Reviews Archives - Page 12 of 13

SageTV HD Media Extender Review

Many Home Theater PC users have been clamoring for a silent, easy-to-setup media extender that can handle High Definition video – a plug & play box that lets users remotely access their HTPC content from any TV in their home. Today, SageTV is answering their customers desires by delivering a new HD Media Extender ($199) … Read more

OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Reviewed

Guest blogger Kevin Groppe is a digital media enthusiast, located in the DC metro area, who covers media centers and home theater computers at Floppyhead.com.

Two things I hate about exercising with my current MP3 player are how the cable from the player to earbuds constantly bounces around and how covered in sweat my MP3 player gets when I hold it. With this in mind, OTTO has developed a Wireless MP3 Player Headset.

The unique concept behind the OTTO Wireless MP3 Player Headset is that it combines an mp3 player and headphones into one compact device, eliminating the wire from earpiece to MP3 player. For most people, carrying around your entire music collection in your MP3 player is overkill. 10,000 songs in the palm of your hand is great for long vacations or business trips, but not necessary for your commute or trip to the gym. OTTO embraces this fact and has developed an MP3 player that has a useful form factor with the following specs:

Dragon’s Lair HD DVD Review

Infinite free respawns never felt so good? Kevin Tofel, of jkOnTheRun, shares his Dragon’s Lair thoughts and pics.

Ah, 1983. A time when I was waiting for my growth spurt, had no gray hair and could often be found in an arcade or pounding away on my Commodore 64. I enjoyed all different game genres in the arcade: I didnât discriminate on which machine was worthy of a quarter. However, I was always drawn to Dragonâs Lair which was one of the first laserdisc-based games. Maybe it was the movie-like cartoon graphics that captured my attention. (Actually, it was more likely glimpses of the spunky liâl Princess Daphne, but I digress so letâs get to current day.)

Fast forward to 2007. Iâm still waiting for that growth spurt, I bleach the grays and have no time for arcades these days. And whatâs with these âtokensâ? everyone keeps trading real money for: is this Second Life in the real world? No, these days, I stay home and play games in high definition on an Xbox 360 and 60-inch Sony SXRD set. Itâs all exactly as I would have predicted back in 1983, of course. ;)

Thatâs why I was excited to get a copy of Dragonâs Lair in HD-DVD to review. With the remastered disc from Digital Leisure and my Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, I figured Iâd be giddy with Daphne sightings, er, I mean, ready to once again quest away as Dirk the Daring.

Fed Up with eStarling; A Win for Westinghouse

I do not bash products lightly, and I feel I have been extraordinarily patient with the eStarling digital photo frame. However, there is a limit. It is now mid-May, five months after the eStarling debacle started, and my parents’ main Christmas present is still not working as promised. Actually, it’s not working at all.

After running the netconfig utility at least half a dozen times, the newly shipped version of the eStarling frame still will not connect to the Internet and therefore will not operate. The folks over at Gizmodo apparently got their unit to work (though they still didn’t like it), but we tried connecting ours to two different wireless networks (in two different states!) with no luck at all. That’s it. I’m done.

While I’m still yearning for the advertised eStarling feature set, I have in the meantime taken a Westinghouse digital photo frame for a spin and found it very satisfying. My mom was on hand when I took the Westinghouse frame out of the box and her first reaction was that she couldn’t imagine hanging such a thing in her house. Then she saw the photo resolution.

I have the 14.1″ Westinghouse model for review and the picture quality is beautiful. (My lame photography doesn’t do it justice.) If you have a half-way decent digital camera, the photos fill the frame in slideshow mode. You can also choose mosaic mode for four photos at once, set photo transitions, save favorite photos and watch MPEG videos.

Best of all, the product is dead simple to use. There are three steps on the box: Plug in frame. Insert memory card. Turn on frame. And it’s literally that easy. The frame comes with 128MB of internal Flash memory and has ports for several card types (specs after the jump) as well as USB connections. I successfully tested file transfers from a PC and connection with a Flash drive. For general use, I’d suggest stocking a large Flash drive with gazillions of photos and keeping it plugged in. It’s easy enough to update a Flash drive with new photos when needed.

I’m definitely planning on writing in for a refund on the eStarling frame, and I just may put the proceeds towards a purchase of the Westinghouse 14.1″ digital frame model. The only thing possibly holding me back is the Westinghouse price: $349. Ouch. If you’re interested, Westinghouse does offer frames in different sizes. And the Live Digitally blog likes the 8″ version. But I have to admit, the large screen is delicious.

Want specs and more photos? Keep reading.

Hands On With DLO Nano Shell

Let me start by saying I’m not a “case” guy. I don’t put phones, iPods, PDAs, etc in them — everything ends up “naked” in a pocket or backpack. I choose to believe the exterior of a product is designed to protect the delicate electronics inside and I just won’t sweat a scratch or two. … Read more

Akimbo In The House

At a CES sideshow (PEPCOM) I met Akimbo CEO Josh Goldman. Basically our conversation went something like this, “So what do you think?” “I’ll let you know when you send me a review unit!” And look what arrived this week…

In Vegas, I learned these guys are totally out of the hardware business: The new stand-alone Akimbo device is solely a RCA hardware platform, AT&T is using Akimbo on Homezone, and Akimbo was integrated into Windows Media Center some time ago. On the business side, I’ll need a refresher on the various pricing plans and where they’re headed. I wonder if Movielink’s potential acquisition will have any impact on Akimbo?

I ordered the Logitech Harmony 550 while Amazon was running a recent rebate, so I’ve only had it on hand for a day… However I already feel like it’s $75 (after rebate) well spent.

Compared to the 520, the 550 seems to have a better build quality. It’s more solid, the buttons respond better, and the back has a nice rubberized coating. I thought the 520 looked pretty sharp, and the 550 looks even better. The 550 adds a few more buttons than the 520. As with the 520, Logitech kindly packaged 8 Duracell batteries — four for now, four for later.

Hands On With SplashCast

The DEMO 2007 conference started yesterday, and I’m terrifically jealous of anyone who’s out there now. Luckily, we’ve been able to make a few arrangements to keep us up to date on any juicy DEMO news. Dave squeezed me into Marshall Kirkpatrick‘s schedule for a SplashCast briefing, and I’ve got a friend on the ground who promises to send on-site DEMO photos.

Here’s the deal on SplashCast: Marshall calls it a “media syndication platform” and Liz Gannes calls it a widget. Whatever the right term is, it’s a pretty cool tool. Simply put, SplashCast lets you string together text, images, audio and video for a multimedia production viewable (and listenable?) on a Flash player. Unlike YouTube-alikes, SplashCast also embeds a menu to provide access to multiple videos from just one embedded web player.

Here’s a sample SplashCast with text and random ZNF photos. More details after the jump.