Dish Network has quietly waged a battle with Nvidia Corp. since April in an effort to stop the chipmaker from using the name "Hopper" for its next-generation graphic processing unit (GPU). 

Dish has since 2012 branded its digital video recorders and other satellite receiver equipment under the Hopper name. It's unclear why the Englewood, Co. telecom, which is transitioning into wireless connectivity as its legacy satellite TV business slowly fades away, is concerned about brand confusion when it comes to tech hardware used in things like gaming computers. 

Dish, however, filed a notice of opposition to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last spring. Proceedings tied to that filing have been stopped on numerous occasions since, giving both sides 60 days to conduct settlement talks each time. 

The most recent stoppage occurred on Dec. 21 -- if Dish and Nvidia can't reach an agreement by Feb. 22, proceedings including pre-trial discovery, will reconvene. 

Nvidia filed with the USPTO in 2019 to use the name Hopper to describe the architecture its new GPUs. Products tied to this Hopper design are expected to hit the market this year. 

 As our sibling pub Tom's Hardware notes, the Nvidia brand name stems from the late Carol Hopper, who developed the programming language COBOL and invented the first compiler, among other achievements.

As Tom's Hardware also mentioned, Nvidia is developing other consumer-targeted GPUs under the codenames "Ada" and "Lovelace." 

The estates of late mathematician Ada Lovelace and pornography actress Linda Lovelace have yet to initiate any trademark opposition with the USPTO. 

Dish Network is building home automation wherewithal into its Hopper 3 DVR, much in the same way Comcast integrated it to its X1 platform several years ago.

Dish today announced that its Hopper and Wally receivers now support the Google Nest Hello video doorbell, delivering onscreen notifications when the doorbell rings.

Yes indeed, Dish subscribers must never endure the horror of missing the pizza guy again.

The Google Nest Hello retails for $229.99.

Dish said that the video doorbell is just the first of a series of Google Nest announcements that will unfurl over the coming months. The satellite TV company—soon to be wireless company?—has already established a sales page for the full line of Google Nest products and services.

“Google Nest on Hopper is about giving our customers added choice and control over their home environment—with the subtle on-screen alerts delivered by the Nest Hello, customers are better equipped to hit pause and take action right away,” said Rob Sadler, Dish director of product management, in a statement. “This is just the beginning of a powerful relationship with Google Nest and their vast portfolio of products.” 

Dish Network said it is building Google Assistant into its Hopper family of set-top receivers, allowing customers to use their voice remotes to control smart home devices, provide weather and news updates, display photos and more in the coming months.

Dish officially made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday (Jan. 8).

This functionality builds on Dish’s deal to integrate Google Assistant into Hopper in July, which required users to pair their Hopper with a Google Assistant device such as speakers and phones to control their TV.

“Our customers love the convenience of voice control, so we’re expanding functionality to make it even more powerful,” said Dish vice president of product management Niraj Desai in a statement. “As a Dish subscriber, you will soon get the Google Assistant and all its incredible features – like adjusting your thermostat, managing your calendar or simply asking for the latest news – for free, right on your TV.”

Customers will be able to use their voice remote to ask the Assistant questions and see answers on the screen like weather forecasts or games scores. Users will also be able to control smart home devices, such as dimming the lights or adjusting the thermostat, and relive favorite memories by pulling up Google Photos on the TV screen – all with their voice.

Customers with a Dish voice remote and broadband-connected Hopper (all generations), Joey (all models) or Wally will have access to the Google Assistant. New Dish customers receive the voice remote with all Hopper family receivers at no extra cost; current customers without a voice remote can upgrade for $20.

Former Dish Network CEO Joe Clayton, who ran the satellite TV giant for four years through one of its more prolific periods of product innovation, died Saturday at the age of 68 after a brief illness.

Clayton, a 42-year veteran of the telecom industry, joined Dish in 2011. Prior to Dish he served as chairman and CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio, president and CEO, respectively of telecom providers Global Crossing and Frontier Communications and helping to launch DirecTV at Thomson Consumer Electronics in concert with Hughes Electronics. He also led RCA’s marketing and sales efforts for TVs and VCRs.

Clayton retired retired from Dish in 2015 after leading the satellite TV service provider through some of its most high-profile product launches – the Hopper digital video recorder and the Sling TV over-the-top service to name a few. 

Clayton was a well-respected executive but also one of the industry’s consummate showmen. In launching The Hopper at CES in 2012, Clayton took the stage cradling a baby kangaroo -- one of The Hopper’s spin-off products was called The Joey -- promising a “new dawn" for the satellite company. 

