Industry Buzz

• Hillcrest CEO: Cable Should Dump Old Set-Tops

  "If cable operators intend to enamor consumers the way they are with Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) or Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s iPad, Dan Simpkins says MSOs will have to rid themselves of legacy digital set-tops like Motorola Mobility Inc. (NYSE: MMI)'s DCT-2000, and replace them with boxes outfitted with faster processors that can run advanced applications." Steve Donohue, Light Reading Cable

• As the TV market shifts, Hillcrest Labs may find its spotlight moment

  "Hillcrest placed its wager on what would eventually be called 'Freespace,' a point-and-click technology for remotes to control a TV the way a mouse controls a computer. The viewer's hand motion guides the cursor and the push of a button makes a selection." Steven Overly, Washington Post

• Hillcrest Sees More Movement from TV, Game Companies

  "Hillcrest, a maker of a Nintendo Wii-like remote control for navigating Internet content on televisions, has revealed that it designed the technology behind a motion-sensing remote control for new high-end televisions made by LG Electronics, the Korean consumer electronics maker. Hillcrest also says it has licensed its patents on motion control technology to Sony's videogame division. Sony and Hillcrest spokesmen wouldn't talk about the terms of the deal, but it's likely to be relevant to PlayStation Move, an upcoming motion-sensing game controller for Sony's PlayStation 3." Nick Wingfield, The Wall Street Journal

• Cable Freedom Is a Click Away

  "We use a mouse called the Loop, made by Hillcrest Labs, that costs $99. The Loop looks more like a chocolate-frosted doughnut with buttons than something that navigates a television set." Nick Bilton, New York Times

• iCandy: Tech Gifts Beautiful Inside and Out

  "More living rooms are home to computers that viewers hook to their big-screen TVs so they can tap the growing list of Internet services that stream commercial movies and shows. The striking, O-shaped Loop replaces the keyboard and mouse that would clutter a coffee table and makes it easier to navigate a PC's menus." David Lagesse, US News and World Report

• The PC World 100: Best Products of 2009

  "Pooling their collective talents, Hillcrest Labs and Texas Instruments have unveiled the Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics (RF4CE) compliant remote controls with Freespace Technology, an RF-based remote technology that eliminates line-of-sight pointing requirements." The PC World Editorial Team, PC World

• MSN

  "The technology for the remote, developed by Hillcrest, is ripe for use in a real television remote control. Pointing and clicking through grids of content and channels could be faster and more fun than scrolling down, down, down all the time." Jane Douglas, The future of the remote control, MSN UK - Tech & Gadgets (1/11/09)

• Electronic Design

  "Pooling their collective talents, Hillcrest Labs and Texas Instruments have unveiled the Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics (RF4CE) compliant remote controls with Freespace Technology, an RF-based remote technology that eliminates line-of-sight pointing requirements." Remote Controls Exploit Freespace Technology, Electronic Design (1/7/09)

• Wall Street Journal

  "I can conclude that this device's interface shines in its simplicity and is a lot of fun to use. Kodak teamed with Hillcrest Labs to make the player's motion-sensitive remote and corresponding software, which includes satisfying extra features like images that automatically magnify when the remote control's cursor points at them and icons that make chirping sounds when selected. The remote itself is shaped to rest comfortably in a hand and has three simple buttons and a scroll wheel." Katherine Boehret, Family Snapshots in the Splendor of HD, The Wall Street Journal (11/26/08)

• KillerApp.com

  "Today’s channel–selection interfaces and remote–control devices won't be up to the job of sorting through this vast flood of content. But several companies are hard at work developing new solutions. One of the contenders is certain to be Hillcrest Labs, whose nifty ring–shaped remote, called the Loop, has only two buttons and a scroll wheel. The Loop uses motion–sensing technology to move an on–screen cursor and navigate a user–friendly, intuitive visual interface."Masha Zager, Editor’s Pick: The Best of the Consumer Electronics Show Preview KillerApp.com (11/14/06)

• Macworld.com

  "Among the most interesting things I saw demoed was a system created by Hillcrest Labs…What I saw of it was very cool, and far and away superior to the kind of interfaces you'll find in most set–top boxes nowadays. Besides just having a pointer–based system, it also uses metadata behind the scenes to let you navigate from, say, a movie to other movies featuring the same actor—or to the soundtrack for that movie." Dan Moren, CES Unveiled @ NY ’07: Point and Click Coming to Set–Top boxes?, Macworld.com (11/11/06)

• NET News.com Blog

  "In remotes, buttons are out. Pointing is in."Michael Kanellos, With This Remote Control I Thee Wed, CNET News.com Blog (11/8/06)

