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Yes I Really Like Hulu

2009-05-28T17:04:00.000-04:00

Today Hulu announced it's new desktop application for both PC and
Mac. Now not that having to use the web browser was all that
difficult it's great to see an application that I can use especially
since I use it on my 42 inch TV. Although I just went and bought a
keyboard with touchpad support I'll gladly use my old media center
remote which the app now supports.

I'm looking forward to installing and checking the app out tonight,
much like my new DvR from DirectTV the problem becomes that I start to
watch more because of this when I should be watching less.

In any case Hulu is a great service that just keeps getting better,
now just bring on the iPhone app!

E3 Hopes and Predictions

2009-05-27T22:53:00.004-04:00

Wow its been quite some time since I last blogged, quite a long time. But anyway much has been going on in between. I finally moved back to Direct TV which I was going to blog about many times but still have not done. I've even signed up for Satellite radio with Sirius but I only get the Internet version of that which is pretty cool. Right now I'm still trying to get through all the television I've ignored throughout the TV season as well, but I had to take a quick moment to jot down some E3 thoughts.

E3 is a great time, its those couple days through all three big press conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo where we get to hear about all the cool stuff that's coming out. I'm really interested this year since this year is usually the year we'd be at least hearing about new hardware. While we certainly won't be hearing about new hardware that only leaves the software that's going to add the WOW factor this year. Of course for me by software I'm hoping OS level advances for the system's themselves.

I'll keep this brief, but here are my thoughts:

Microsoft: My biggest hopes lay with Microsoft and the 360, and to an extent the Zune. Microsoft has already announced a new Zune HD plus their already kicking off their 1 vs 100 game on live leading me to believe that they've got some pretty cool stuff lined up to announce. Moving the Zune Marketplace into the 360 will be cool especially if they make the ability to buy on 360 and transfer to Zune for on the go with TV shows and movies. I'm looking forward to some pretty cool Live Arcade announcements as well. Microsoft is gearing up to change entertainment at E3 and I'm sure they will. There is also always a few cool freebies they like to put out during these times as well.

Sony: Sony needs help AND FAST. There is the rumor of a new PS3 and PSP, while the PSP may sound cool I'm thinking a new PS3 may cause confusion in the marketplace (and piss off allot of people as well). The XMB needs a revamp and Sony needs to probably NOT talk about HOME during E3. I'd love for Sony to announce they actually have a web browser that will work (since they insist on having it there) and as a BIG stretch it would be cool for them to announce a native HULU app for the XMB or the ability for Netflix, Microsoft is killing them here.

Nintendo: I'm only going to say this once, Nintendo needs to announce the ability to buy games on the Wii then send them over to the DSi to play on the go. If they do this I will run out and buy a DSi. The Wii dash also needs an update as does the Wii Shopping Channels. They've got their new controller adapter launching this summer so that's already out there. I've noticed today at Gamestop that there are ALLOT of Wii games out there. Nintendo doesn't really need to announce anything new, they'll still sell a bunch of hardware and that's probably what they'll talk about most. Its a shame because they really need to excite this year.

Well like I said I'd make it quick, notice I really didn't talk games, mostly because I probably won't buy many. I'm interested to hear about some of the sports games especially the new Madden but these will most likely be lost in the shuffle.

I guess we'll find out soon enough, I can't wait!

iPhone Gaming

2009-03-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

It's silly for me to even pretend that I'm not a big fan of my iPhone, every day it continues to improve and surprise me in what I can do with it, with the announcement of the iPhone OS 3.0 which will arrive this summer it will only get better. However what has surprised me more than anything is just how good of a game system the iPhone has become.

I'm a gamer, I've been for as long as I can remember, these days though I'm more of a casual gamer due to the current complexity of some games and the fact that I just don't have as much time (in a sense I've become my father). The iPhone has become the perfect place to play

When I first started using the iPhone I thought I wouldn't be loading it up with games. The first choice of games were ones I figured I'd have as "staples" maybe one to show off (Crash Kart Racing), one to try out the accelerometor (dizzy bee) and of course a card game (Solebon Solitare). Games like Crash Kart and Dizzy Bee showed much promise but it was more an exception than a rule, even games like Super Monkey Ball were good but not great. Eventually I played the free version of Solitaire enough that I finally ponied up and got the full version. One thing I never wanted to do and still hold true is that I don't fill up the phone with trial and free versions of games, its nice to grab one to try out but then I either buy or delete.

That was nice early on, but the more I browsed the iTunes app store the more I veered towards the game section, more and more. What I started to find however surprised me more than I thought it would.

The first games I came across were the free i games, iBowl, iGolf, iBaseball etc. These games were like the Wii Sports of the iPhone, although the only one that resides on the phone currently is iBowl (which I love, but still that 300 game evades me). Other casual games started making thier way to my phone such as Wurdle, Tic Tac Free, and Bejeweled. The first really big game I bought after Crash Kart however was Spore Origins. Spore Origins was pretty simple and enjoyable, yet I remain stuck on the last level!

While the holidays brought great games to my iPhone like Tiki Towers, Virtual Pool and Crazy Tanks lately some really big games have made thier way to my iPhone. These are the games that are really started to set the iPhone into motion as a serious gaming device.

First and foremost Tap Tap Revenge 2 is free and its ALOT better than Tap Tap Revenge, I love having a Guitar Heroish type game on the iPhone. Days of Thunder is a great racing game and Aqua Moto Racing is one of the best if not the best jet ski racing game on the app store (okay it may be the only jet ski racing game on the app store). The thing that sets a game like Aqua Moto Racing apart is the level of polish! Talking about polish Let's Golf is absolutely amazing. I am a big Hot Shots Golf type golf game fan and Let's Golf is perfect, even at version one its amazing. Other games do thing that even the PSP can't do, iDracula uses dual sticks to move and shoot, a recent update to the game added more levels etc and it is literally a blast to play. Recently I picked up Metal Gear Solid Touch, while respectively its priced a bit high and you do pay for the Metal Gear name its a great "duck hunt" like shooter and shows that developers are taking this device very seriously.

