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RSS Feeds Coming Very Soon
April 13, 2009, 1:09 AM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA | 360 views
Hot off the presses, this just in!
Since I was an ambitious little blogger and hand-coded my own blog platform (aren't I cool?), I didn't have an out-of-the-box RSS plugin that I could use. That turned into a problem when I decided that I wanted to import all of my posts into my Facebook page, so I set to work. Two hours later, I've got a beta version that works well enough for now. Email me if you want it.
P.S. I just started tweeting. Follow me here: http://twitter.com/RobLaughter
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Roku Player Reviewed
March 23, 2009, 3:05 PM by ROB
Posted in REVIEWS, MEDIA | 358 views
The Roku Player may look tiny, but this little black box packs a punch. The device streams Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand straight to your television in 720p HD for only $99.
The device was a breeze to set up—it works with your existing WiFi or Ethernet broadband connections out of the box and connects to your TV with your choice of Composite, S-Video, Component, or HDMI connections. The device booted quickly and, after a software update, I was able to pair the device quickly and easily with both my Neflix and Amazon accounts.
The device automatically imports your Netflix Instant Queue and any Amazon VoD purchases you have made. There is also a decent library of free content to view over the Amazon Service; the first video I watched was the latest College Humor TV show and the quality was excellent.
I very much welcome the Amazon VoD service on the Player. One of my major issues with Netflix's streaming library, as I shared in an earlier post is that it is limited primarily to older titles. That's not necessarily a bad thing—I love classics—but occasionally I'd like to see a new release without having to take a trip to the video store or my P.O. Box. Amazon Video on Demand on the Roku player adds thousands of available titles to the device, inevitably encouraging me to remain on the couch and gain weight.
There is a drawback, however, to Amazon's service: price. While your Netflix all-you-can-eat subscription is a reliable, low monthly fee, the Amazon VoD service is pay-as-you go and many titles aren't cheap. As a college student, I have a deeper appreciation of low cost (which is why I love the Roku Player), so Amazon won't be seeing too much of my business, but I'm sure I'll be tossing some of my dispensible income their way to fill the voids Netflix's library leaves on my movie palate.
Overall, the Roku Player is an excellent value for your money and highly recommended as a GadgetGrounds.com Editor's Pick.
Second Opinion
Cynthia, GadgetGrounds Student Reviewer, writes:
Overall I have been ridiculously happy procrastinating for hours watching movies on the Roku player. It is easy to use, there are many options to watch, and best of all it’s the lowest priced streaming video player I've found! 5 out of 5 stars!
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Live from the Creativity Symposium
March 19, 2009, 2:40 PM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA | 748 views
Sweet deal—we've been offered the opportunity to showcase Connective Insights at the Creativity Symposium's Student Entrepreneurship Showcase at Wake Forest. If you're around, feel free to stop by and chat in the Benson University Center until 4:15 or so this afternoon!
Other student entrepreneurs at the Showcase include Wake Water, Wake Wash, YouShouldKnowThisByNow, and Wake Audio. Stop by and show some love.
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Breaking Ground on Gadget Grounds
March 19, 2009, 1:49 AM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA | 633 views
I'm pleased to announce the beginning of our first day of operations as GadgetGrounds.com! I'll be your friendly Groundskeeper, Willie. Er... Rob.
We have big plans for the site now that we're on a dot com TLD, so look forward to some pleasant changes. Here are some the ideas we're working on:
- Video Reviews
- Guest Bloggers
- RSS Feeds
- Mobile Site
And that's just the beginning! Don't worry—all of the features you knew and loved have been ported over to the new site, with a couple more exciting, top secret new features to come! Stay tuned, kids.
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Find New Music with Mufin
February 27, 2009, 10:29 PM by ROB
Posted in REVIEWS, MEDIA, SOFTWARE | 691 views
Let's talk about Mufin. Not muffins of the banana nut or blueberry variety—Mufin.
