Let me just start of by saying WOW! TiVo’s latest initiative known as Tahiti (HME) is awesome! In case you didn’t know already, TiVo has released an open-source SDK (software developers kit) that allows software developers to create applications that interact with your TiVo and provide new functionality.

From what I’ve seen, the SDK looks very impressive. The kit appears to provide a whole bunch of capabilities that would have been difficult to implement under the old TiVoBeacon SDK. I predict that in a short period of time, software developers will start developing some really amazing applications. Even the sample apps that are distributed with the kit look impressive. I haven’t tried any of the samples yet however; I plan to do it in the near future. If only I had some more free time on my hands, I would probably start coding some of my own applications.

As a side note, did anybody else notice that the name “Arthur Van Hoff” appears a lot in the source code? Wasn’t he the guy from Strangeberry that was suppose to bring TiVo “back to life”? Apparently, he has taken a major role in the release of HME. I guess TiVo’s investment in Strangeberry really has paid off. Another interesting thing that I noticed had to do with the fact that one of the sample app’s screenshots had to do with JavaHMO! I haven’t had a chance to contact Leon (the creator of JavaHMO) however; I wonder if he is already working on a new version that will use HME. Just think, a lot of the ideas that he has for JavaHMO could be implemented a lot easier with this SDK.

As I said earlier, I think that Tahiti is some great news for TiVo. I’m sure that you’ll see the open source community embrace this platform and create some amazing apps.

As a final note, I also noticed that TiVo has put together a developer challenge. Details of the challenge can be found here. This is yet another great move by TiVo! Stay tuned for more HME news and information!