I even have a plateformer series on the iPhone with the Toy Bot series, I managed to get all 3 for $3 (just .99 each on sale). If your a fan of Skeeball and shooting baskets at the arcade then both ArcadeBowl and ArcadeHoops should be on your list. One of the coolest apps is Aqua Baller, play it and you'll be pleasently surprised and taken back if your say over 30.

This is just the beginning, there are two big games on my watch list Real Racing and Galaxy on Fire are set to push the limits of what anyone thought possible on the iPhone. I simply can't wait!

One caveat in buying games is that generally for me I cap at $7, I have bought a handful of $10 apps yet its not the price that bugs me its the up and down "stock market" pricing of apps that does annoy me. If you browse everyday you can get some pretty good deals on games.

While maybe gaming on the iPhone will not leave you much time to talk its certainly become something I can't do without. The iPhone has already been a much better portable gaming device for me than the DS and PSP ever have.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some gaming to do.

The Canon PowerShot and the Kindle App

2009-03-08T00:32:00.002-05:00

I havn't blogged in a while but two recent tech things need to be blogged about, my new Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS, and the new Kindle iPhone application.

Although I have my main, big camera my Nikon D40 with all its photo taking power and multiple lenses I had a feeling that I needed something a bit more compact to have with me. Sure I have my iPhone and its great that it has a camera, but lets face it, its not a great camera. So I pretty much just checked Flickr to see what the best point and shoot camera was and low and behold the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS was shooting up the charts, and lucky for me Best Buy had it on sale.

I took it for a test drive today and I'm liking it already. First of all I was glad to see it came with a lithium battery and I wasn't going to have to deal with batteries! Next up it was actually able to snap some of those moment shots and not the moments after the actual moment shots. The area I was most surprised with was the video capabilities, I was able to take some video with the camera and guess what not only does it capture audio but the video and audio came out pretty good. As a bonus the video is in AVI format so it'll transfer to Mac and PC alike, it won't stream to the 360 without some help being converted to WMV at least though there was a codec issue.

The next test is taking it on our trip this week, I really can't have the big Nikon with me and it may actually allow me to keep the video camera at home as well. So far its been a great camera and a great compliment to the D40.

Next up is the iPhone Kindle app. My biggest issue with the Kindle is the price, its way too expensive. I am pretty impressed and surprised that Amazon released the app for the iPhone and its free. Sure it doesn't have all the features the Kindle has and you can't order books directly from the app but its not bad to have to go to the Amazon web site and send the book to the iPhone. Although I'm guessing its MUCH easier on the eyes to use the Kindle than the iPhone for me right now I have an iPhone and a pretty good eBook reader! At this point I sent some sample books to the app to try it out, see how it goes. All in all after knocking the Kindle so much I'm glad Amazon gave me a free one!

Both of these little reviews are a bit early in both product lifecycles but I'm pretty confident that both will be used in the future, the camera probably ALOT more! Time will tell, for now its time to enjoy.

New Life for Old Friends

2009-02-18T22:18:00.003-05:00

I'll admit when I first got my Media Center PC I thought that Media Center was the coolest thing around. Here was a great way to finally watch AND record TV on my computer, something for some reason I always wanted to do. There was also a pretty cool program I picked up along the way called MyTVtoGO and started using it a little to record shows and drop them onto my PSP. That wasn't really a long lived thing. Eventually the 360 dashboard picked up and I pretty much put Media Center to the side, not really having a need for it. As a matter of fact when I did some cable cleanup I even disconnected that cable from the PC, TV to PC disconnected.

Fast forward to the present and boy that has changed. I am always on the search for ways to do more with technology and media and in a sense make my media world better and easier (which always means more work and complicated). I came across a program I once used called Pocket DVD Wizard and it reopened some doors. Initially it was a way to start putting some more movies on the iPhone but then I realized it worked with the PSP as well. Well for some reason it didn't want to work well with all the files I was throwing at it for the PSP (the iPhone was fine) but that led me to updating to the PRO version of the PSP Media Manager and I started to convert and send movies to my PSP with ease once again.

Of course this was movies and my kid likes allot of his cartoons. Luckily the latest version of the PSP Media Manager works with dvr-ms files, you know the ones that Media Center creates, and as it goes PBS and the Disney Channel don't put commercials during their shows!

So tonight I hooked back up that cable to the PC and once again I'm recording a bunch of TV shows that will soon make their way to the PSP. It does help that I picked up an 8 gig memory card for $35 (they originally retailed for $300!!!).

I like iTunes but lets face it at $2 a show and a finite amount of storage anyway I can't really keep that up, and once the kids get to a certain age these shows go away so their not long term keeps. This way I can alternate new shows in once in awhile since the good thing about kids is they can watch the same episode over and over.

So Media Center and PSP welcome back to the world of media, glad you stuck around and were willing to come back and join us!

A Tale of (3) 360's!

2009-02-07T21:28:00.002-05:00

For the first year of the Xbox 360's lifespan I ignored it, didn't see a reason to own it, I was happy with my current Xbox. Actually at some point I bought a second Xbox to use as a Media Center extender. For the original Xbox there was a rarely sold disc that you put in the Xbox and it played the Media Center extender software and connected to your computer. For the longest time I didnt update my computer anyway so I couldn't use the actual Media Center software included with the 360.

But time would pass and I would update my computer (the whole daylight savings time issue kinda forced me to do it) and eventually I'd add a 360. As time passed though the 360 dashboard sort of made the Media Center portion of the dash obsolete. The dashboard was easier to get to and it finally would support Divx and Xvid as well as many other codecs for video.

