While most folks have fixated on the Nook‘s ($259) secondary color screen, compared to the pedestrian and now antiquated Amazon Kindle, the most significant feature of Barnes & Noble’s upcoming Android-based eReader is digital lending. From the Nook FAQ: With our new LendMe™ technology, you can now share from nook to nook. But it doesn’t … Read more
I’ve been talking to the Sonos folks for years. And everyone I know who owns their connected music system absolutely raves about it. Yet, I’ve never joined in given the steep price of entry (starting at ~$1000) and BYOS (bring your own speakers) requirement. Fortunately, Sonos has been listening and their new all-in-one S5 ($400) … Read more
DVPRemote, which I originally came across back in August, has just received a substantial refresh. In addition to fundamental WiFi remote control of Roku’s media streamer ($99), the app author has worked closely with Roku to incorporate their graphics, enable auto-discovery (versus direct IP address entry), and add support for multiple units. I’ve had a … Read more
I’ve recently spent time with a loaner Pogoplug ($99), a device I first encountered pre-release at CES. Combined with your own USB storage (stick or drive), Pogoplug places your content on the ‘net for local or remote access. I was astounded by the ease of setup, compared with say the network gymnastics (port forwarding) often … Read more
NewTeeVee took a look at Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 (Live) Facebook and Twitter apps. And weren’t quite sold on the experience. […] implementing social TV is harder than we thought. My first impression was that socializing felt disconnected from the Xbox experience. This could just be my bias since I primarily use Xbox as gaming … Read more
Having covered digital photo frames and widget-ized devices for a while, I was psyched to have the HP DreamScreen arrive on my doorstep yesterday for review. I’ve barely had time to turn the DreamScreen on, but wanted to share some initial thoughts based on the unboxing and what I’ve read from other reviews of the … Read more
Announced in March, Blockbuster video on demand service has just landed on Series 2 and Series 3/HD TiVo units. It’s a good move for Blockbuster as they struggle to find relevance beyond their declining brick & mortar existence. (And their prior, somewhat solo foray into this space didn’t turn out so well.) Typical digital movie … Read more
After a decade+ hiatus, Alice in Chains is back in business with William DuVall on vocals. However, I didn’t rush right out to purchase the new ‘album’ Black Gives Way to Blue. AiC may be one of my favorite bands, but I had no idea what sort of music they’d produce as middle aged men … Read more