Mufin is a "music discovery engine" that lets you find music that sounds similar to songs you already like. If you think that description sounds a lot like Pandora, you're exactly right. The basic premise is similar, but there is a laundry list of qualifying differences that makes Mufin a totally different beast.
Mufin comes in a variety of flavors... er... "packages." First is the web based interface, in which you can search for your favorite songs and artists and find tracks that are similar based upon rhythm, tempo, and density.
Next up is Mufin's new Mufin Player, which they deem the "World's first media player with sound-based music management and music discovery." The Mufin Player bring Mufin's web-based song-sniffing functionality to your desktop, then takes it one step further by analyzing your current tracks to sort them by how they sound.
Analyzing tracks, though, takes a painfully long time. When you first set up the software, you can import your iTunes library (or other music folders, for that matter) and begin analyzing that media. I imported 1554 songs from my iTunes library, which took around a half an hour to analyze. I'd hate to wait patiently for some of my friends' 10,000-song libraries to go through the process.
Another cool feature of the Mufin Player is Audio ID, which lets you use Mufin's analyzed data to identify songs without ID3 tags and save the updated tags automatically. I've tried it with a few of my tracks and, while it found most of them, there were a few that it wouldn't recognize.
If you don't want to use a whole new music player, you can always use Mufin's third option—Mufin for iTunes. It's not as elegant as the Mufin player, but it's a nice add-on to iTunes.
Mufin's greatest highlight, I think, is also its greatest flaw. Since Mufin uses computer algorithms to compare tracks, it can be just a little off. Sorry, Mufin. I don't see the link between Johnny Cash and Linkin Park. Pandora's accuracy is eerie—they hit most correlations right on, and here's why (copied from their own website): "we've carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of different artists..." They've listened. A computer hasn't listened. They have listened. There is no substitute for subjective human analysis of music that is created 100% by humans.
But don't take my word for it. Give it a try.
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Netflix looks at streaming only option
February 20, 2009, 9:49 PM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA | 355 views
Dear cheap thrifty XBOX 360 users,
Netflix may soon be offering a streaming-only option for their video service. Bloomberg reports on a recent interview with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in which Hastings says, "in the long term, the streaming will be good enough that an appreciable number of people will find streaming is all they need."
Netflix currently streams about 12,000 of their 100,000 titles. I'm am a Media Studies student, so films are a big part of my education (be jealous). On more than one occasion, I've been disappointed to find that assigned viewings haven't been added to the streaming service. In fact, this semester, only one of my films have been in Netflix's streaming library.
I love the streaming idea, though. With services like the XBOX 360's Netflix streaming ability and products like the Roku Player on the market, the demand indeed appears to be there. Roku is sending us one of their devices, so we'll be sure to review it for you.
Where there is a demand, however, others will do their best to fill it, too. Support of Amazon's Video on Demand is currently in private beta and, as soon as we recieve our Roku Player, we'll be (pardon the pun) playing with it. One benefit I can see to Amazon's option as a business model would be that there is no constant shipping of DVDs back and forth; it is entirely web based. If a viewer wants the DVD, they purchase it directly. Further, they've got about 40,000 titles available. Weigh that, however, against the fact that you can watch unlimited streaming titles on Netflix for the price of just two titles on Amazon and you might have a good explanation of why Netflix's shares are up 39 percent over the last year.
Will Amazon's streaming be as popular as Netflix? As Hastings says about Netflix, "We’ve got one singular objective, which is 'Be successful in streaming.' If we do that, that's a homerun."
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Ruckus Music Service Fades Away
February 08, 2009, 11:46 AM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA, WEB, SOCIAL | 319 views
You may remember a review we posted raving about Ruckus when the music download service first came out. Ruckus recently and abruptly announced that the "service will no longer be provided."
Ruckus began as a subsidized music streaming service, but later offered free (ad-supported) music downloads to college students. For an additional fee, students could activate a "Ruckus to Go" subscription to play their music on PlaysForSure-supported devices. Note that neither Microsoft's Zune nor the Apple iPod support PlaysForSure DRM music.