I really enjoyed using the 360 as a media player so much that I really wanted a second for the upstairs parlour. Turns out a friend would get the red lights and couldn't wait for his return so he bought a new one, when his old one arrived I traded a PDA for the 360 and just like that I had a second 360. Then as time would pass I would start to need yet another for the toy/computer room and as would have it my brother in law would get ther red lights (for like the 3rd time) and he didnt wait either. So $60 and two weeks later just like that I have a 3rd.

My 2nd 360 gets used all the time to stream movies that my kid loves to watch, its great to not have to constantly pull out DVD's all the time. The 3rd location gets used the same way and even more as a DVD player. I use the 2nd sometimes for games for the family but the 3rd hasn't been used yet. Ironically the 1st gets used little for media streaming as I tend to use the PS3 for that in the main location.

Its kind of weird that I have 3 gaming systems and 2 in particular that don't even play games to use as media streaming devices but they work and they work very well. If you said I'd have 3 360's at one point I'd say you were crazy, but its kind of really cool to have them now and that's not crazy at all!

The Twitter Bowl

2009-02-01T23:54:00.003-05:00

The Steelers have defeated The Cardinals in the Super Bowl, the event is over. So how much fun was it? Turns out it was a lot of fun, because of Twitter!

Sure everyone hopes for a great and close game and of course the commercials and many people get together with friends and family to party. This year I didn't have a party and I didn't attend a party, well any actual parties. I stayed home and ate a barrage of food with my wife and two kids, but realized the party came to me via Twitter.

Whether it was thoughts on the game itself or the commercials or thoughts on movie trailers everyone had something to say via Twitter. Of course with responses that helped bring the party together. I have not twittered so much in such little time since I started my twitter account but tonight I had a blast and I twittered A LOT!

So thanks to social networking and twitter I didn't attend a party per say tonight but I partied for the entire game. For the record I was routing for the Cardinals, thought the G.I. Joe trailer rocked. laughed more times than I can remember, and thought Bruce and the E. Street Band ROCKED the half time show.

But if you follow me on Twitter, you already knew that.

Photo Addictive

2009-01-28T22:32:00.002-05:00

I have had a Flickr account now for probably a few years, never really did anything with it. Over the last few months I bought a new camera and started taking more photos, then I started backing up all my photos, then I needed a place to share my photos. Enter Flickr once again, I had a normal free account, sure this was okay for awhile but I did a bit of thinking and decided to go Pro.

Well going Pro was a great thing, I love making sets, collections, adding favorites, groups and on and on. I have uploaded at least 5 photos a day since I got my pro account, its great to be able to comment on other photos and have people give me feedback. Now not that this is anything that anyone who uses Flickr doesnt know but for me its been enlighting and its been a force behind wanting to take more photos and continue to express my creative side.

Some people ask, "is going pro worth it" and yes it absolutely is. I've never had so much fun with photos, its been more addicting for me than twitter and Facebook combined (okay Facebook isn't that addicting to me).

Check out my Flickr feed on this site to see just how addicting it has been for me, and if your a Flickr user look me up, make a few comments and pick at least one of my pics as a favorite. Then stay and browse and be inspired, because for me that's what Flickr has been, an inspiration.

Me and my PSP

2009-01-11T19:32:00.002-05:00

My time with Sony's PSP has been interesting, I originally bought it more because it was something I wanted since it was a handheld game system and portable media device at a time I didn't really have a portable media device. Yet over the years I bought very few games for it and it kinda just gathered dust as devices like Zunes, iPhones and laptops became much more useful in the jobs the PSP could be used for. I travled with the PSP a few times and a program I had called TVtoGO which was a plug in for Media Center allowed me to catch up on some shows.

The web browser in the PSP kinda stinks, at least I could never get it to do much and the iPhones is much better and I can't really remember the last game I played on it although I did get some digital downloads to play on the go if needed (they have never been needed). The latest addition was the addition of the Playstation Store accessible directly from the PSP which was a nice addition.

Yet after all this time I finally used one of the neatest features, the ability to stream from the PS3. Although I have tried to do this before it was more of a novelty the last time I used it and not much of a useful thing. I realize the PS3 can be left in standby mode and you can try to access your media while away from home but I don't really care to have my PS3 on standby all the time and accidentally able to be turned on while I'm away.

However last night I used the PSP to stream video from my PS3 which was streaming from my PC to catch up on some shows while lying in bed. In fact the PSP is much easier to sit in bed with than my laptop which can get a little warm on the lap and cumbersome to get comfortable with. I will admit it also streamed easily and the quality was very good, no issues or hicups during play and I banged out two shows before bed. The ability to turn off the PS3 before your done is also nice. I have a feeling that I will actually be using this feature more and more in the future. I just need to make sure I put the PS3 in Remote mode before I'm done and its nice and accessible before bed.

So imagine that something I found useful on both the PSP and the PS3 and something I can speak nicely about for Sony. It also allows me to get yet more use out of my technology and thats the key thing, if you've got the technology and you've paid for it, use it!

2009 Tech Resolutions!

2009-01-05T20:45:00.002-05:00

I spent a good portion of 2008 acquiring pieces of tech to help make things work a little bit better and or efficient. For 2009 I plan to use that stuff a bit more and wrap up some work on getting more media up and running. So for 2009 here's the plan.

1. For one the don't buy allot of games and finish the ones I have is back on the list, I think that one needs to be put up top this year to remind me to keep the spending on the low side.

2. One thing I wanted to put on the list and its already being worked on is using the new MacBook and iWeb together with my MobileMe account and get a website up and running. You can find the early parts of www.artlevandoski.com already growing.

3. Add a Harmony Remote for the upstairs room. Although there is only the Cablebox and Xbox 360 I think its time to simplify a little more and add a second Harmony remote to the family room.

4. Last year I dared add a second 360, this year I may dare add a third. That is something I never EVER thought I'd say but we have a third room (the toy room) that is quickly becoming a viable media room and the kid likes to have his media available wherever he wants it. (By kid I'm trying to reference my child, but mostly its really me!

5. Finish adding my movies to the network! A project I started last year and in true fashion to me really ripped through it (no pun intended), originally I thought it would take me into 2010 to fisnish it up, but with a little bit of work and a bunch of movies not making the cut I think I can wrap it up this year.

And that's where I'm going to keep it at, just a short list. Mostly again this year it'll be about the continuing issue of trying to minimize the work involved and maximize the enjoyment of the media in my family's life. Last year I was really surprised at how my wife adapted to it and my son really started to enjoy it, and in the end it's really allot of fun for me as well.

Here's to a great 2009!

Children of the Tech

2009-01-02T23:55:00.002-05:00

Okay apparently I am putting off my New Years Tech Resolutions, but I wanted to touch on something real quick. While my son is only 3 years old he has already learned something that is definitely his generation of kids, he can watch anything, anywhere. Through the magic of On Demand and my home network my son has already learned that no matter where he is in the house, if there is a TV he should be able to watch anything he has seen anywhere else. Now for the moment this is true yet there are holes that need to be filled this year. Its almost sad when I have to tell him "no not in this room" since he kind of looks at me with that "why" look. For him (and my own selfish tech reasons) I'll fill that hole for him this tax season.

What am I using to move all this media around, well there's a few backbone programs and such but for the most part the Xbox 360 makes a great little media center and its pretty easy to use, even for my wife.

I'm very much proud that my son has learned to enjoy his TV wherever he wants, of course in a few days he'll have to deal with the in laws home during the day where the tech is a little less prevalent, sooner or later I'm going to have to outfit the grandparents with all this technology as well!

Of course as soon as the warmer weather hits there will be one place where there is no TV or 360 and that's outside, where kids can still be kids and actually PLAY!

Last Years Tech Resolutions Recap!

2008-12-31T22:58:00.002-05:00

So as we are about to ring in the new year I thought I'd recap last years tech resolutions before I post 2009's resolutions tomorrow. So here we go a quick recap.

1. Get a Laptop - have this one covered, first I picked up a Dell XPS on sale which is basically my new go to computer, then I picked up a MacBook later which now serves as a nice companion laptop and also my wife's Facebook machine.

2. Music Server in the Garage - Well the Linux box got kicked with the news of a new baby (my daughter was born in October) which sent Media Two to the garage and become a great music server, added better speakers in the garage and speakers for outside as well. Later I'd add XBMC and an iPhone remote app for better control, there is a DVD changer attached to the reciver but the projector project got axed. Will have to upgrade the reciever this year as the current one is on loan.

3. A second 360 - Yep covered, and I got it for a great price, FREE!

4. New Digital Camera - Oh yeah, picked up a Nikon DSLR and I love it, been taking great pictures ever since!

5. Don't buy allot of games, finish ones I have - Eh, this one is touchy, can't say I bought A LOT of games this year but I didn't seem to finish as many as I'd hoped. I blame Rock Band for that though. We'll see how 2009 goes, this one will be on the list again.

6. Get a GPS - You know this is one area I realized I really didnt need to get into, if you count the GPS on the iPhone I guess I got one, but I was really talking dedicated GPS here, still not sure if this is something I really need, we'll have to see in 2009 if prices come down. I guess sooner or later.

Well thats it, a great year over all, next year though I'm planning to spend less than in 2008 but as it stand I seem to have everything I need, but in the world of technology we all know that doesn't last that long.

Happy New Year!

Orb and XBMC Help Solve Problems!

2008-12-14T21:50:00.003-05:00

I love my tech but I especially love my tech when it costs nothing. I'll admit sometimes it seems I spend more time managing my media than actually using it but that's part of the fun for me I guess. I see it when I try to share things with family and friends and they look at me with crossed eyes thinking "you want me to do what?"

Anyway this weekend I added two more services to my tech home that help make things a little more fun and helped solve some problems in the meantime.

One of the issues I had was after I discovered the "remote" app for the iPhone I loved that I could control my music remotely from the iPhone, problem was it used iTunes and iTunes didnt like wma files which is what half my music collection was made up of. However I really liked that concept of remotly controling music since this summer I not only started using music off an older PC to listen in the garage but I added speakers outside in the backyard. I was bound and determined to fix this problem one way or another.

The one way I could have done it was to convert the files, that would take both too long and I would have run out of hard drive space in the meantime, I could have re ripped the CD's but again way too long. I looked into maybe finding an RF keyboard or something and even found some unofficial programs that may have been able to control Media Player. Yet it was last week that I discoverd another app in the app store that may have helped. That particluar app was the new VLC remote that connected to the VLC media player. This app would have worked perhaps but both VLC and the VLC app were god awful looking! In looking a bit more though I found the XBMC remote app that controlled the XBMC Media Center which was exactly what I was looking for.

While XBMC is free for Windows the app was $2.99, well worth it mind you for what I accomplished this weekend. After installing XBMC and updating my video drivers for OpenGL support I was up and running and can now control ALL of my music via my iPhone!

It amazes me what this seemingly ancient PC continues to do for my media world. But I didnt stop there this weekend.

I updated Orb and thought of a new way to use that program. I don't have all my music on my MacBook, I don't have really any of it on there, but now using Orb and the Orb Cast web site I can now use it to stream music upstairs where the MacBook usually sits and thats in the kitchen. Its an odd way to use Orb to get music to that particular place it is a way I can do it now. There is no real reason to use that computer to stream music elsewhere right now but thats right now who knows what the future holds.

