40Tech

6 Options for Free Cloud Storage

Bobby Travis — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:35:35 +0000

Need a way to keep your files synced and accessible from pretty much any computer, including your mobile computing devices? Want to do it on the cheap? Here’s six options that can help you out:

Dropbox

We’ve covered Dropbox before. I’m an avid user, in fact. Dropbox is a great way to get share and sync your files across platforms. It has shell integration even on Linux, a great little iPhone app and web interface, as well as convenient Firefox and Google Chrome extensions. There’s no filesize limit and you get 2GB of storage for free — up to 3GB if you get people to sign up (256MB per person). You can even use it to watch a movie file on your iPhone — but the upload may take a while. I tried it. 750MB took 4 and a half hours…

Box.net

Box.net has been around for more than a minute and they offer some great features and compatibility options (the latest Microsoft Office files, image and mp3 files, flash video, Photoshop and Illustrator and more). Their free plan only gives you 1GB of storage (25mb filesize limit) and there’s no shell integration (great web interface though), but they integrate with Google and Zoho and have a decent mobile app for the iPhone.

ZumoDrive

ZumoDrive offers 1GB of free storage with an additional 1GB if you go through their belt-gaining game (easy enough to do). The real differentiator with ZumoDrive is its ability to easily link to your iTunes library and spare yourself some storage space on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Great backup, sync and multimedia tool!

Memopal

Memopal starts you off at 3GB for free and works natively on most platforms (Linux is in beta). Shell integration is decent and if you want more storage, you can get 200GB for $50 bucks per year. I only mention the paid plan here because, well – that’s pretty frickin’ good!

SkyDrive

SkyDrive is a Microsoft’s cloud storage offering (Live Mesh is another, but you can’t manipulate files via the web). This is a great option if you have lots of small files to share. By small, I mean 50MB filesize max. By lots… I mean 25GB. Yep, you read me right — 25GB of free storage sitting right in your Windows Live account. Who knew? There is no built in shell extension, but you can (on Windows, anyway) install SkyDrive Explorer to handle that. It works pretty well, and can apparently bypass the filesize limit with the pro version. Not the easiest for general (non-windows) mobile access though…

Google Docs

Google Docs recently added the ability to upload any type of file. Their upload filesize limit is 1GB and you get 1GB of storage for free. If you convert files to Google Docs formats the space they take up is significantly smaller — and the 1GB seems to be on top of regular Google Docs use thus far, and your Gmail and Picasa storage (7GB and 1GB, respectively) is separate as well. Google does have plans for purchase as well, if you need more, with a yearly pricing scheme that is comparable to Memopal’s.

Bonus option (Windows Users) – Speaking of Gmail storage, if you want to put your excess Gmail storage to good use, check out viksoe.dk for the GMail Drive shell extension. It’s not a perfect solution and not stable as it depends on Gmail’s framework remaining the same, but 7GB is a lot of storage for just email so it may be a good option for some.

What’s your favourite cloud storage app?

A Look at Tech Then and Now (1968 and 2010)

Evan Kline — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:30:02 +0000

Are you like me, and get frustrated when one of your gadgets doesn’t work to perfection? It is easy to forget just how far we’ve come. Technology advances at a breakneck speed. The gadgets and gizmos in our lives change drastically from month to month, let alone from year to year. An earlier comment by one of our readers, Jim Saul, got me wondering what tech was like in the year I was born, 1968, compared to today. Read on to see what I discovered.

Magnavox Odyssey photo from Martin Goldberg and Electronic Entertainment Museum (E2M), via Wgungfu at en.wikipedia

Internet

The Internet is perhaps the greatest tech development in our lifetime. Can you imagine life without the Internet? In 1968, something resembling the Internet was only a concept. ARPANET was created by the United States Department of Defense, and, according to Wikipedia, was "the world’s first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the contemporary global Internet." ARPANET had been conceptualized years before, but sent its first transmission on October 29, 1969. The first permanent connection was made on November 21, 1969. ARPANET initially connected four U.S. universities, with several others joining in the months and years thereafter. And it wasn’t until the Nineties that the Internet began to resemble what it is today, with the development of the hypertext protocol for the World Wide Web, and the development of Mosaic, the first graphical browser. Compuserve, the first commercial online service, was founded in 1969.