The announcement is not too surprising, considering that Apple announced just last month that iTunes will now be DRM-free starting in April and, more importantly, that the iPhone will support music downloading over 3G effective immediately.
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iPod Users: Reclaim Your 'Tunes
January 29, 2009, 8:48 PM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA, HOW-TO | 182 views
I bought my iPhone thinking, "what a great place to store my music!" I typically re-format my hard drive every few months, just to keep my computer running smoothly (just like changing the oil in your car) and I don't always want to backup gigs and gigs of music.
After my last re-install, I wanted my music back—no dice. Turns out, without special software, the average user would have trouble reclaiming the music that is rightfully theirs.
Apple, I'm sure, did this intentionally—if you could just plug in and download music, they'd be supporting music piracy in a big way. There are tools, however, that will help you get the job done.
Free tools:
SharePod is a free program for Windows that lets you rip music from your Windows-formatted iPod or iPhone/iTouch.
Yamipod (Yet Another iPod Manager) is also free and runs under Windows, Mac OS, and Linux iPod only).
iDump is another free utility that runs under Windows 2000 and higher (iPod only). iDump can be installed directly on your iPod so you can use the files on any computer that supports the software.
Paid tools:
If you're looking for a iTunes replacement (so you can easily add, manage, rip, and play your music without Apple's software), there are a couple of tools that do the job. They aren't free, though, so you'll have to open up your wallet for these.
iDump Pro lets you manage and share your music without a client installed on the computer you're working on, but like it's little brother, iDump. iDump Pro offers a 30-day free trial and then it is $9.95 to buy.
Xilisoft iPod Rip is a little more expensive, but it also lets you use your iPhone as a hard disk (without this feature, the iPhone is only recognized as a digital camera). It offers a 100-song-per-use trial (meaning you can only rip 100 songs before you have to close and re-open the program) with a 250-song total limit until you purchase the software for $29.95.
My advice? Start with one of the free programs. If they don't quite work as well as you'd like them to, then upgrade to one of the paid programs.
Thanks to Ross from the Resident Technology Adviser program for some of the links.
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BeyondTV turns your PC into a DVR
January 27, 2009, 12:36 AM by ROB
Posted in MEDIA, SOFTWARE, REVIEWS | 1050 views
TiVo users, listen up. SnapStream Media's BeyondTV can turn your PC into a powerful Personal Video Recorder (PVR) option that rivals set-top DVR boxes.
BeyondTV comes in two principle options: with or without a bundled TV tuner card. Our review copies shipped with Happauge tuners—we've used the software with both the internal PCI tuner cards and the external USB units and experienced very little difficulty getting things up and running.
After a quick setup wizard and a program guide update to import channel information, , I was greeted with a clean, easy-to-use interface. One click was all it took to start browsing my program guide, set shows to record, and watch my favorite programs.
Being the multi-media junkie that I am, I wanted to push the bar even further. My desktop PC is chock full of hard disk space—1.5 TB, to be specific—including not only my BeyondTV recordings, but my recorded videos of CounterStrike pwnage and short films I've produced. My mobile PCs (a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 notebook and a ThinkPad X60 Tablet) have a good amount of hard disk space, but if my data is already in one place, why duplicate that data across machines? Good thing BeyondTV ships with BeyondTV Link, a remote-access software that can access your BeyondTV installation from the nether-regions of the interwebs. BeyondTV Link provides you with a full-featured BeyondTV installation without the need for a tuner—all of the files are hosted on your PC back home. You can even specify additional folders to add to BeyondTV's folder "pool" and stream your own TV shows and other video media content.
There are other products out there (like MythTV and SageTV) that can offer some of the same functionality at a lower cost ($79.95 for SageTV without a "link" client) or even free (MythTV), but BeyondTV is hard to beat. BeyondTV will set you back $99, but SnapStream offers a 21-day free trial to try out the software. If you're anything like me, you'll love it.
Our rating: 5/5
SnapStream Media
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