, compatibility on many mobile devices including iPhone and Android and more.  Sonos already has support for it so I’ll be testing that as well.  Logitech also announced that they will be offering Spotify service on their Squeezebox Touch and Squeezebox Radio.

The available plans include:

• Free – Play local files, share with friends, access to millions of tracks, ad-supported
• Unlimited $4.99/month – No advertisements, unlimited streaming
• Premium $9..99/month – No advertisements, unlimited streaming, offline mode for playlists, spotify on mobile

It’s currently only available by invite, but I imagine this one will open up soon.  In the meantime read more about the service and sign up for an invite at the Spotify website.

Ad-Supported Kindle 3G Drops $25 in Price

Amazon announced a $25 price drop for its ad-supported Kindle 3G today saying a new AT&T sponsorship and money from ads.

So the Kindle 3G with offers costs you $139 while the Kindle Wi-Fi with offers is $114.  The 3G version without the advertising costs another $50.  This makes the 3G version of the ad-supported model pretty attractive price wise.  I’m beginning to think we won’t see a new e-ink version of the Kindle this year after all.  My bet is on a tablet branded with the Kindle name and no new e-ink.

Amazon Press Release

Netflix and NBCUniversal Renew Content Agreement

On the heels of the price “adjustment” for most Netflix plans, Netflix and NBCUniversal announced today that they have reached a multi-year renewal of their licensing agreement that expands the selection of Netflix streaming titles from NBC and it’s Cable networks.  Shows like Warehouse 13, Psych, The Event, Law and Order: SVU etc.

These deals are likely costing Netflix more and more cash and Netflix is testing the waters to see how much the online service is really worth standing on its own.  It should be interesting to see how content selection changes and how subscription rates change over the next few months.

Read the entire press release for additional information on which shows will be available on Netflix Streaming.

How I See It… From the Non-Geek Geek

Reflections on the Google purchase of SageTV by MrsGeekTonic

In the middle of June Sage TV announced that they had been acquired by Google, and shock was heard round the world. JK! 99.8% of the world has no idea what Sage TV is. The tech world is not quite as big as most enthusiasts would believe. Even amongst the tech world, my guess is that most do not bother with HTPC systems. Therefore, the HTPC “circle” (using Google’s latest word) is fairly small.

Google TV to revolutionize your television????

In May 2010, Google announced they were developing Google TV. In September Apple followed with a similar announcement. Google TV was launched in October to mass hysteria and a run on the partnering devices. Again, just kidding! Google’s own website claims that there are 5 billion TV views in the world, so of course it is only natural that they want to create a product that all 5 billion of those people HAVE to have. Sorry, but GTV is not the internet’s answer to Blu-Ray. Here is what I believe their big mistake was…. They market the product as a way to bring the internet (which they know A LOT about) to your TV (which they obviously know nothing about). They discount the idea that people have TVs to, I don’t know, watch TV?

In November of 2010 a blog (Home System Integration) had an article, “Can Google TV take down a HTPC?”, in which the author ruminates “This unit seems targeted at the general consumer who probably has never considered having a keyboard in the Living Room, let alone performing everyday tasks like checking email or banking from the comfort of their own couch!”

Guess what? I don’t want a keyboard in my living room!

The average TV watcher is struggling with the 3 remotes (minimum) they already have. Not everyone has picked up on the universal remote concept yet. I actually had to buy a coffee table with drawers to house our plethora of remotes. Furthermore, has the author ever heard of the laptop… or iPad? Our family of 3 can watch our favorite show AND compute (our own interests not the person who controls the remote) at the same time. Now, granted the average family doesn’t have a laptop for everyone in the house, but still…. I am also getting older (eyes aren’t what they used to be) and I need my computer screen to be a little closer than the TV. I have a hard enough time reading the “guide” let alone try to type a document from the” comfort of my own couch.” Even the early reviews said “This much is clear: Google TV may be interesting to technophiles, but it’s not for average people” –NYTimes. I contend that it doesn’t really interest technophiles either, because it has a LONG way to go. Add to this most networks have blocked GTV from accessing their content… Sooo basically it is a computer for the living room. GACK!

So how does Google fix its GTV problem without completely throwing out the concept? Well they could have spent time and money developing their own system that will do what the HTPC folks had already accomplished or buy a Linux based system that has some additional perks and devices that they can learn from. Enter Sage. (Oh, and because they are Google they also buy one of the companies that blocked their content – HULU). I don’t know what it was about Sage that they wanted. I am sure many of you have been speculating about that. For all I know, it could be just for the UI, but the reality is it is probably for something that was still in development/negotiations that Sagies haven’t even had access to yet.