“Joe was a man of passion and vision whose influence on our industry is remarkable in its breadth and depth,” Dish founder and chairman Charlie Ergen said in a statement. “As a master marketer, his brands, including RCA, DirecTV, Sirius Satellite Radio and Dish, were welcomed into tens of millions of American homes. As importantly, he mentored and influenced generations of leaders across our industry, including me. I am grateful for Joe’s leadership, his friendship and his generosity.”

Related: Charlie Ergen’s Inside Man 

Clayton is survived by his wife, Janet, daughters Megan Stovall (Matthew), Kelly Herr (Brock), Kathleen Reitz (Andy), and Molly; son John Paul; grandchildren Samuel, Abigail, William and Lucas Paul; brother Mike Clayton (Leigh Ann); and sister Ellen Willett (Jerry).

Frank DeFilippis, national sales manager, custom integration for Dish, gave the keynote presentation at the CEDIA-owned Technology & Business Summit held in Melville, NY Tuesday. There, he laid out for the residential integrators in the room how Dish was focusing its efforts on the custom installation channel through a concierge service just for them and how the company has invested in the 5G spectrum.

DeFilippis, who was a custom installer prior to joining Dish, said the company has “empathy and understanding for the integrator community,” before launching into the suite of services they bring to the channel, including direct access to Dish without having to pretend to be their clients, a white glove satellite placement service that answers to the integrator, and a host of technology options.

Related: Dish Adds DVR Feature to AirTV

Among the technology options mentioned was the Residential Systems’ 2018 CEDIA Best of Show award-winning Hopper 3, which features an auto-discovery function when used with control systems such as Crestron, Control4, ELAN, URC, and RTI. Hooper 3 also includes voice control with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and the company is currently working with Josh.ai to provide natural-language voice control.

DeFilippis explained how Dish wants to get in front of trends such as cord cutting, which led to a look at its Sling TV offerings, including hardware options such as AirTV, which can play Netflix and other popular streaming formats in addition to Sling TV, and will work with an additional plug-in OTA antenna to provide clients with local channels in addition to cable favorites. One final feature that DeFilippis noted — that brought smiles to attendees’ faces — was that the AirTV also comes with dealer margin — something not found in Roku and AppleTV sales.

Getting ahead of trends also came into play when discussing 5G. “Dish has been investing in the wireless spectrum for 12 years,” he noted, “purchasing $21 billion in spectrum purchases.” That puts them in direct competition with the spectrum purchases of telcos such as T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint, but, DeFilippis pointed out, Dish is not constrained by the legacy technology those companies need to serve — including customers still using 2G, 3G, and 4G.

With its millions of connections per cell, sub-millisecond latency, and super-fast upload and download speeds, Dish sees 5G technology as the key to building smart cities, and they plan on playing a big part in that.

No doubt 5G will have an impact on the home and the CI channel, and Dish will be keeping an eye on that as well, working it into their custom installer services.

Dish Network said its Hopper subscribers can now use Google Assistant to control their TV experience through a series of voice commands.

Dish customers with a Hopper, a Hopper Duo, Joey, or Wally can control their TVs with only their voice when paired with a Google Assistant device, like Google Home, Android phones or iPhones. Dish is the first pay-TV provider to offer direct compatibility with the Assistant.

"Since we first introduced voice control technology, we've seen our customers really embrace the hands-free TV experience," said Dish vice president of product management Niraj Desai in a statement. "Our collaboration with Google is an exciting opportunity for us to continue meeting demand for voice and changing the way we interact with television."

Customers can ask the Assistant to set recordings, adjust volume and launch apps like Game Finder, Netflix and Pandora. Customers can also use the Assistant to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre. When using search functionality, the results displayed include Dish's live, recorded and on-demand titles, as well as Netflix's selection of TV shows and movies.

"We want to make it easy and fun for people to turn their living room into a smart entertainment center with the Assistant," said Google Smart Home Ecosystem senior director Michele Turner in a statement. "By working closely with Dish, we'll ensure that customers can easily control their TVs through the Assistant, instead of searching for or having to share the remote."

To take advantage of the voice controls, users need to have a broadband-connected Hopper DVR, Hopper Duo, Joey or Wally and must download the Google Assistant app on their smartphones.

For more information about the Google Assistant on Dish set-top boxes, including possible commands and step-by-step set-up instructions, visit Dish's Google Assistant integration page.

Dish Network hopped on the skinny bundle train Thursday, offering a slimmed-down package of 50 channels for $39.99 per month, an attempt to attract cost-conscious younger consumers who are consistently resisting buying the standard bundle of programming.

