Skifta Soft Launch: Stream Your Media to DLNA Devices

Now that we own digital content in a lot of different places, several companies are working on the problem of making it accessible everywhere. Skifta, owned by Qualcomm, is one such player with a new Android app, and an affinity for DLNA. The Skifta set-up is reasonably simple. Download the app on your phone and … Read more

The Gadget Christmas That Was and Wasn’t

Christmas gadgets 2010

For several years I’ve run a gadget postmortem after our annual Christmas extravaganza. 2010 is no different, except that the gadget volume is noticeably lower. Here’s the tally:

I’ve had little hands-on time with any of these gifts yet, particularly as my car radio has to be installed before I can use it. However, I can report some initial impressions. My father, a self-professed Microsoft fanboy, is wildly excited about his LG Quantum C900 Windows Phone 7. I’m planning to play around with it later today, but for the few moments I held on to it, I have to say I was impressed with its lightning-fast response times. That’s either a testament to the LG phone, or to the comparative lagginess of my aging Droid Eris. My brother, on the other hand, was not terribly enthusiastic about his Samsung Captivate. A variant of the Galaxy S line, the Captivate is possibly the best Android option currently available on AT&T. Unfortunately, it only has a soft keyboard, battery life is lacking, and my brother found integration with his primary Google apps to be maddening. He’s keeping the phone, with the hope it will grow on him.

Read more

VuPoint and the Art of Digitizing Old VHS Tapes

I’ve been playing with the VuPoint ST100B Digital Video Converter for several days now, and so far I’m pleased with my impulse purchase. Digitizing old analog media is more an art than a science, but one that at least has gotten easier over the years.

Set-up with the VuPoint converter is quick and painless. It comes packaged with cords to plug into your TV and VHS player, and once you insert an SD card, hit power, and switch over to the right TV input, you’re good to go for recording. Your choices at this point are limited, but in this case, that’s a good thing. There are only four buttons on the VuPoint box – Power, Record, Play, and Next. Hit Record once to start recording, and again to stop. To enter playback mode, hit the Play button once, and then press it again to view your latest recording. If you have multiple videos recorded, use  the Next button to cycle through your library.

And that’s it.

Read more

First Impressions: Xfinity App for Android

If you’re an Android user and have been dying to try out the new Xfinity app, you’re wait is over. Comcast released the app for the Android platform this week, complete with email inbox, digital voice account access, TV listings, on-demand menus, and access to your myDVR Manager app. The new Android implementation is solid, … Read more

Test Driving MyFord Touch

Let me preface this post by saying I’ve never been big into cars. Give me something that’s reliable, preferably with a stick shift, and I’m good to go. However, the advent of GPS, mobile broadband, and digital radio systems have had an effect. I may never care a great deal about horsepower, but I am … Read more

Netflix and Others Should Brace for Changes in 2011

A major shift is taking place. The interwebs are now important enough for major content providers to start throwing their weight around online. Sure, they’ve been doing it to some extent over the last several years – networks keeping content off Hulu, broadcasters blocking video scrapers like RedLasso – but the studios are upping their … Read more

5 Photo Gift Tricks for the Holidays

I’m a big fan of photo gifts around the holidays, and after years of making my own, I’ve learned a trick or two. Here are five tips to help keep you sane while turning photos into personalized presents this holiday season. Use a Batch Resizing Tool If you need to upload a bunch of photos … Read more

An Age-Old Format War

It’s about this time every year that I get a plaintive plea from my parents, who would like nothing more for Christmas than for me to convert some form of old media into a new and more usable format. As a kid I remember taping records for my mom so she’d have music to listen … Read more