 

Here is what I think will happen in the future. (Mind you I know nothing! Remember, I am not even a geek… I am just married to one).

1. Sage will continue as it is for awhile – although no new sales of extenders and licenses will be available
2. Google will integrate the best Sage has into GTV2 (this could take some time so no need to panic yet).
3. Google will then release GTV2 to the mass market.
4. Google will shut Sage down to force you all to buy their product (which will fail because it will not be as intuitive.
5. Google will allow 3^rd parties to write add-ons for GTV. (This is a HOPE more than anything.) They do have 3^rd parties writing “apps” for GTV now… Hopefully, that would be allowed for the TV side of things.

The unfortunate part of this whole buy-out is that the W in WAF, in Google’s world, is not “wife” it is “world”. They will dumb down a pretty good system for the masses. Hopefully, they will not lock it down so that those who know what they are doing can still use it.

My suggestion is that all of you Sagies get on the board and start a thread of the MOST important things Sage has to offer that would have to show up on GTV for you to, even in a million years, consider buying it. You know someone at Google is reading that forum.

So “Can Google take down a HTPC?” The answer is, yes and no. They have taken Sage, but I believe others will pop up as well. Remember, Google’s goal is 5 billion TVs. Enthusiasts will make smarter systems for their own personal use, but buy the new and improved GTV for their mom.

This is a companion article to the Why Did Google Buy SageTV & What it Means for GoogleTV written by MrsGeekTonic.

Netflix Inflation

Netflix today announced a new pricing structure today that has already caused a ruckus on the web.  If you are a Netflix subscriber you are sure to be unhappy about a roughly 50% – 60% increase in cost of your movie rental plan.  The only people that will be happy about this change will be some Netflix shareholders, Amazon and Apple.

Here’s a rundown of the new plan basics (ignoring Blu-ray costs):

Basically what Netflix has done here is build in a flat cost for unlimited streaming of movies at $7.99.  If I used streaming even once a month I might consider that, but only my daughter uses that service so…. I’ll stay with the one-out-at-a-time service for $7.99 plus the Blu-Ray premium with no streaming.  It’s still not that bad of a deal folks, but yes if you use streaming at all, this is a hefty increase if you’re in the sweet spot of 1-3 DVD’s out at a time.  One thing not being talked about much by the other bloggers is the fact that the price has gone down if you’re a heavy (6-8 DVDs at a time) user.  While some are so upset at the cost increase that they’re cancelling Netflix, I’ll stay with them for now.  I agree with what Richard Lawler of EngadgetHD:

I wouldn’t be surprised if Netflix doesn’t move to offer discounts or additional revisions in their offerings soon.  They are trying to cover their costs of acquiring more streaming rights and make a plentiful profit along the way without losing too much of their subscriber base.  It’s much easier to play around with these things when your main competition (Blockbuster) is mostly gone.  Thank goodness for Redbox and others…

What are you doing with your Netflix subscription?  Any changes in store?

Netflix Blog Announcement

Why Did Google Buy SageTV?

It’s been three weeks since Google gobbled up the tiny Home Theater PC company, SageTV.  The tech blogs, mainstream media publications and even former competition have weighed in on the acquisition.  Now that the dust has settled it’s time to review what we know.  There are many things about SageTV that might have been appealing to Google.  Google is a company looking to acquire technology where they can inject quick & tested technology for it’s vision of home media.  Read on for my take on the reasons Google acquired SageTV.

 

How Did Google Find SageTV in the First Place?

Before we jump into why Google made this purchase, lets step back and ask a question less often considered – how did Google find out about SageTV?  It might be helpful to understand Google’s recent strategy of buying smaller companies like SageTV.  Here’s a quote from Eric Schmidt in the NYTimes article, Google’s Deal-Making Math:

“Last year, as part of our policy, we agreed to accelerate our rate of acquisition of small companies,” he said. “Because it’s the fastest way to fill out some of these broader strategies.”

SageTV is a company that’s been around since 2002.  Home Theater PC software (HTPC) was relatively new at that point – especially as a commercial business.  There was Snapstream’s BeyondTV started in 2000, SageTV started in 2002 and several other apps available for free at first.  The concept for these HTPC ventures was very similar – make the computer the hub of home media.  For SageTV that meant a more DIY version of TiVo with movie, music and photo playback built-in.  This HTPC technology became popular with the techies and Microsoft jumped in shortly after highlighting BeyondTV software at a CES event.  MediaCenter was born and everyone thought Microsoft would make HTPC’s relevant to all consumers – not just the tech-savvy crowd.  Well that didn’t really happen in the broader sense at least.  Snapstream ended their consumer, BeyondTV & BeyondMedia products to focus on TV search for businesses, Microsoft bundled their product with the OS & spent less & less money developing and marketing the Media Center feature and SageTV prospered as a very small company that focused on the very small niche of HTPC enthusiasts.

It is certainly possible that Google had SageTV on their radar for longer than five months, but I suspect they really became aware and interested in SageTV’s capabilities when Google joined forces with Sony Electronics, TiVo, Best Buy, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, Nagravision and SageTV in February of 2011.  There have been multiple meetings of these member companies working on the FCC to push AllVid – which they hope will be the replacement for CableCard.  SageTV CTO Jeff Kardatzke was very involved in the AllVid Tech Company Alliance and I suspect that this was the beginning of Google’s awareness of SageTV and it’s capabilities.

Read on for why Google purchased SageTV – And for what this means to GoogleTV

Google Didn’t Purchase SageTV For These Reasons:

There are plenty of reasons why Google was interested in SageTV, but these probably aren’t among them.

• Buy It to Eliminate Competition - There is no way Google was threatened by SageTV.  SageTV didn’t really threaten any other company except perhaps Snapstream which left the consumer business long ago anyway.  SageTV’s market reach while notable for a small company – isn’t even in the same world as Google, Microsoft or Apple.
• CableCard and/or a PlayReady License – Yes, SageTV did purchase a PlayReady license.  Some speculated this was because SageTV wanted CableCard.  While I would have loved to see CableCard as an option for SageTV, I don’t think it was ever a consideration for SageTV to add CableCard tuner capabilities.  AllVid was the next great hope for SageTV and that is where their focus was in terms of getting encrypted content to SageTV (Note: You can already access encrypted content on SageTV via the Hauppauge HD-PVR and Colossus tuning devices, but they both require an external cable box to do so.)
• SageTV Studio – Studio is the application used by 3rd party developers to create customizations and plugins for SageTV – some truly amazing things have been created for SageTV with this product and I imagine GoogleTV users would love to see some of that move under the GoogleTV platform.  This is probably not something Google is interested in though.  I’m told by 3rd party SageTV developers building an app for Android would be much easier than with Studio.

 

What Does Google Want with SageTV?

So what was Google’s motive to purchase the mostly unknown, little company called SageTV?  I think there are many possibilities and I’ll add a few of my own ideas as possibilities.

• DVR Technology – As it stands today, GoogleTV connects to your Cable box and hopefully controls it with an IR blaster.  SageTV brings with it one of the smartest and most powerful recording engines available.  Web video is nice and all, but most of the world still consumes TV from either over the air signals, cable or satellite – which means you need a DVR with one or more tuners built in.  Giving GoogleTV a way to tune and record TV content – even if it’s only the unencrypted content positions them ahead of Apple.  There is a market for a smarter over-the-air DVR device in the U.S. even if they don’t tackle the complicated & messy cable & satellite encryption issues yet.  Google is obviously very interested in AllVid which would give them the non-CableCard entry-point they want for TV tuning.  In the meantime, they have purchased a company that arguably has the most advanced DVR capability on the market today.  Yes, DVR can be complicated – but mostly in the setup of the system.  Setting up a recording, favorite etc is as easy as a google search and clicking “save”.  Sounds google-like if you ask me.

Rakesh Agrawal and GigaOm both argued that it is unlikely that Google would mess with DVR.  I would agree that Apple would not go this route, but I don’t buy the argument that Google wouldn’t.  If Google wasn’t interested in DVR they wouldn’t have any reason to invest time and political capital on the FCC’s adoption of AllVid

• Whole Home Media Network (Server/Client Architecture) – SageTV was designed from the start to serve media from one server doing all the tuning, recording, everything for the entire system.  Record & store your media once, play anywhere with the ability to stop playback on one device and pick up where you left off at another device.  You only have to set up recordings once – and you access those recordings and their underlying settings from all connected devices.  This is where the market is going – just check out U-Verse and others like Time Warner all moving this direction.

