Movies and Streaming Video

Clear Your Sunday Night for Breaking Bad’s Final Season

Breaking Bad has had an amazing run, winning Emmy awards and a slew of devoted fans. The story of a chemistry teacher turned crystal meth kingpin is riveting, and as we head to the final season there’s still a chance to catch up on the show via Netflix, and then enjoy some quality fan-made videos satirizing and summarizing the sheer awesomeness. And baldness. Last fall, Sarah and I were looking for a new show to enjoy together. We sat down and watched the first two episodes of “Breaking Bad” on Netflix, and I was hooked. Sarah, not so much, so…

Reviews

DBoom Custom Bluetooth Speaker from Musemini Review

In a world of same-same Bluetooth speakers, Musemini’s DBoom speaker is looking to stand out in terms of looks and features. From a looks perspective, the speaker comes in five different colors: it will soon offer the added ability to create custom skins that give a unique look to the front and back of each speaker. From a technology and feature perspective, the DBoom sports both Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC (Near Field Communication) that makes pairing the speaker to any NFC-enabled device quick and simple. Add in the ability to Daisy-chain the speaker, and you have a versatile unit that will…

News & Features

B&O Play’s BeoPlay A9 Nordic Sky Edition Speaker Looks Great, Sounds Awesome

B&O PLAY by Bang & Olufsen just introduced the Nordic Sky edition of its BeoPlay A9. It is the perfect meeting point between art, furniture, and High Fidelity. Designed to be standalone furniture, or art that is hung on the wall, the BeoPlay A9 is also an amazingly powerful piece of audio equipment. The speaker packs impressive technology into a sleek, one of a kind, design. The BeoPlay A9 has a total of five speakers and has an output of 480 watts thanks to a digital Class D amplifier with separate amps for each of the five speakers. At the center…

Gear Bits

BBC Reveals the 12th Doctor Who … What Do You Think?

This past weekend, we took a half hour away from the normal chaos in our house to tune into BBC America at 1700 hours GTM (i.e. 2PM EST). Doctor Who is a show I watched as a kid in the mid-70s, and Tom Baker will always be ‘my Doctor’. My younger son is a much bigger fan than me; he’s grown up loving the David Tennant and Matt Smith incarnations, and more recently working back in time. As you would expect during a 30 minute announcement show, the first 25 were all about retrospective and chatting up Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith….

Editorials

What Subscription Services Are Worth a Place in Your Budget?

Sarah and I have been loving the new Netflix series “Orange is the New Black”. It’s incredibly well-written, has an amazing cast, and manages to add levity and entertainment to a relatively depressing premise (it’s not exactly happy time watching a protagonist navigate life in prison). I’ve been recommending the show like crazy and was surprised when Dan told me he recently cancelled his Netflix subscription. We use Netflix constantly and it didn’t occur to me that not everyone pays for the service! It sparked a larger discussion among the Gear Diary Editors about what subscription services we pay for…

Music Diary, News & Features

‘Learn To Play 80’s Metal’ with Danny Gill on the New Lick Library Release!

For the majority of the 1980s I was in high school and college and joined the work force a couple of year before the decade ended. During that decade I started out as a jazz and rock bassist, honed my skills on that instrument before branching out to learning piano and guitar as well as MIDI studio and music production skills. My leanings and love have always been jazz-centric … but sometimes it is just a blast to drop a heavy beat, a simple harmony, and pull out my solid-body guitar ans just plain shred! If that sounds appealing to…

Music Diary

Two Handed Guitar? Forget Jordan and Van Halen and Check Out These 1960s Videos!