The fact is I am always looking for ways to make media more fun and more easy for me, I'm getting there slowly but surely. Sure many people don't go through the trouble that I do to use media in there homes and thier worlds, but I do and damn it keeps things fun!

Home?

2008-12-12T00:28:00.002-05:00

Hey its no secret I love to rag on Sony, I own a PS2, PSP and a PS3 but I'm an Xbox fanboy lets face it. Its not that I HATE Sony or anything but its just that they have laughed at and mocked Xbox and 360 at every turn, then turned around and have done the same exact or worse thing they just mocked about.

However at the heart I'm a tech guy and I do enjoy a good piece of equipment and some new features. The PS3 is a great Blu-ray player and a very nice media device but I'm not into it for games much. Yet today the promise of Playstation HOME drew me to my PS3 to check it out, afterall this is the big bru ha ha for Sony, the be all end all of social features. I'd love to share my review and thoughts on it but sadly I haven't been able to get to it?

Right now all HOME is doing is apparently hogging up 3 gigs of hard drive space (storing it for later use apparently) and not much else. I did get to a character design screen but after I spent some time making ME for HOME as I was about to save my character I was disconnected from the servers. So I've never really seen HOME.

Listen I'm sure its pretty cool but Sony if your going to launch something like this be ready for it, I'll keep going back out of curiosity but right now if I have to wait through loading screens etc like this all the time I won't be spending that much time there. There is a MUCH better and bigger World of Warcraft I'll be returning to in the upcoming months so I'm not really looking to spend that much time in your Second Life world.

Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to get in and check things out.

Sony's online service may be free, but really at what cost?

Weapons of Choice - Tools of the Trade

2008-12-06T00:54:00.002-05:00

Occasionally I'll have a week like this week where I revisit the tools I am using, usually due to something new added or something old updated. This week the Windows Live set of online programs got an update and in that an old friends Windows Skydrive got a bump in storage and usefulness. Well it turned out that the usefulness was short lived after I found out that you could only upload 500 photos a month, since I was trying to use this as "offsite" backup for photos that wasn't going to work, it would take me over 8 months to upload all my photos! That got me using something I've had for awhile, iDisk as part of MobileMe, now I know many people don't like MobileMe but its okay for me.

So that got me thinking, what else am I using, what do I turn to daily or weekly or monthly as more and more things head to the web. Well for one I am using Google Reader and Twitter daily and Google Documents is where I do all of my personal and home based spreadsheets and wordprocessing (nowhere near useability for work). I use Facebook (but mostly just on the iPhone) and I try to keep things on Flickr (again a new iPhone friendly mobile website will help that until the Flickr app shows up) but I don't really have a IM home. As far as IM goes I use MSN, AIM and Skype but it seems that Twitter has really most of the control in the IM department for me.

Two new things I am using are the Zune Pass and Netflix Instant Streaming and both are very nice for adding movies and music to your collection, sure you don't own them but who can knock an endless stream of great music and movies!

I never really thought a day would arrive when more and more we would move toward offsite programs and storage but it appears to be here and here in full force.

Finally it needs to be said that my biggest tool right now is the iPhone, I am beginning to rely on the iPhone almost as much as my main PC's, it is literally the mini PC that is with me all the time and has simply amazed me at what it can do.

So thats my little rant on my tools of the trade, guess in hindsight I forgot to mention one thing, but you already know what it is if your reading this post!

Netflix vs. Blockbuster - The New Choice

2008-12-01T09:15:00.003-05:00

So I have been a Blockbuster movie subscriber for quite some time now but that is all coming to an end in just 10 days, I have decided to go back to Netflix full time. Not that Blockbuster hasn't served me well in the past but its just not keeping pace with the changing times. Blockbuster is the big corporate machine that doesn't quite change as fast with the times and Netflix is like the old dog who learned how to be cool again.

I picked up Netflix a few months ago when Microsoft announced they'd be adding Netflix Streaming video to the new NXE update, I needed to try it out ahead of time (I'm really impatient) but I decided to wait on cancelling my Blockbuster account until I tried out the service on the Xbox to see if it would be worth it. Well after spending some time with the service its more than adequet for streaming and I'm enjoying it very much.

I hesitated to cancel my Blockbuster account since I am grandfathered in to a great deal, I still have my in store movie/game coupon and I still get unlimited in store exchanges which are things that Blockbuster either did away with or charges alot more for these days, so quite frankly if I leave they'll be no going back. That's the problem with Blockbuster, they offer great things then either realize they offered too much and take it away or charge much more than every one else.

The other problem with the deals I'm getting with Blockbuster is I'm not using them, I finally used a coupon to rent Little Big Planet but thats the first game in ages I've rented and I mostly don't in store exchange becuase I often forget they are due back what seems to be very quickly. The idea of the mailing service is in fact to get away from having to go to the store anyway isn't it. I figured this would be a nice way to let the kids go to the store to pick out a video but now with all thats available on Netflix thats a moot point.

Blockbuster has come on the scene with movie streaming of thier own but the model is much different in that its pay as you go for each movie and from what I understand more current movies, which is all fine and good if my 360 didn't already offer that kind of service as well as the Netflix stuff. I like the Netflix streaming for things like older movies and television series, things I don't want to waste my Blu-ray rental in the mail rental on.

Lastly i.TV for the iPhone has Netflix queue management in it and soon I'll have non beta streaming to my Macbook as well as my PC laptop. Less not forget about Friends on Netflix, I like seeing what my friends are watching and renting and rating and taking little quizes on what they thought of movies, its all about the social aspect, again something Blockbuster is missing.

I guess in retrospect its not that Blockbuster is all bad, it's not really bad at all, but maybe its because of the deal I had also. I guess I feel I'm leaving something good for something better. Now I just need to get all my friends on Netflix too!