Video Game Consoles

My first memory of an in-home video game was a Pong console. The console contained several games, but they were all a variation on the same theme. The games consisted of one or more "balls" (that were actually square), and one or more "paddles" (that were actually just solid lines on the screen). The object was to get the ball past your opponent, and into the goal.

Pong, though, was not released until 1975. The Magnavox Odyssey predated Pong, having been released in 1972. What about 1968? Nothing. That’s far cry from the choices we have today, between the Playstation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, not to mention handheld gaming units.

Computers

As you might guess, computers have advanced by leaps and bounds over the last 40 years. Today, Intel sells a Core i7 processor with 4 cores and 8 threads, with up to a 3.33 GHz clock speed. Back in 1968, Intel was just being founded. During that year, Data General Corp. introduced the Nova, a computer that sported a whopping 32 kilobytes of memory, and sold for $8,000. The computer that guided the lunar module to the moon was introduced in 1968.

Mobile phones

Although there is no absolute consensus on who created the first cellular phone, most sources suggest that the first cellular telephone call was placed in 1973 by Martin Cooper of Motorola, and that cell phones didn’t become available to the public until 1984. So, if you were looking for a mobile telephone in 1968, you were out of luck. That’s a far cry from today’s landscape, where a consumer can be overwhelmed by all of the choices, from a simple mobile phone, to smartphones that are more powerful than computers of only a few years ago. Google’s Nexus One sports a 1 GHz processor, and 512 MB of RAM. I have a computer in my house (admittedly collecting dust) with lower specs than that.

Music formats

Ah, 8-tracks. Back in 1968, consumers could purchase music in two main formats – vinyl records, and 8-track. An 8-track was a single reel of tape, connected into a continuous loop. The sound quality was bad, but 8-tracks were portable. For better quality, consumers listened to music on vinyl records in their homes. Both vinyl records and 8-tracks were types of analog media. Today, everything is digital. We’ve shot past compact discs and cassette tapes, to a world of audio files in MP3 and AAC format. Our music is now more portable than ever, and, being digital, capable of being copied without any loss of quality. Of course, that has ushered in new headaches for a recording industry that has been slow to adapt to new technology.

Home video format

When I was growing up, we watched Hollywood movies at home, on VHS tapes. VHS had defeated Betamax in the videotape format wars. But VHS and Betamax didn’t exist until the 1970s. Before that, including in 1968, consumers didn’t typically watch commercial movies at home. Today, we’ve experienced another format war, with Blu-ray prevailing over HD DVD. But Blu-ray’s success may be short-lived, as digital downloads gain steam. Between iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon, coupled with ever increasing internet speeds, the future points to a world without physical copies of home movies.

Television

Today, high definition televisions are becoming the norm. In 1968, color television was just becoming commonplace. Color television had been introduced in the United States in the 1950s, but high prices and a lack of broadcast material prevented color television from becoming standard until the 1970s. What’s next for television? If the industry has its way, get ready for 3D television, in your home.

From a content perspective, 1968 saw the first live network transmission of video from inside a manned orbiting U.S. space capsule. 60 Minutes and One Life to Live also debuted in 1968. In 1968, viewers could choose from a small handful of stations. Today, viewers have an abundance of choices, with over 20 nationwide broadcast networks, and even more niche channels.

What was the world of tech like when you were born? What changes in technology strike you as the most extreme?