Back in the late 1970s, the first Van Halen record launched and featured a mind-blowing solo guitar bit by Eddie Van Halen called ‘Eruption’. The solo featured loads of two-handed tapping, hammer-ons and pull-offs, integrated into his technique in a way not heard before in popular rock music. A few years later, a young guitarist named Stanley Jordan was discovered playing in the subway with an innovative technique that allowed him to play multiple parts using both hands in a pianistic style. For many, that is the lineage of two-handed guitar styles – but these styles existed before either of…

Gear Bits

A Freakishly Prescient True Blood Parody from Sesame Street

Last night, a Facebook friend shared a Sesame Street clip from 2010 that parodied HBO’s “True Blood“, calling it “True Mud”. As you’ll see below, it’s a whole lesson in things that rhyme with mud, and it’s silly and cute. It’s also weirdly psychic, as you’ll see after the break (spoilers through Season 5 below).

Gear Bits

Spock Squared Makes Everything Funnier

I very, very, very rarely notice car commercials. And they never influence me on what sort of car I’d like to drive. But despite them being way out of our price range, I totally want an Audi after seeing this Young Spock/Old Spock commercial, spotted by our friends at Mighty Mega: Is that not the most awesome, geektastic commercial of all time? I can’t tell what made me laugh harder-the “Wrath of Khan” bit or the part where Leonard Nimoy sang bits of his infamous Bilbo Baggins song. And now a bit of trivia after you’re done laughing: Do you…

Reviews

Man of Steel Film Review – Sequels Likely

Superman Returns often feels like an homage rewarding viewers of the previous four Superman films with many references, inside jokes and related scenes. Man of Steel is a re-focusing of Clark’s personal journey growing up (mostly through flashbacks during his often traumatic experiences) while revealing his detailed background from his home planet, Krypton. Audiences get lots of alien activity in serious, intense tone with three small moments with subtle humor through character dialogue.

Editorials, Game Diary

PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One, Round 2

After getting a good look at the PlayStation 4 plus more information and a better view of the Xbox One at E3, consumers can make more informed decisions leading up to the upcoming holiday release of both next-gen consoles. The biggest element, as usual, is price with the PS4 coming in at $399 – $100 less than Xbox One. Sony has learned from the past when the PlayStation 3 was originally priced at $599— $100 higher than Xbox 360. Microsoft has usually hit the price points well avoiding these issues that Sony (PS3) and Nintendo (3DS) endured. Now, our favorite here…

Gear Bits, Music Diary, News & Features

Check Out the New Nine Inch Nails Song ‘Come Back Haunted’

Nine Inch Nails is back! Trent Reznor’s ‘band’ (he is the only official member) has been making industrial rock for 25 years now, and each release has had something of interest. Most reknowned for their work in the 1990s such as ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ and ‘Downward Spiral’, Reznor also created the music and effects for the classic video game Quake, which earned them the honor of having their logo emblazoned on ammo crates in that and later entries of the franchise. Back in 2008 they released Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, both as free downloads before going up for standard…

Reviews

Fast & Furious 6 Film Review

The ‘bigger is better’ filmmaking mantra works as this monstrous action-racing film series keeps upgrading with Fast & Furious 6 (a.k.a. Furious 6). The featured film gear this time is a special device called the “Nightshade”, which can disable power in a large area. Other featured gear in the film include special electronic discs (relating to the “Nightshade” technology), specially customized F1-style “flip cars”, modified cable guns, BMW M5s, a Navistar MXT truck, a rare 1973 Jensen Interceptor, and a custom-made Dodge Daytona for Vin Diesel…the perfect acting name for this successful film series. In this sixth film installment, Dominic…

Game Diary, News & Features

Popcornflix Partnership Enhances Digital Movie Xbox 360 Application

The popcorn keeps expanding at the Popcornflix movie streaming service, as Unicorn Media, a leading Internet video solutions provider, announced partnerships with Cypress and Screen Media Ventures, LLC for expanding the free Popcornflix app on Xbox LIVE (gold subscribers). Popcornflix also owns and distributes its own content via iOS and Android apps, Roku, connected TVs and online for free. Screen Media Ventures, LLC developed and owns Popcornflix. Cypress, in conjunction with Screen Media Ventures, developed the Popcornflix Xbox LIVE app using CypressX, Cypress is a digital agency that creates apps that provide interactive experiences across mobile platforms and gaming consoles….