With the Flex Pack, customers will get more than 50 channels – including AMC, TNT, USA, HGTV, E!, Cartoon Network, History, A&E, CNN, Discovery, TBS, Food Network, FX and TV Land. In addition, they also can choose one of eight separate themed channel packages including local broadcast networks, kids, national and regional channels for between $4 and $10 per month.

“Our customers are frustrated with having to pay for hundreds of channels, most of which they never watch,” said Dish exective vice president of marketing, programming and media sales Warren Schlichting in a statement. “Flex Pack provides a level of flexibility and control that brings our customers closer to the ideal of fully tailoring their channel lineup.”

The channel packs include:

Locals Pack ($10 per month): CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, as well as Univision and others based on the local market.

Variety Pack ($6 per month): Investigation Discovery, Lifetime Movie Network, Freeform, Bravo, BET, Crime & Investigation.

Kids Pack ($10 per month): Disney Channel, Disney Jr., Animal Planet, Nick Jr., Disney XD, Nicktoons, Boomerang, Baby TV.

National Action Pack ($10 per month): ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, Velocity, AXS TV, Fuse, TV Games Network, TVG2, Universal HD.

News Pack ($10 per month): FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Weather Channel, CNBC, FOX Business Network, BBC World News, Bloomberg, TheBlaze.

Heartland Pack ($6 per month): Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, GSN, OWN, Uplifting Entertainment, Discovery Family, Baby TV, PIXL, RFD-TV, Ride TV, FamilyNet.

Regional Action Pack ($10 per month): In-market regional sports network(s), Big Ten Network, FS2, Longhorn Network, Outside TV, Pac-12 Network, SEC Network, World Fishing Network, ESPN Buzzer Beater.

Outdoor Pack ($4 per month): Outdoor Channel, Outside TV, Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network.

Customers who choose not to add any channel packs can receive the Flex Pack core programming for $29.99. Premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and Starz are also available as add-ons for an additional fee. A complete channel lineup can be found at www.dish.com.

Flex Pack includes a standard DISH receiver, free installation and a two-year price guarantee for new customers. For an additional $10 per month, new customers can upgrade their equipment to the Hopper 3. Customers must enroll in eBill and AutoPay to be eligible to receive these offers.

iHeartRadio has become the first live streaming radio app to launch on U-verse TV, AT&T’s IP-delivered pay TV platform.

The app, which requires users to have U-verse high-speed Internet service, is accessible on U-verse channel 532/1532 and allows users to search for radio stations based on genre, location or keyword; select from thousands of live radio stations; receive personalized recommendations based on listening habits, location and musical preferences; and access a list of saved or recently listened-to stations.

AT&T and iHeartMedia said they will add new features to the app later this year, including custom stations created from a library of more than 20 million songs and 800,000 artists, as well as song lyrics, artist biographies, stations "Perfect For" any mood or activity, and thousands of podcasts.

AT&T U-verse TV currently supports more than 30 apps, including music-focused apps such as Country Deep, Stingray Music, Karaoke TV and U-verse Jukebox.

“Personalization is one of the key features of AT&T U-verse TV, so a highly-customizable app like iHeartRadio is a natural fit,” said GW Shaw, vice president of U-verse and video products at AT&T, in a statement. “We’re excited to bring iHeartRadio and its extensive offerings to our U-verse customers.”

Integrating music apps at the set-top level has become an increasingly common play for U.S. MVPDs.

Comcast, for example, offers access to Pandora via its IP-capable X1 platform. Dish Network, meanwhile, announced in January that its Hopper and Joey boxes would add support for several third-party OTT music offerings, including Pandora, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, as well as to Vevo, the music video streaming service. Dish is also working on Dish Music, an app that will “discover” Hopper and Joey devices on the home network, allow customers tovselect from multiple music sources and independently control what music is being piped into the house. 

Dish Network and Frontier Communications said they have agreed to a multi-year deal to bundle Dish’s programming service with the telco’s Internet and voice technology packages.

"Dish is a great partner for Frontier," said Frontier chairman and CEO Maggie Wilderotter in a statement. "It offers our customers access to a portfolio of award-winning brands. The bundled offerings pair Frontier broadband and voice services with a suite of Dish products and services, including the Hopper with Sling Whole-Home HD DVR. Frontier makes it simple by being a single and local point of contact for service and billing."

Dish and Frontier have bundled their services for years. Most recently the two teamed up to launch the “America’s Best Communities” (ABC) contest, a $10 million prize competition encouraging individuals and organizations to increase economic development and create positive change within their communities.  

 "We have worked with Frontier to make it even easier for consumers to design the highest value bundle for their information, connection, and entertainment needs," said Dish CEO Joseph Clayton in a statement. "I am pleased to continue this relationship with a company that shares our commitment to providing advanced technology solutions through an affordable, service-driven approach."