• CNET

  "He who bears the ring controls the universe––and the TV– Hillcrest's technology consists of two parts: a ring–shaped remote with two buttons and a scrollwheel, and software that turns reams of TV listings into thumbnail menus. The idea is to provide more information at once, but in a natural, intuitive manner." Michael Kanellos Space–age Remote Control Coming in 2007, CNET News.com (11/8/06)

• Financial Times

  "Dan Simpkins has seen the future of television, and it is doughnut–shaped. His company, Hillcrest Labs, has designed a circular TV controller that can sense its position in space. It moves a pointer on a screen, selecting channels or films to play…With just a handful of channels, a remote control with a few buttons is enough. And it can just about cope with the couple of hundred channels provided by digital, satellite and cable operators." Ben King, The Fight to Gain Remote Control, Financial Times (11/7/06)

• CNET

  "Hillcrest Labs has come up with FreeSpace, a way to visually search music, movie and photo menus. The company's technology consists of two parts: a four–button remote shaped like a ring that lets you move a cursor around by pointing, and software that turns reams of TV listings into thumbnail menus. The idea is to provide more information at once, but in a natural, intuitive manner. It is pretty easy to use."Michael Kanellos The Remote Control of the 21st Century, CNET News (6/25/06)

• Network World

  "The most disruptive technologies usually start with a simple demonstration. At Walt Mossberg’s D Conference this month, we think that such demonstration happened, and that it is going to have an order of magnitude change on the face of IPTV as we know it. A small company with telco–equipment roots, Hillcrest Labs, showed for the first time publicly its new HōME navigation system for TV."Daniele Briere and Patrick Hurley A Disruptive Change of Face for IPTV, Network World (5/24/06)

• David Raths/Small Times

  "All the major players are interested in Hillcrest. It’s a huge competitive advantage for whoever partners with them first. The migration path to this will be insane."David Raths Air MouseThreatens to Replace TV Remotes, Small Times (3/22/06)

• Patti Reali/Gartner

  "Why Cool: This startup has developed a radically different search and navigation platform for all manner of digital content on TV."Patti Reali, Cool Vendors in Carrier Network Infrastructure, 2006, Gartner (3/17/06)

• Josh Bernoff/Forrester

  "There are so many ordinary products, Web sites, services and the like out there. Most of them seem to come to brief us at Forrester. It’s my job to review most of these, and ordinariness bores me. But everyone in a while I see something that excites me. Right now a few of the companies that I’m watching closely are Hillcrest Labs…"Josh Bernoff (2/25/06) One billion iTunes downloads: What It Means, Devices, Media And The Future Of Everything

• NBC4.com

  "Some products are evolutionary; a very few are revolutionary. The HōME system from Hillcrest Labs is the latter. It uses icons, not text, to help you find content on your HōME entertainment system."I.J. Hudson Hillcrest Labs: Putting You in the Loop, NBC4.com (2/23/06)

• Cable World

  "JB Perrette, CFO/SVP, New Media, NBC Universal Cable
  Hillcrest Labs has one of the most innovative program guides I’ve seen in years. Hillcrest’s graphics–drive program guide and ‘mouse–like’ on–screen navigation transforms traditional text–based TV navigation into a much more user–friendly experience."John P. Ourand What Was Cool at CES?, CableWorld (1/23/06)

• PC Magazine

  "Hillcrest Labs unveils easy–to–use remote control…Navigating through the interface was one of the most intuitive experiences we’ve seen."Jeremy A. Kaplan, Anywhere, Anytime TV, PC Magazine (1/11/06)

• Wall Street Journal

  "Most industry executives agree that Internet content doesn’t really become a mass medium until it can be viewed by a consumer on the couch with a TV and remote control. But technology companies are attacking these problems. In Las Vegas, Hillcrest Labs Inc., for example plans to display a new donut–shaped remote control that uses two buttons and a scroll wheel to zoom in and out of graphically displayed content choices."Peter Grant and Don Clark, Watching the Web on TV, Wall Street Journal, (1/3/06)

• Wall Street Journal

  "As television sets have added more functions and become more complex, remote controls have grown gargantuan becoming so filled with buttons that you need an advanced degree to use them. Hillcrest Labs, has come up with a radically new remote. Called The Loop, it is in the shape of a circle and has just two buttons and a scroll wheel. The Loop accompanied by a dramatic new user interface…is highly visual. No training is required." Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Using a Computer to Clean Up Spilled Milk, Wall Street Journal (5/23/05)

• Josh Bernoff/Forrester

  "Sexy systems with inertial remotes will charm CE vendors seeking differentiation….Look for Panasonic, Philips and Samsung to give highly graphical systems like Hillcrest HōME a chance in high–end products where design makes a difference.”