If you liked Dash, check out Waze. (iPhone)

If you bought into the Dash Navigation concept, as I did, and happen to own an iPhone, you’re going to want to check out Waze 2.0 – which Gizmodo brought to my attention. The free GPS app provides much more than turn-by-turn navigation, by crowd sourcing live traffic and map corrections along with social game-playing elements. While … 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

Hands on with the Motorola Droid X

Instead of doing a full-on review stepping through each feature or characteristic of the Motorola Droid X, I’d rather focus on the emotional experience. And the Droid X is one of very few phones in recent memory that has sufficiently challenged the iPhone as my primary mobile device.

Unlike most handsets that pass through, I chose to use the Droid X nearly exclusively for the week I had it on loan it from Kevin Tofel (jkOnTheRun) last month. It shattered my notion that anything larger than a 3.5″ or 3.7″ phone is just too big — it’s 4.3″ LCD-toting body fit fine in my pocket, while feeling more comfortable and safer in the hand than the similarly endowed EVO. There’s no question the iPhone 4 has the clearest mobile display, but there’s something to be said for the extra screen real estate found on the Droid X, which I could see replacing my Kindle. The revamped “Motoblur” is mostly an innocuous Android skin job. It adds a few UI enhancements and widgets without bogging down the interface or taxing the Droid X’s speedy processor. As opposed to the more in-your-face Samsung TouchWiz, which seems to generate a distinct love or hate reaction.

Read more

Unboxing the Nixeus Fusion HD

The parade of network-connected media streaming and playback devices continues. And we’re gotten our hands on yet another recent entrant, the Nixeus Fusion HD (~$220).

The Fusion HD probably has more in common with the WD TV Live solutions, rather than the Roku, given it’s 1080p local media playback capabilities – via both LAN (DLNA, UPnP) or directly connected storage. Speaking of which, the reason the Fusion HD is about triple the size of the Roku (pic below) is because it can optionally house a 3.5″ SATA drive (to no doubt support the BitTorrent client). Of course, web services are a requisite these days and the Fusion HD delivers multiple, including YouTube and Flickr. Additionally, they’ve even integrated a browser. However, despite the nice remote for this class of device, I’m finding text entry a bit tedious.

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.

Read more

Grooveshark iPhone Music Streaming Now Legit

Grooveshark is the latest streaming music service to get into the iTunes App Store. But there are a few key differences between the Grooveshark mobile app and those from Rdio, MOG, and Rhapsody. First up, you can use Grooveshark for free for 30 days before signing up for a subscription. Second, the subscription is about 1/3rd the price … Read more

AppleTV Rumors: iTV, 720P?

Engadget has posted something, that I’ll consider a rumor until official, regarding a much speculated AppleTV revision expected this Fall. Good News: The new version of AppleTV seems to be more and more likely. Supposedly will be priced at $99 which isn’t too bad. There would likely be an App store in this scenario since it … Read more

Cox VOD Services Headed To TiVo Premiere

If you needed additional proof that retail tru2way is dead, look no further than the TiVo and Cox Communication announcement to bring Cox Video on Demand services to TiVo Premiere hardware. Unlike RCN’s on demand solution, Cox will ultimately link TiVo Premiere units acquired from them through upcoming cross promotional marketing OR units purchased via … Read more