Mari Silbey

Mari’s tech career started when she became the default “IT guy” in her first job out of college. Since leaving help-desk duties to the experts, she’s focused on trends in technology as a consultant, writer, reporter, analyst and at-home gadget tinkerer. Her current paid gig is with the non-profit organization US Ignite where she focuses on how networks and digital technologies impact smart cities. All posts on ZNF represent her own opinions and not those of US Ignite. Mari is a sucker for anything in the digital media space and covers interesting happenings in cable, telecom, and whatever else she feels like. Find her on Twitter at @msilbey.

Will Gadgets & Apps Take Energy Management Mainstream?

The Kill A Watt is a green-geek favorite, but it’s also one of the few gadgets over the years to make it off the stumbling block in home energy management. Despite general support for greener living, the consumer market for energy management tools hasn’t taken off. High costs and difficulties in accessing utility data have … Read more

CEA to Woo Gadget Lovers with Membership

The Consumer Electronics Association has long been the domain of CE companies willing to fork over the cash for membership. But that may all be about to change. The CEA is starting a new membership tier for Consumer Technology Enthusiasts (CTE). So-called “enthusiasts” will soon have the opportunity to sign up as individuals and receive … Read more

Zoom H1 Audio Recorder Debuts

Three years ago I was on the hunt for a good audio recording tool, and Brad Linder recommended the Zoom H2. Sadly my podcasting days were limited, but that doesn’t mean Samson’s H2 wasn’t a worthy purchase. (or a gift, in my case) It’s got 360-degree recording (4 mics), transcoding capabilities, and runs off two … Read more

Video: Verizon Shows Off TV on the iPad

Not to be outdone by the others making iPad noise, Verizon today demonstrated a new app for viewing FiOS TV on Apple’s tablet. The app isn’t available yet, but long-time telecom reporter Steve Donohue shot video at the Verizon press conference. The demo shows a mosaic of TV channels that stream live video when clicked. … Read more

Android Photo Fun

You don’t have to go far to have a little fun with your Android phone photos. There are plenty of free apps for editing pics on the fly, with features like cropping, colorizing, graphic overlays, and word bubbles. Amazingly, this was novel stuff just a few short years ago. In the fall of 2006 I … Read more

5 Tips and Tricks: USB Video on the Roku

One of the big selling points for the XR version of the Roku is the addition of a USB port. And although there’s no official Roku support for USB video playback yet, there is a private USB channel available thanks to citizen-coder Nowhereman. (Submit your own channel in Roku’s developer contest by September 7th.) The … Read more

Adobe Updates Photoshop for the iPad

There may be a thousand photo editing apps today, but I still have a nostalgic fondness for Adobe’s Photoshop. So when I heard the Photoshop mobile app had been updated for the iPad, I had to give it a whirl.

Now dubbed Photoshop Express, the new iPad app is both simple and, unfortunately, simplistic. It’s hard not to love the iPad as a photo editing platform because the display is beautifully large and there’s room to really work with your images. However, the Photoshop app doesn’t give you a whole lot to play with. There are no sophisticated tools like layers, Dodge and Burn, or the Clone Stamp. Instead, Photoshop Express sticks with the basics like color tinting, borders, contrast adjustment, and image cropping. It’s also missing a red-eye-removal tool,which, as far as I’m concerned, should be in every photo editing software.

Eye-Fi Center Makes Photo Sharing Easy

I am a big fan of the Eye-Fi card, and have had my 2GB SD version (i.e. photos, no video) for two and a half years. However, I rarely if ever used the old Eye-Fi Manager software, and over the last few months I’ve been without Eye-Fi wireless transfers altogether thanks to a PC migration, and general laziness on my part. Then last week I got a notice from the company that they’re discontinuing the old Eye-Fi Manager, and replacing it with new Eye-Fi Center software. The shift finally prompted me to set up Eye-Fi on the new computer and give the updated management portal a try.

The Eye-Fi Center has a clean, simple interface showing thumbnails of recently uploaded photos at the top, a list of connected devices along with a calendar to the left, a photo tray for sharing pics at the bottom, and a big preview screen taking up most of the display. There’s also a settings menu available with tabs for network selection, photo storage options, notifications, geotagging, and photo transfer preferences.

Stuff I Like: