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

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Are You Ready for Some (3D) Football? Verizon has announced it’s bringing football into the action with a 3D broadcast of the pre-season NFL game between the Giants and the Patriots on September 2nd. A Content War: Retransmission, TV Everywhere and Tru2way Content providers and … Read more

Hands On with the Amazon Kindle 3 e-Reader

This morning I took (early) delivery of Amazon’s new Kindle 3 – I opted for the WiFi only version – a device that claims 50% better contrast than any other e-reader, a 21% smaller body while keeping the same 6″ size reading area, and a 20% increase in the speed of page turns. These are, of … Read more

No Official Sonos Android Controller in 2010 :(

Well that’s a bummer. Sonos responded in the negative to a Twitter inquiry regarding the possibility of an Android controller. Perhaps next year. In the interim, the partially functional and community developed Andronos will have to suffice. In other Sonos news, the Geek Tonic household increased their S5 count by two and had everything installed … Read more

iPhone Faceoff: Netlix vs Hulu Plus

Now that Netflix has finally brought their streaming video experience to the iPhone, it seems like a Hulu Plus versus Netflix client comparison is in order (via my 3GS). We’ll save the content selection and video quality comparison for another day, but some quickly comparable metrics are related to app launch time and battery usage. … 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

The TiVo Slide QWERTY Remote Giveaway

TiVo has produced arguably the best dual purpose QWERTY-capable remote in the Slide. Granted, there’s not much competition (yet) in this burgeoning space. But TiVo has introduced something special — I expect its utility will only grow as they modernize and expand their online apps. Not only does the shrunken “peanut” allow you to type via Bluetooth … Read more

Netflix iOS App Now Streaming To iPhone

Netflix launched an iPad app months ago that lets users stream movies and TV shows over WiFi or 3G connections. Now you can do the same on an iPhone or iPod touch. The app has been redesigned to fit smaller screens. The app is divided into Home, Genres, Search, and Instant Queue tabs. From the Home … Read more