Altec Lansing XM Speaker Cradle Released

Altec Lansing just informed me that they’ve released the XM3120 speaker system, supporting both the RoadyXT and Xpress receivers. Retail price is about $100. It looks pretty cute, and devices like these push me to upgrade my Roady2 (which I connect to computer speakers at work via the home kit). It’s somewhat ironic that to … Read more

SlingPlayer Mobile Released, For Real

The SlingPlayer Mobile for portable Windows devices, which has been in public beta for a month, is officially released today. If you were savvy enough to buy and register a Slingbox by 4/26, the software is free… otherwise it’s going to cost you $29.99. It looks like they’re still working out the kinks on non-touchscreen … Read more

Samsung Helix Is TiVo For Radio

The reviews are trickling in… Today, Personal Tech Pipeline describe their hand’s on time with the Samsung Helix. They focus on the unit’s ability to record audio programming and come away impressed. The recording and storage abilities don’t interest me nearly as much as having live satellite radio in such a compact (and attractive) form. … Read more

Never enough time… TiVo cofounder Jim Barton broadcasts the revolution. (ACM Queue) Netflix quarterly conference call doesn’t mention TiVo. (Internet Stock Blog) Save fifty bucks on a Slingbox and get 2000 United Airlines miles. (Sling) Details on Clear Channel’s digital radio plans (aka HD) to compete with satellite. (MarketWatch, Business Week) Sony releases PSP firmware … Read more

Slingbox On Symbian?

The Sling folks allude to some enticing news with this job opening… Sling Media says: Job Title: Tech Lead, Mobile Embedded Software Essential Responsibilities Directly participate in design and development of multimedia/networking software products using J2ME, BREW and Symbian operating systems/platforms. Architect multimedia software frameworks for Sling Media mobile software products that address the requirements … Read more

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 Review

Guest review by Thaed, a tech enthusiast from Cleveland, Ohio.

Can a video camera be the greatest piece of technology available today? I can tell you this is the type of wonder that this device instills in me. It’s almost like I bought something from the future. It seems that sophisticated. The button on the right starts recording in HD (720p) and the button on the left takes 5 megapixel pictures. The switch in the middle zooms in and out. The zooming mechanism is the only moving part. The camera writes its data to an SD card. I bought a two GB version. The viewfinder is the clearest I’ve ever seen and the camera is light and fits perfectly in my hands. The combination of ease of use and portability make it easily the best video camera and digital camera I have. It is a first in so many categories. It’s the first digital video recorder that got the still camera part right. It’s the first HD camera I’ve ever used. It’s the first tapeless video camera I’ve had. It does things like allowing you to make panoramic pictures by sweeping the video or extracting decent stills from video. It has a long battery life and it will use the new four GB SD cards.

Read more

SlingPlayer Mobile Released

SlingPlayer Mobile has been released for PocketPC 2003 and Windows Mobile 5 devices with a touch screen. A version for non-touch screen phones should be available within a month, which works out well as I’m considering the T-Mo SDA. As promised the software was released in Q1, though the current edition is a public beta. … Read more

SlingPlayer Mobile… Getting Closer

It won’t be long now… The Slingbox portable player is on the way. If you recall, this will let you access your Sling stream via recent Microsoft PDAs and phones (PPC 2003, WM5) using WiFi or your cellular carrier. You can sign up to receive an email when the mobile player is ready for public … Read more