• Placeshifting – SageTV placeshifter software can be installed on any laptop or other computer and allows you to view your home media with the same user interface and capabilities over the web – simply extending your media system to anywhere you have an internet connection.  Add to that mobile device control and streaming capability that some speculate the SageTV team was working on and you have something akin to Sling, but more powerful. 
• Set-Top Box Upgrade – SageTV was years ahead of the pack when it comes to media player/extender devices.  Just check out the video reviews of GoogleTV devices and compare their capabilities to the SageTV HD300.  SageTV has a more powerful set top box software they can easily embed into devices – especially since it uses Google-friendly java.  Rakesh Agrawal (CEO of Snapstream a former competitor to SageTV in the consumer HTPC market before they abandoned consumer software for a business-centric TV-Search & record technology) speculated that perhaps Google wanted SageTV to bring over it’s expertise writing STB middleware like their Sigma-based extender/media player reference design for set-top-boxes to provide a cheap reference design for those consumer electronics companies wanting to sell a GoogleTV device.
• Mastering the EPG data – SageTV has made great strides in leveraging the TV-guide data used for TV tuning, recording and searching.  SageTV can pull in season and episode number data for each TV show, screen-shots, fanart, links to data from IMDB and TV.com websites and more.  The SageTV software has the “smarts” for fairly complicated TV search “favorite” settings – much like TiVo and dare I say, much like Google Search.  You can search for all season premieres & finales, series premieres & finales, specials, anything that has the  words “Kansas City” for your specified channels, all shows with a certain actor, producer or director.  The list goes on and on.  And the data is all accessible – something Google might find very useful since their typical end-goal is to drive ads to the user/viewer that are relevant.
• Team Value – Even if Google does nothing with the existing SageTV product they just purchased (which I doubt), Google still obtains some value from the small SageTV team.  In particular Jeff (CTO and co-founder), Jean-Francois (Known as Demo on SageTV Forums) and Quian (Senior Software Engineer known on the forums as Donkey on SageTV forums) have some very valuable knowledge of the Home Media Technology world.

Look over the list above and think about which of those things could Google have easily done on their own?  Placeshifting, acquiring talent (SageTV employees), even the nice handle on EPG data that SageTV has is something Google could do simply and quickly on their own without tossing money at SageTV.

Jeff Kardatzke, the CTO and co-founder of SageTV had this to say two years ago when I interviewed him for GeekTonic.com:

"So by simplifying that part of the process we can sell what essentially are appliances for home entertainment, this would enable us to expand the market from something that is currently relegated to those willing to take on the setup of a full-blown Home Theater PC to someone who needs more of a powerful plug-in-and-go system.  We want to help make HTPC and whole home entertainment setup as easy as a DVD Player."

Except for the impressive SageTV extender/mediaplayers, Jeff was never able to make this “HTPC as easy as a DVD Player” happen while at SageTV.  But his vision does make a lot of sense when you talk about a souped-up GoogleTV.   I see the TV/DVR Recording engine, transcoding on-the-fly capability along with the client/server architecture that SageTV is built on as the strongest assets that Google could use in a GoogleTV platform.  Yes, as Rakesh from Snasptream argued, Google IS all about storing your stuff in the “cloud”, but they are also pretty good at taking a step back after failure (GoogleTV, Wave, etc) and revising what they do for the next version and I see them adding actual TV Tuning to the mix.  When you do a search on your GoogleTV device you’ll be searching for content on the web and on your home hard drive seamlessly.  Google will simplify things (read: it won’t be nearly as customizable as SageTV is/was) and it will be end-user friendly.

 The Google vision will be: Search all media from the cloud and your home, watch that media on any Google device, share that viewing experience with your friends via Google+ and Google wins by learning more about their customers so they can offer similar media, relevant advertisements and products we might like.

Google is in this game to win and the competition will be Apple and possibly Microsoft.  Don’t listen to Steve Jobs saying AppleTV is a hobby – long-term all of these companies are serious about home media tech.  Yes, it’s possible this was a purchase that will cause the SageTV technology to whither away and die forever.  But my bet is on something much improved for GoogleTV.  It’s my opinion that this purchase can only be good news for GoogleTV fans.  Unfortunately it’s bad news for those of us who have relied on SageTV & become used to frequent updates and new features is this:  While those of us that already own a SageTV HTPC setup, SageTV as a brand is gone forever.  Best of luck to the new Google team members.

  Related Articles:

• What’s Next for SageTV Customers?
• SageTV Offers Free Upgrade to Existing Customers

TV Premieres, Finales & Specials This Week 7/10/2011

We’re in the heat of the summer.  If you have a good air conditioner there’s actually a few good premieres coming this week and next.  Read on for the GeekTonic weekly TV update highlighting all the new premieres, finales and specials coming up.