The World of iPhone Apps

2008-10-27T12:41:00.003-04:00

I was really excited about getting the iPhone 3G, so excited I bought one for my wife as well. However I never realized how much fun and how much a part of my life the iPhone would become. I used a PDA for years, keeping my contacts and calendar and notes and tasks in order but never really strayed outside those applicates except for maybe a game of BeJeweled or Bookworm here and there. Now with the iPhone the calendar and contact applications take a back seat to a whole new world of fun and useful applications.

Browsing the 1,000s of applications on the iTunes store is so much fun its crazy addicting yet the greatest part of the whole concept is that you can often get ALOT of fun and cool apps without spending a dime and even more great apps for just .99 cents. Once I realized I could get a new application for my iPhone for less than the cost of picking up a candy bar at work I started eating a lot less candy.

Yet for all the great apps out there you do have to weed through a ton of crap apps to get to the cream of the crop, luckily the iTunes store offers up sections for top apps and staff favorites and new releases which helps and checking out the various iPhone Application reviews will often help you find the diamonds in the rough!

So at the end of the day you can really fill up your iPhone with tons of apps, but keeping a bunch of great apps on the iPhone that are actually worthy, fun and top notch is much more rewarding. Sometimes you have to put an app on and test it out to see if its worth it and sometimes it's not, but there's no harm in deleting and app thats not up to snuff.

If there is one downfall to the store its that there is no "demos" for many of the apps although some games tend to offer "lite" versions they are really just limited versions of the full games which isn't neccesarily a bad thing but I tend not to collect "lite" versions of games.

In closing here is a list of the apps that as of right now I have installed on my iPhone, they weren't all free, many were either free or just .99 cents but a few of the bigger games like Spore and Crash cost me a whopping $10 but they were well worth it! (of course I'm not including apps that are built in to the iPhone):

White Pages
Yellow Pages
Around Me
Twitterific
AIM
Facebook
NYTimes
Bloomberg
Mobile Zodiac
WikiMe
Showtimes
i.TV
Sportacular
Pro Football
Shazam
Remote
Pandora
AOL Radio
Stitcher
IGN Reviews
1337pwn
Lightsaber
Young Painter
Easy Relax
Google Earth
Dizzy Bee
Crash Kart
Spore
de Blob
Solebon
iBowl
Tap Tap Revenge
Space Monkey
Line Rider
Trace
Mouse About
Topple
Jelly Car
ESPN Cameraman
Everest
RhinoBall

Music and McDonalds

2008-09-28T00:20:00.002-04:00

So apparently Microsoft and McDonalds have this advanced agreement with the Zune to make it easy to download music to your Zune while your eating your meal at McDonalds. Well tonight I found myself at that very same restaurant establishment with a little bit of time to download some music so I decided to test it out.

First let me say that this particular McDonalds was a shamble, sure it was later in the evening but there was more than a long wait for the food with noone there, they had old Star Wars Happy Meal toys for my kid who wanted Lego Batman and despite the fact they have a playhouse the place was a mess. Now moving on, lets try and download some music.

Well since there was such a wait for the food and the kids don't care about the condition of the playhouse there was time to download some tunes.

I got connected to the free Wi-Fi pretty quick on the first try which was a nice change so I decided to download a quick song, somehow I came across Herbie Hancocks Rockit so I added it to the cart and it started downloading. With that going well I came across Jessica Simpsons new album and despite my better judgement I hit download for the whole album.

My first attempt at downloading from the marketplace right from the Zune was at home when I downloaded the new Buckcherry album, that was pretty darn quick. Maybe becuase I wasn't very near the Wi-Fi access point the downloading at McDonalds was very slow. It was a good thing we had some time to spare becuase it took quite a while to download.

One thing I don't like about this new Wi-Fi marketplace is that the Zune battery doesnt seem to be designed to draw like this for very long. Other than that things went well, as in it didnt fail and I got my new CD for the car ride home.

Yes I listened to it in the car on the way home and its now on my Zune card probably.

With the Zune Pass in hand I am enjoying a plethora of music like I never thought I would. As for McDonalds, well now I can say I've tried it and thats about it, a one time thing. I won't be headed to McDonalds regularly to download music, I'll take my food to go.

I "Heart" Zune

2008-09-21T15:03:00.002-04:00

Last week the Zune team released the 3.o update for both the Zune software and hardware, and continued to make the Zune one of the better mp3 devices on the market. While the Zune will never take over the market that is dominated by the iPod those of us who have decided to go Zune instead of iPod know which is truely better.

Much like the 360 the Zune both in hardware and software was quite horrid when it first arrived on the scene, sufficient in most manners with some neat new features but nowhere near realizing its potential. When the 2.0 and 2.5 updates arrived as well as the new models last year things started looking up, not only for new ownes but current owners as well (all models recieve the same firmware updates). The size of the models and the price has always been ahead of the iPod models as well with the 120GB coming in at just $250! that's alot of space for the price.

While I've been a very happy Zune owner since the second generation arrived the new firmware and software has made me even more of a Zune lover! Most of the update revolved around the Zune Pass, a $15 a month all you can eat music subscription service. For someone who really didn't think he wanted to "rent" his music collection I am really enjoying the 14 day free trial I'm using and can surely see continuing the service past the trial period. Its the little touches like mixview, channels and playlists that really make discovering music fun on the Zune software and for someone like me who doubted I'd find anything new I'd care for nonetheless finding enough to enjoy a $15 a month pass I've downloaded plenty thus far. The best so far was how easy it was to add my Rock Band 2 songs and playlist this time, something that took me weeks for Rock Band 1 was just one click this time around.

The new update also includes support for Audible audiobooks just in time for my new Audible.com subscription and also games. While getting Hexic and Texas Hold em on my Zune is cool I'll have to try them a bit more before I fully invest in games on the device. Also at this time there is no way to get more games so this is not fully implemented yet, and I'll admist games on the iPhone are a bit better at this point due to the designs of both devices.