Game Diary, News & Features

Microsoft’s Xbox One Initial Presentation – Technology That Will Step Behind the Curtain and Let You Take Center Stage

“The beginning of truly intelligent TV”… “A huge day for all entertainment”… These are some of the memorable quotes from today’s Microsoft Xbox announcement presentation, which included two female media executives sharing the stage, military dogs in the next Call of Duty game, Steven Spielberg, exclusive sport partnerships, and, mostly importantly, the “All in One” Xbox One system – technology that will step behind the curtain and let you take center stage. I felt this presentation was about smart media integration and expanding consumer offerings more than actual information beyond improved computer power/processing. The big hardware setup innovation was having…

News & Features

Chris Hadfield Says Goodbye to the ISS in a Really Cool Way.

How many ways can you say goodbye? Just waving or saying goodbye is one of the first things we learn as we’re growing up. There’s almost no wrong way to do it. We’ve all done it. However not many of us have said goodbye to the ISS and it’s crew. International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield did a cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity before he left the ISS, and he posted it to Youtube; it’s one of those videos you just watch in awe the whole time.

Game Diary, Reviews

Star Trek: The Video Game Review on PlayStation 3

This third person action-shooter game takes place after the high quality 2009 Star Trek film and before this year’s sequel Star Trek Into Darkness. Single player and cooperative/multiplayer (online and offline in split screen) modes are available. The Hype The award-winning Star Trek game casts players for the first time ever as Kirk and Spock in a totally original co-op experience worthy of gamers and fans. Set in the new canon of director and producer J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) reboot, players will be immersed in the game’s rich story and action-packed combat. Developed by acclaimed Ontario-based developers Digital Extremes (Bioshock…

Gear Bits

TiVo’s Exclusively Terrible Offer

In 2006, I bought a TiVo Series 2. It was a great device, and it lasted me until mid-2011, when it finally stopped changing channels and went on strike. It retired to that great recycling center in the sky/the next town over, and we moved on to bigger and better electronics. TiVo however, sends me emails regularly offering us all sorts of deals to return. Today’s, though, is definitely the weirdest. Apparently TiVo blasted this offer to every former subscriber. They probably should have filtered it though, since as enticing as $6.99 a month TiVo service is, I am pretty…

News & Features

Think Netflix Streaming is Light on Titles? It is Getting MUCH Lighter this Month!

This past November, I got a ‘one month free’ thing to rejoin Netflix, so I signed up … and we’ve kept up the subscription ever since. Now, between Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and Netflix, we are covered pretty well and are getting closer to ‘cutting the cable’ … once we can get Time Warner to agree that fewer services should make our bill lower! One reason I had joined and quit Netflix a couple of times before was due to the selection – when we had the DVD plan and started moving to streaming the selection was … um, lacking….

Gear Bits

Confessions of a Doctor Who Newbie

I am trying to rectify a big hole in my Sci-Fi viewing history, and finally giving “Doctor Who” a shot. I knew it had a huge cult following, I knew it was from the BBC and it involved a time machine, but otherwise, I was pretty much entirely in the dark about the show. A few friends on Facebook gave me some important tips, and I’ve learned a few things from the first six episodes, so I thought I would share my limited understanding with any other Doctor Who newbies out there! Things I have learned that have surprised me:…

Gear Bits

Amazon Is Looking for Feedback on Their New Television Pilots

Looking for an idea of what to watch this week? Amazon is following in Netflix’s footsteps and gearing up to launch their own original content, but they’ve crowd-sourced their choices. They have twelve original pilots, from kid-friendly to decidedly adult. You can offer Amazon feedback on what you liked best, which they will use in their determinations of which gets greenlit. We watched two tonight — Alpha Dogs and Onion News Network, and I have to say that we were impressed with the quality of both shows! Alpha Dogs was the better show by far. The concept was a bit…

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