Sources:

Computer Hope, Computer History, 1960-1980

Wikipedia: History of the Internet, and ARPANET

A Brief History of the Internet, from Walt Howe’s Internet Learning Center

Wikipedia, Video Game Consoles

A Brief History of the Home Video Game Consoles

Computer Hope, Computer History, 1960-1980

Intel Core i7 information page

Computer History Museum

Cell Phone History, from Oracle ThinkQuest

The History of Cell Phones, from TheHistoryOf.net

Cell Phone History, from Cellphones.org

A Brief History of Audio Formats, by MP3Developments

From Vinyl To Free – A History Of Music Formats (and How Much They Have Cost), by Donald Bunuel, on Amog.com

Videotape, Wikipedia

3D TV: Is the World Really Ready to Upgrade?, by Scott Steinberg , Digital Trends

Color Television, Wikipedia

List of Years in Television, Wikipedia

List of United States over-the-air television networks, Wikipedia

Quix: One Click Access to All of Your Bookmarklets — On Any Browser

Bobby Travis — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:25:37 +0000

Using bookmarklets has become a staple item for me in internet browsing — I use everything from Readability2Evernote, to a multitude of sharing and tracking tools, each with its own nifty difference from the other. My only qualm has been the way they clutter up my toolbar. No longer! I have now installed the bookmarklet to end all bookmarklets. Quix — as they say it "Your bookmarklets on steroids". Quix does everything. It comes with most things you might need already built in and even leaves you the ability to add your own. Want to search IMDB, for example? Click Quix, type IMDB and your search term and hit enter. That easy. I fully expect that one day I will ask it to make me dinner… and it will. At the very least it will point me to a really good recipe with just a couple of keystrokes and then allow me to quickly share it with the world at large.

Quix installs easily, with instructions for every major browser, including Mobile Safari. Once your connected it is a simple matter of a click on the fancy new button and typing the word "help" into the little command-line type box for a list of the pre-installed commands. There are a lot of them (search commands, social sharing commands, SEO, analytics, URL shortening, App integration (Evernote!) and more, more, more!). Learn your favourites.

In fact, the only drawback of Quix is that it can do so much that you can get lost in the shortcuts, so to speak. I say again… learn your favourites and then forget the rest. Especially considering that you can easily add your own custom shortcuts and javascript bookmarklets for all of the services that are close to your heart (I added Redux and ShareIn for example), even replacing the defaults altogether if you choose, leaving you with just one happy button that is useable almost anywhere, and will do the job of multiple bookmarklets and even some browser extensions — which is important if you use Google Chrome Extensions and ever want to see your URL bar again…

If you need some convincing, check out their quick (no pun, I swear!) intro video. Give it a try. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Tinychat – Video Conferencing in Your Browser

What’s On My iPhone — Part One

Bobby Travis — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:50:13 +0000

As I’m sure many of you are now aware, I recently caved and bought myself an iPhone. Gone are my days of Windows Mobile mediocrity — I now join the movement of Apple users — at least until I get bored of their proprietary whims and move on to the questionable privacy of an Android phone. In any case, I’m here with the rest of you now and have immersed myself in the wonders of the app store while doing my best to spend as little money as possible. So far, in my two weeks of iPhone ownership, I have acquired over 50 apps and am using five pages of my springboard. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share what those apps are, page by page, along with a micro-review. Please feel free to share yours with me in the comments! Here’s Page 1:

Springboard Page 1

This is where I keep my quick access apps.

Camera (stock) – Most of the time, the regular camera/recorder app does all I need it to do. I do have Gorilla Cam on my testing page of my springboard, and I’ll talk about it more when I get there (it adds zoom, a level and some other features), but so far, stock has been working just fine!

Qik Video ($1.99) – This is a cool liitle video recorder that has some cute bells and whistles and, more importantly, a Zoom feature. Zoom, even though it lowers the quality, is a must when you are stealthily recording the antics of a near-2 year old.