My biggest disapointement and frustration at this point is that I like using my Zune so much but I'm not quite sure that running with my 80GB hard drive unit is all that great for the device and my newly discovered workout channel on the marketplace makes me want to have it with me even more! My one solution of course is my plan to grab a 4 or 8 gig Zune to take with me on the run since they are flash based!

If you have a Zune great for you, if you're still using an iPod you may want to make the switch, the latest iTune update was such a letdown it makes the new Zune update look even that much better. While the Zune Marketplace and software truly do make music discovery worthwhile the iTunes update is designed soley around makeing more money for Apple.

This update makes me even more excited for the new dashboard update coming up for the 360 as well as future updates for the Zune. They may only come once a year or so but when they do arrive they are worth the wait!

Looking for a new mp3 player give the Zune a look, I guarentee you wont regret it!

CRASH!

2008-09-16T22:48:00.003-04:00

Oh the horror, it can only be described as my worst technology problem I could have, my main PC went down today. I can't say I didn't see it coming but its not making me happy nonetheless.

It started by not booting properly, then when it finally booted it said that the one file Windows needs to boot up it damaged or missing, great. After speaking with Dell it would seem I'm in luck, there's a hidden drive image that will get me back to square one, ALL the way back to square one. There's something to say when you've customized a computer for 5 years or so that's not going to all come back in a day.

Most of the media files are elsewhere either on the second hard drive which won't be wiped clean or on one of two My Books or duplicated on the other PC's as my music collection is so for the most part once I can get the drive hooked up to another computer and scrape off those couple files I want to save I won't be at risk of loosing much. Its funny though that I've prepared to lose the big files and media stuff that I'll loose much of the game and DVD and comic databases I've built (great!).

Perhaps this is a time however to lighten the heavy load the computer was carrying, the programs that aren't needed anymore, the games that are no longer played on that PC anymore and maybe even that McAfee virus program that's been the root of some evil this past year.

Sure its going to take some time to get her back up and running and oh the updates I'll have to do, but hopefully she'll run a bit better after going through it.

Oddly I'm not taking it as hard as I would have a little while ago, I'm making strides to learn whats really important in life, and a computer that's decided to be inconvenient at the moment isn't the worst thing in life.

I've got a bit of work ahead of me for sure, but in times past I would have spent the night slaving over determining what I needed to do NOW to get this fixed ASAP and I'd probably be knee deep in reinstalling right about now, but instead I took a step back and took a breath, then spent a little time with my son instead of wasting it all night on the problem.

Its for that I truly feel this was a challenge put forth in front of me to see just how I'd handle it, it wasn't exactly the way I wanted to spend my night, but I determined the problem, figured out a solution, then I apologized to the people I put out tonight in one way or another and relaxed for the rest of the night.

I'll fix the computer, I'm pretty good at that, and when its all back up and running, perhaps along with the computer, I'll be a little bit better for it.

Letter to Nintendo

2008-09-14T00:27:00.003-04:00

Dear Nintendo,

Please for god sake do something a bit more creative and easier to use with your Wii Shopping Channel than the utter crap that it is right now. Today I did something I probably should never have done, for only the second time since I've purchased my Wii I went to download a few games.

A week or so ago I read a review for My Aquarium and thought what the heck for the $5 it costs I'll give it a try, I'm a sucker for downloadable content. So I head on over to the Wii Shopping Channel and eventually get to WiiWare, lets stop right there for a moment. Even Sony got thier act together and made the PSN Network more fun to browse for game and video content, shopping on the Wii is a whole lot of click, wait, click, wait, wait, click. Its B O R I N G. Its like shopping at a discount store, its just not fun. Sure if you want to get in, get what you want and get out its fine, but shopping should be fun, not a chore. Its slow and ugly once you get in and in case you havn't heard Nintendo, its the year 2008, offer a demo version of the crap your going to try and sell, thats why its downloadable content!

Now there are times when I'll just browse the Xbox Live Marketplace to see whats out there, occasionally you'll even find some FREE stuff and you'll always find demos! I don't even want to browse the stuff on Wii Shopping Channel, heck the whole thing reminds me of the earliest web sites I've ever seen.

Of course lets just say that you do find something you want to buy and download. First I recommend jumping over to IGN and reading a review, especially if its WiiWare shovel crap becuase remember Nintendo doesn't believe in demos. Well once you determine its buying time you'll have to add Wii Points, this also not even as easy as the PSN which will at least remember your credit card info etc. Nope you'll have to enter all your credit card information in manually (at this point I recommend just buying a card at your local Gamestop). Then once you buy your $10 or whatever in points you get hit with TAX! Yes tax my friends, now I'm not against tax but figure it into the points please, this doesn't happen on XBOX Live nor PSN.

But wait it gets even better! Now after you click through about three or four times you get to where your game is downloading. Welcome to the most idiodic download screen EVER! Mario walks across the screen and occasionally collects coins while also occasionally jumping up to hit coin boxes and occasionally turning those boxes solid. Here's a simple idea, its called a progress bar! Never during this whole charade of mario and coins and boxes do you ever get a real idea for just how far along the process is.

What's that you say, you want more, well here's the bonus round. Today I downloaded two "games" My Aquarium and Defend Your Castle, BOTH times I was rewarded at the end of the download with "error, something or other has occured and its bad, guess what you get to watch that whole Mario thing again after you get back the Wii Shopping Channel and click three or four more times", this is what the error might as well say.

The funny thing is that I was getting extreamly agravated downloading a "relaxation" game!

It still bugs me that the Wii is so hard to find, why? Nintendo has really missed the boat on the Wii and quite frankly people buy them becuase of a promise, one that you quickly realize is not fully there. I won't even get into the storage issue that Nintendo completely refuses to address it seems.