UPDATE:  Missed the premiere of Eureka on Monday when this was first posted

 

                           Warehouse 13 Season 3 begins Monday on SyFy

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST – TV schedules subject to change

Sunday, July 10

Hoarding: Buried Alive (9pm on TLC) Season 3 premiere

Secrets of Seal Team 6 (10pm on Discovery) A Special/Documentary with unclassified information about the government operatives of Seal Team VI who have been working for many years without most of us thinking twice until their recent operation of Osama Bin Laden termination.

Famous Food (10pm on VH1) New reality series that isn’t really about the food, but about the food.  Heidi Montag, Danielle Staub, Jake Pavelka, DJ Paul, Juicy "J", Ashley Dupre and Vincent Pastore work together to launch a new Hollywood restaurant.

The Indestructibles (10pm on National Geographic) New reality series where scientists look into the act of “defying death” in various situations

Tough Cookies (10pm on Food) New cooking/food reality series follows “Crazy Susan’s” led by sisters Linda and Susan as they sell cookies and take care of their difficult family

Curb Your Enthusiasm (10pm on HBO) Season 8 premiere

 

Monday, July 11

Eureka (8pm on SyFy) Season 5 premieres

Warehouse 13 (9pm on SyFy) Season 3 premieres.  This is a quirky, but fun sci-fi show that is a favorite of MrsGeekTonic and I.  If you happen to be an addict of this show check out the extra webisodes on their website.

Man vs. Wild (9pm on Discovery) Season 7 premiere

The Closer (9pm on TNT) Season 7 premiere.  This is the final season for Kyra Sedgwick

Design Star (9pm on HGTV) Season 6 premiere

Law & Order: LA (10pm on NBC) Series finale ends with the first and only season.

Alphas (10pm on SyFy) New sci-fi series where a group of everyday people who possess special neurological abilities work for a secret government agency.

Surviving the Cut (10pm on Discovery) Season 2 premiere

Rizzoli & Isles (10pm on TNT) Season 2 premiere

James May Drinks to Britain (10:20pm on BBCA) New travel series

 

Tuesday, July 12

2011 MLB All-Star Game (8pm on Fox) This year’s game will be played in Phoenix

Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape (9pm on BBCA) Season premiere

Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy (9pm on History) Season 1 finale

Chopped (10pm on Food) Season 8 premiere

How the States Got Their Shapes (10pm on History) Season finale

 

Wednesday, July 13

Iron Man: Armored Adventures (8:30pm on NickToons) Season premiere

2011 ESPY’s (9pm on ESPN) ESPN’s sports awards show

Roseanne’s Nuts (9pm on Life) New reality series with Roseanne Barr

Ghost Hunters International (9pm on SyFy) Season premiere

Sons of Guns (9pm on Discovery) Season 2 premiere

Rescue Me (10pm on FX) Season 7 premiere

Dance Moms (10pm on Life) New reality series

Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? (10pm on ID) Season premiere

Legend Quest (10pm on SyFy) New reality series where a symbologist travels the world to find artifacts & relics.

One Man Army (10pm on Discovery) New reality series where ex-military contestants compete in contests to win a $10,000 prize

The Franchise: A Season With the San Francisco Giants (10pm on Showtime) New reality series

I Married a Mobster (10:30pm on ID) New reality series

 

Thursday, July 14

Texas Women (9pm on CMT) New reality/soap series follows four Texan women looking for fame & fortune.

The First 48: Missing Persons (10pm on A&E) Season 1 finale

The Green Room With Paul Provenza (11pm on Showtime) Season premiere

 

Friday, July 15

Prank Stars (8:05pm on Disney) New kid-centric hidden camera show.

Haven (10pm on SyFy) Season 2 premiere

 

Saturday, July 16

Keeping Up With the Randalls (9pm on Hallmark) A made-for-TV comedy/drama movie.

Pit Boss (10pm on Animal Planet) Season 3 premiere

 

Sunday, July 17

Billionaire's Car Club (7pm on HD Theater) Auto series hosted by Andrew Firestone

Big Rich Texas (9pm on Style) New reality series centered at a posh Texas country club.

Heat Seekers (10pm on Food) New food show with a focus on spicy food.

 

Monday, July 18

Family BrainSurge (8pm on Nikelodeon) New family game show

 

Tuesday, July 19

It’s Worth What? (8pm on NBC) New game show with a very familiar theme

Ludo Bites America (9pm on Sundance) A reality/cooking show with a focus on spicy food.  Sounds really similar to the one premiering on Food network a few days earlier

Awkward (11pm on MTV) New comedy series

Web Therapy (11pm on Showtime) New comedy series with Lisa Kudrow  

 

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