Photoshop Mobile (Free) – Photoshop Online is a service I used on Windows Mobile as well. It is a great way to get photos to your various online services, especially if you have trouble with the Facebook uploader, which I often do. Great service for editing as well — and a great little app.

iTalk Lite (Free) – This app is perfect for audio recording on the go. The big button makes for easy access and the free desktop software makes for easy syncing to pc. You can also email files to yourself, or someone else, if you like.

Skype – All hail a mobile version of Skype that actually works like a phone client! It even uses the proper speaker — the WinMo version did not. Perfect for your home wifi phone as well. Once Skype comes out with the 3G version (on its way, I hear) it will be perfect!

Facebook (Free) – This is the best mobile Facebook client I have used. It’s fast, easy to navigate and generally pretty accurate with the push notifications — not always, but not enough for me to lose the love for it.

Google Buzz (Free Shortcut) – I put this one on the springboard myself by using the bookmark options in mobile Safari that allow you to do so. I’m not sure where this Buzz thing is going, or even if I’ll stick with it, but so far it’s a good way to get quick access to all of my Google Services (sometimes the web apps are just better than the native app integrations, as you can use -all- the features).

Tweetie 2 Pro ($2.99 ) – As Twitter apps go, Tweetie 2 is pretty awesome. I struggled for a bit with the "pay for a Twitter app?" question, and even had TweetDeck installed for a bit (I need multiple accounts, you see), but Tweetedeck, while awesome and powerful was a bit too busy for me. After some throrough research, I went with Tweetie 2 only because I liked the interface better than its closest competitor, Echofon Pro, which costs $4.99.

Message Centre (stock) – I’ve had no need to get a new text messaging app yet, as I’ve yet to find one that (for me) does it better. Everything from a nice interface to easy MMS — add the iPhone keyboard and I now text more than I ever did before.

Google Wave (Free Shortcut) – Another great mobile web app from Google. I use Wave to collaborate with business partners and the like on the go. It loads in Safari quickly and the interface is pretty good overall, even though Wave is still in development.

Action Method Online (Free) – As some of you have probably read, I am fairly invested in my Evernote and GTD methodology. However, I am always looking for new and interesting methods to explore and fine tune my ability to actually complete the buttload of things I invent for myself to do. When I came upon Action Method Online, I wrote about it as an alternative for GTD and now I am playing with their mobile app as well. It’s pretty cool! Their Focus and Advisor features are for the iPhone app only and are worth checking out.

Evernote (Free/Subscription) – Evernote is the mother of all notes programs (we’ve written about it often), and the iPhone has the best version of the Evernote mobile app I have seen to date. Just the fact that it allows for native storage of the database for offline lookup is awesome. And it’s pretty too. If I keep using it like I do, I may need to shell out the $5 bucks per month for the pro upgrade.

reQall (Free/Subscription) – I was using the free version of reQall (we wrote about reQall here and discuss it in the comments here and here) for a bit and then just bit the bullet and went pro. Why? Because it offered Evernote integration and communicates directly with my Google Calendar (which I have synced to my iPhone calendar). And it only costs $24.99 per year. The eyes free memo recording (which is transcribed to text by reQall) is particularly cool, as is the way the service handles reminders when you have a lot of things on your plate. Highly recommended even in the free subscription.

Calendar, Contacts and Settings (stock) – I keep these where I can get at them quickly and easily, and have (so far) not needed more than the basics. The Calendar and Contacts sync with Google via MS Exchange and the Settings options have been more than enough for me so far. If anyone has a high recommendation for an alternative for either, I’m happy to hear it!

Google Mobile App (Free) – I had to add this as I like it enough that it’s now on my standard bar (the one that’s there on all screens and has the dialer, mail, Safari, etc.). I thought I would have to go Android to have the "search Google by voice" functionality, but Happy Days! it’s on the iPhone too. It also works as a decent jump off point to other Google apps as well. My only issue with this app is that it doesn’t support landscape mode. Small annoyance though, not a dealbreraker. Transcriptions are amazingly accurate, and the built in browser can save time, though I often use "Open in Safari" when I will be doing more than a quick scan.

