The economy must be getting better as some folks seem to be raising prices relentlessly. These include:
- Chinesepod. They have been a great service for learning, but I’ve had them for three years and every year there is a 50% plus price increase. Now they are up to $120 a year and I have to say good bye to them. They are really terrific at teaching Chinese but at this rate it is hard to do., Praxis overall seems to be moving heavily up market with more and more high end offerings.
- Tivo. Wow, these guys are working hard to raise prices. The current Tivo HDs i had were on $99 plans. Now on renewal, even with the multi unit plan, they are $10/month, so that is a nice 20% increase. And the Tivo Premiere is $15 per month. Needlesstosay, a big project will be finding a replacement for these as the main way I watch TV is with TiVo as a DVR. The comcast box I have for “free” with HD is actually more expensive at $15/month. The HD HomeRun Prime I have great hope for. It is $300 for the main box and $25 per year for programming. It does mean you have to buy a Mac Mini or something to view the programming with (I’m still working on MythTV), but with costs at $150/year/TV, it pays back pretty fast as a Mac Mini is way more general and with TouchPad as an incredible iOS application, using a Mac Mini as a viewer actually does work. Or maybe I’ll wait and see what Apple’s bigger TV offering is.