I'll admit I have a few cool games and do occasionally enjoy using the system, but while the PS3 isnt' used for games as much as a Blu-ray player and the Xbox 360 is used so much for great gaming etc, the Wii just kind of sits there waiting for days like this, well today was game time and it failed miserably.

I can tell you this much, I won't be returning to this store any time soon!

Wishful Syncing!

2008-09-01T09:21:00.002-04:00

When your a "techie" you manage over time to get many different devices and software programs many of which you may or may not get to work with or at least keep from working against each other. Although in this day and age getting a Mac and a PC to work together on the same network has gotten much better and easier there is one thing that keeps them apart, file types.

There are ads that Apple creates to tell PC users its easy to switch to a MAC but what they don't tell you is if you are a PC file type user (especially when it comes to media) it is not. I have made a jump to MAC but for the most part my media has stayed within a PC network, its just easier that way. However recent events have created an issue I never thought I'd need to work around.

From the earliest of days I have been ripping my music using the WMA codec from Windows, it was said to be a smaller file size and same quality as MP3 so I figured go for it. Every device I have ever used since has always used at least MP3 and WMA so I've been good to go. That is until now. I've never really been an iTunes and I've never had an iPod, but now I have an iPhone and a great little app called REMOTE which allows me to control iTunes from the iPhone! Well that is cool because I have a PC in the garage which controls speakers outside and now I can change music without going in and out of the garage, problem is that only about less than half my collection is MP3 and iTunes won't use WMA. Now sure I can convert those WMA files but based on my first try at it it would take approximately four consecutive 24 hour days of converting and I'd run out of disc space before it finished (its an old Dell machine I'm using). Now one thing is for sure I won't let this lie, I will eventually find a way around this or eventually make the conversions.

However there is one thing that I can wishfully hope for, that when iTunes 8.0 comes out in the next few weeks that maybe, just maybe Apple will at least add support for WMA files and I can just import mine in. Sure maybe you can't send WMA files to the iPod but at least let iTunes PLAY them, whats the harm in that?

Actually while I'm on the subject one other thing I'd like to see is the Zune software and firmware get the ability to play DIVX and XVID AVI files. Now that the Xbox 360 can play these files there is really no reason the Zune shouldn't be able to too. Now a days if I want to play a video file on my Zune I have to go through that extra conversion step, not really want I care to do.

So there's my hope, WMA for the iTunes and DIVX/XVID for the Zune, that would make my life a bit easier and I'm sure that's a driving point for both Apple and Microsoft!

Learning to live with the iPhone

2008-08-23T17:03:00.002-04:00

this won't be the longest post about my iPhone since well I'm writing it on my iPhone. I'll say it's been interesting so far, this phone can do a lot. If there was one thing I'd like is a bit more battery since especially now since I'm in the new user phase I'm using it for everything! In anycase it's good so far and the wife has one too, here's too a new two years with a t & t!

I Just Started Running...

2008-08-19T22:18:00.003-04:00

I guess this falls pretty far from the normal topic of tech, but about 6 weeks or so ago I started running (well more like jogging) mostly for exercise. See as you get older you start to get out of shape really fast and sitting home or at work on the computer all day isn't much exercise.

It was my neighbor across the street who got me into running, first was the trip to the sporting goods store for what I thought was an insane wardrobe to go running, I needed running sneakers, shorts, shirts, and socks all special for running. After that we went a bit more my style and headed to Circuit City for my armband for my mp3 player. At first I was going to use my old Dell Jukebox player for fear of it falling off while running but I've since gone to my 80 gig Zune which is much better company while running!

We started off slow and short, he'd been running awhile so it was a step back for him although shortly after we started running he hurt his ankle in a non running incident so we're really at the same pace now.

Not long after we started running though he dragged me to the lake and before I knew it I was running 3 miles without dying. I will admit I felt I reached this point MUCH sooner than I had planned. With that in mind I was planning on running a 5K in September but one popped up much sooner.

Last week I ran in my first 5K and I'm happy to say I didn't finish last! It was my first run with competition and my goal from the start was to run my own race, never stop or walk and of course finish the race. Proudly I accomplished my goals and I finished the race in 31 minutes and 19 seconds!

Now I'm running this week to work on my speed and when my running partner returns from vacation we'll begin training for the next 5K in September. Till then I'll just keep running!

Inundated with Media!!!

2008-08-01T22:53:00.002-04:00

I'm not complaining by any means but as I realized today I am extremely inundated with media. There was a time when I had a very large VHS collection and I thought that was pretty cool, then I started with DVDs and figured that was a step up, along the way I've had a nice steady supply of CDs as well. Yet today on top of all that (well except VHS I got rid of all of them for the most part) I've started gathering all of that media on the computer plus I've got a good supply of online media such as video podcasts and more!

The newest thing I've come across is TVTonic which is available as part of Windows Vista Media Center, its basically video podcasts but its all brought together in a sort of TVish way, for me I guess its early rumblings of IPTV of sorts. There is alot of cool programing all collected in a pretty nice user interface (actually except the first continue to the program splash page?) that makes it amazing fun to collect media to watch. I came across it via the Windows Vista Team Blog announcement that it would be used to deliver additional Olympic content right to your PC via NBC. Well turns out there's alot more than Olympic coverage to download.

On top of that I've got Blu rays coming from Blockbuster and this immense collection of On Demand from Netflix and if not for the HD content from my cable company I could probably say goodbye to the "usual" way of getting content on the tube.

Finally I've been creating a sort of video on demand of my own via my home network, sure its more work than most people would be willing to do, but its pretty cool nonetheless.

Occasionally I do find time to actually enjoy some of this media and realize that whenever I have a few moments I surely will have something to watch!