Image courtesy of FilmoFilia Tron is a true classic in terms of the technical elements of film making, but unlike other groundbreaking films such as The Last Starfighter it maintains an appeal to this day. My kids thoroughly enjoy the film, the arcade games, the GBA and PC games, and generally like the whole ‘into the computer world’ … even if some of the terminology seems cheesy now.
Our younger son had his birthday at the local theater this past weekend, and part of that was getting a tour of the projection area, getting to splice a trailer into a reel, and even starting the movie they were seeing and checking audio levels. It is a really cool time, and the local theater manager does a great job with the kids. I took note that even after doing all of the start-up in the booth, getting his special theater display poster and other stuff for the kids in the party, and heading on downstairs and into our theater…
… or was that WA RTY TOWELS … or perhaps WATERY FOWLS … or maybe even FLAY OTTERS? Whatever the sign outside said, you knew that once inside the lobby you were in for some hilarious and cringe-worthy shenanigans with Basil Fawlty and the rest of the gang! Now you can enjoy all twelve episodes in a three-disk collection that also includes gobs of extras!
I got a $100 Amazon gift certificate from Kerry for Christmas (thank you Kerry!!), and for half a second I was tempted to blow it immediately on Kindle titles from authors I already follow. After thinking about it, I instead sent out a tweet asking for suggestions. One of them came from @Merecal … “Weird name” I thought to myself, but I didn’t yet understand. I went to the site and saw a full list of books – many by authors that I follow, and many of them not yet available. I looked at the titles and saw ‘bindings” specified…
This video is awesome. It’s a mashup of the trailers from the last year or so, stitched together to make them look like one movie. See? Gear Diary just saved you the trouble of digging your way out from underneath your overstuffed Netflix queue! via Seattleist
Back in August, I reviewed the HP MediaSmart Server LX195. I, the resident Linux Geek here at Gear Diary, was pleasantly surprised by how useful the little server was. Even so, I still thought there was a little something missing from that great device. HP has addressed a lot of this with the HP MediaSmart Server EX495.
When out and about, sometimes you got a few minutes to kill. SPBTV for Android phones can help you use up a few of those minutes with a little mindless entertainment or a news update from overseas. SPB TV is an application that streams live TV from the Internet directly to your phone. It has a nice interface and some of the streams even have an on-screen guide to what is coming up next.
Apple has released a major update to its Apple TV software. The hardware did not change but the new 3.0 software version has been given a full makeover. With a totally redesigned start page, internet radio, support for iTunes LPs and more the new software version, although not the new hardware many people were hoping for, at least gives Apple TV users something new to play with. Here’s a brief video walk through of the new 3.0 software.
When I saw the press release announcing that HAVA was coming to the iTunes App Store and that it was an application which allowed for live streaming of your home television, I was intrigued. I like to think I’m pretty knowledgeable when it comes to the live TV options available for the iPhone but I have to admit I’d never heard of HAVA. I’m currently running both a Slingbox Solo and an EyeTV Hybrid in my home office. The Slingbox allows me to view live TV on my Mac as well as my iPhone and doesn’t require the connected computer…
You use your smartphone for everything from playing music, snapping photos, recording video, banking, and playing games. Are you ready to rent and view your next movie on your mobile phone? mSpot certainly hopes so. The company recently launched its mobile movie rental service and allowed me to trial it for a few days. Take a look at the mSpot service in action, and find out whether mSpot deserves a spot on your smartphone… http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UWl-AXuK9ik Above you’ll see mSpot streaming a scene from “The Reader” to my iPhone. The process to rent a film from mSpot is straightforward. Just go…
There’s this new Internet sensation called YouTube. People take videos of themselves and upload them to the service. Some videos are quite stupid and silly. The stupidest and silliest are passed around over and over and over. Now the inevitable has happened – a compilation of what are claimed to be the top 100 viral YouTube videos – conveniently packaged into a 4 minute video which itself is likely to be shared aver and over and over. https://www.youtube.com/
Applications like Prism and Fluid make it possible to create site-specific applications allowing “users [to] split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop. Prism lets users add their favorite web apps to their desktop environment When invoked, these applications run in their own window…” [from Prism landing page] It is a great way to have a direct line to some most-used sites without having to deal with the entire browsing experience. They work well and are free. Unfortunately, for many of us it can quickly mean having five, ten or twenty “site-specific” applications. It…
You may remember our recent coverage of the Mediafly service that syncs media content — specifically podcasts for now — to a wide range of devices. Well, Mediafly is wasting no time. Their goal is to launch on multiple smartphones throughout 2009, and then hit even more home stereo/video equipment in 2010 so you can have your media content synced and shared on just about any consumer device out there. The fact that Mediafly is device-agnostic is exciting in that your content goes with you, regardless of what device you may use or decide to uopgrade to in the future….
[begin rant] Why does everything have to be about money? Why is someone always looking to get something for nothing? Free this, free that, promotional item here, promotional item there. Has capitalism ruined the beauty of some of the things that are free on the internet? I do video reviews on YouTube. Earlier this week I posted a chat video I recorded, about some of the things which were bothering me about YouTube reviews. I haven’t been doing video reviews long, and I have small following so far. And that’s fine. I do it because I enjoy it. I do…
I know it’s just the first week of 2009, but I suspect that when we are preparing to welcome 2010 in some 360 days, the Roku player that I purchased just over a week ago will be on my list of “favorite gadgets of 2009”.
How often does this happen? You start the shower so that it can warm up and then you’re distracted by other things. Maybe the kids call you from another room, you start folding clothes, reading an article in the newspaper. Suddenly 5, 10 or 15 minutes can suddenly pass and the entire time you’re wasting hot water. Evolve Showerheads has a solution. And it’s not the typical reduced flow showerhead. What they’ve done is add a temperature flow valve that auto-senses when the shower reaches 95 degrees. Then it slows the water to a trickle – saving otherwise wasted hot…
If you own a cat, then you know that there is one part of pet ownership that can suck the joy out of the experience. No, I am not talking about hearing your cat hacking up hairballs in the middle of the night while she is sleeping on the bed next to you (not that Avah ever has or ever would do that, mind you); I am talking about cleaning out the litter box.