- Published:
- February 17, 2008 – 1:33 am
- Author:
- By Dave
I started writing for MakeUseOf, which is a blog for web application and other free, useful programs! I just posted an article on Ditching your cable company with free, legal alternatives. Summary: Ditching your cable company has never been more viable than it is today. The rise of online, streaming TV shows allows you to save on one of the most expensive household bills if you are willing to sacrifice a bit of the convenience of having either a cable box or DVR. The main question you will need to ask yourself is what shows you actually enjoy watching. Several name brand shows are now available online in free, ad supported formats; if your particular shows are not available then you may be stuck with your cable company, at least for now. More and more shows are always coming online, so keep checking back to see if your favorite show….
Categories: Reviews,Site Updates,Television
Tagged: Ditch Your Cable Company, web application
- Published:
- December 27, 2007 – 12:27 am
- Author:
- By Dave
For Christmas my wife and I decided to replace our aging circa 1998 19″ CRT with a new LCD Monitor. After searching the web and reading numerous reviews, I decided to purchase the Dell SP2008WFP LCD Monitor. Some of the major features of this monitor are: 20″ Widescreen HD LCD Monitor 2000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio 1680 x 1050 native resolution 2ms Response time Built in 2MP webcam 2 side facing USB ports and 2 bottom facing rear ports For full specs please see the Full Product Page. For the first time ever I’ve compiled a quick video review of the Dell SP2008WFP – press play to watch the review. Look below for more in depth analysis. Dell’s monitors come with a 3-yr advance shipment replacement policy, which means that if your monitor goes bad, they will ship you a replacement after you send your defective one back. This is one….
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Reviews
Tagged: Christmas, Dell, USD, wireless keyboard/mouse dongle
- Published:
- October 15, 2007 – 11:00 am
- Author:
- By Dave
Adobe take note – you need to add 3D acceleration to your software. I’ve just checked out Pictomio and it really has a kick-ass GUI which utilizes your 3D accelerating video card to view and zoom photos. This provides a much better viewing experience than my current image library software, Adobe Photoshop Elements. Photoshop elements uses what I assume is a 2D rendering of photos – both zooming and scrolling through your photos is slugging even on my fairly new PC. Take a look at Pictomio: It is a pretty screenshot but you need to actually use the software to appreciate how smooth the GUI functions. This reminds of me of Coverflow and Apple – purchase this technology and incorporate it into your product Adobe – or your image library software will be out of date in no time. Photoshop Elements releases about 1 version per year, and I do….
Categories: Other Technology,Programs,Reviews,Software,Windows
Tagged: adobe, GUI, image cataloging software, image library software, photo management, photos, photoshop elements, picajet, pictomio, Pictomio - Image Catalog Software
- Published:
- September 4, 2007 – 3:32 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
The Opera team has announced that Opera 9.5 Alpha is now available. I haven’t been an Opera user in the past. However, I’ve used their Mobile (Opera Mobile and Opera Mini) and their Wii browser and have been impressed. I’ve been missing out! Opera 9.5 is nice – if you haven’t tried Opera lately I would give it a shot. I’ve heard other users rave about previous versions, but I always thought to myself: “It’s just another browser”. 9.5 has a ton of features but here are the highlights in my opinion: Fast Page Rendering Engine History Search Bittorrent Client Integrated Synchronize With My Opera – Synchronize Bookmarks, Speed Dial, and other Preferences Improved Skin – Apple Human Interface Guideline support Mail Client Built In There is a slew of other changes in this release. I’ve found several pages which did not render properly or at all in this version….
Categories: Other Technology,Programs,Reviews,Software,Windows
Tagged: Impressed The Opera, Synchronize With My Opera
- Published:
- May 1, 2007 – 9:20 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
Here is the problem: you have a DVR/HTPC hooked up to your TV downstairs, but you have other televisions in your house you wish to use to access the HTPC. How do you distribute the Audio/Video signal to these other television sets? One solution to this problem is Crossbar MediaCaster, which was kindly provided to me for review by SnapStream Media. The basic idea of this hardware is that you are creating a “private access channel” AKA Avcast® entertainment network, which is then provided content from any device which outputs an RCA signal. In the box: 1 x CableCaster – Establishes the Avcast entertainment network 1 x MediaCaster – Provides the content for the Avcast network 1 x IRcaster – sends IR signal over the Avcast network 1 x IRdetector – receives IR signal 1 x Notch filter – filters a channel range to allow Avcast network to….
Categories: Hardware,Reviews,Site Updates
Tagged: cable network, Cable TV, Comcast, entertainment network, HDTV, internal network, Motorola, Wireless Remote
- Published:
- May 1, 2007 – 8:19 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
If you have an HTPC which uses software such as BeyondTV you can use a remote for the majority of the time but there are times where you will want a good old fashioned keyboard, for surfing the web or other PC maintenance tasks. Sure you could use a wired keyboard or mouse, but who really wants to be tied to your Television which might be across the room. Typical wireless keyboards may only work several feet away from your PC. The 9019URF works at least 3.5 meters (10.5 feet) away from your PC, and in my experience it worked in another room on a different level, through the walls. It uses Radio Frequencies (RF) which can go through walls and does not require line of sight. The box contains everything you need to use the keyboard: Wireless RF Keyboard USB PC Interface CD with optional drivers and manual 2….
Categories: Hardware,Reviews
Tagged: internet browser, SnapStream Store, Typical wireless keyboards, USD, Wireless Keyboard, Wireless RF Keyboard
- Published:
- April 25, 2007 – 9:29 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
I recently installed the demo version of Teksoft Smartbar. Instead of doing my own review, I will point to the 4WM Review of Teksoft Smartbar. I came up to the same verdict: It is a nice piece of software. It gives you a lot of functions missing in Windows Mobile – a task manager, better close button, a “desktop”, and screen capture. However, it must be buggy as it great slows down and even locks up your device frequently. It also show a program called SimPolicy – which I am not sure if it is an actual Windows Mobile program or something shown by this program, but it frequently used up my CPU. This bugginess in the software will have you tearing your hair out in no time, and you will find yourself uninstalling it. Stay away until they have released a version with less bugs and better performance!
Categories: Cell Phones,Reviews
Tagged: screen capture