There you have it. Page 1 of my spingboard and likely my most often used apps (next to ComicZeal and Stanza, which I’ll talk about in another post).

What are your most often use or quick-access apps on your iPhone? Got any counters to the ones I mentioned above? Let me know in the comments!

3 Creative Uses of Dropbox

Evan Kline — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:10:03 +0000

Dropbox is one of our favorite apps here at 40Tech. The traditional use of Dropbox is to make files, such as photos and documents, available on any computer you use, or even on your mobile phone. But if you think outside the box (bad pun intended), Dropbox can be used in other ways to make you more productive when away from your main computer. Read on for a few suggestions.

Make a Desktop App Portable

You can use Dropbox to make some desktop apps portable. The exact way of making this happen will differ from application to application. For example, I do this with Moneydance, a finance application. I have Moneydance configured so that its data file is located within my Dropbox folder. I have Moneydance installed on my other computers, too (the license allows this), and have them look to the Dropbox folder as well for the data file. Whenever I make changes in Moneydance, the data file is updated, and synced to all of my computers via Dropbox.

Backup Files and Folders Outside of Your Dropbox Folder

One of the limitations of Dropbox is that normally you only can sync/backup folders that are located in your Dropbox folder. If you want to sync or backup files or folders without moving them to the Dropbox folder, you can use symbolic links. A symbolic link is a file on your computer that points to another file, much like a shortcut. Programs can interact with the symbolic link, as if they were interacting with the destination file. Set up a symbolic link to the files or folders that you want to backup up, and place that link into your Dropbox folder. Dropbox will see the link, and jump over to the actual file or folder. For step by step instructions on setting up symbolic links in Windows, OS X, and Linux, check out the Dropbox Wiki.

Keep Passwords in Sync with KeePass

We’re big fans of LastPass here at 40Tech. One of the features we love is the way that LastPass keeps your passwords in sync between computers. Prior to finding LastPass, I did give open source KeePass a whirl. Online syncing of passwords between computers can be achieved with KeePass, in conjunction with Dropbox. Install KeePass normally, and set up your database, and then move it to your Dropbox folder (File > Save As). On subsequent computers, open the KeePass database from the Dropbox folders, and you should be all set. Just make sure that you close KeePass whenever you’re done with it, so that it will update any changes that you’ve made to your passwords. (Disclaimer: it’s been several months since I made my switch to LastPass, so I haven’t test this for quite some time).

Do you use Dropbox? If so, what creative uses have you found?

Hey Authors . . . You Snooze, You Lose With the Google Book Deal

Evan Kline — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:30:08 +0000

If you’re a book author, keep your eyes open. Under the Google Book Search settlement agreement, you may have to take action or cede rights to Google to use your work. The Google Book Search settlement agreement is a proposed deal between the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and Google. The deal arose from the Google Books Library Project, an attempt by Google to scan several book collections, and make them searchable. After Google announced its plans to scan the collections, several authors and publishers filed suit, asserting that Google was infringing upon their copyrights. Now the parties are attempting to resolve that litigation. But are some authors being caught in the crossfire?

The Proposed Deal

Wikipedia summarizes the settlement as follows:

In October 2008, the parties to the lawsuit proposed a Settlement Agreement, which called for Google to pay out $125 million: $45 million would go to pay rightsholders whose copyrights had allegedly been infringed; $15.5 million to the publishers’ legal fees; $30 million to the authors’ lawyers; and $34.5 million toward the funding of a new entity provisionally called the Book Rights Registry, a form of copyright collective that will collect revenues from Google and dispense them to the rightsholders, among other duties. In exchange, Google is released from liability for its book digitization. The Agreement is built upon an intricate joint venture arrangement for the management of Google’s book project, including a variety of revenue models, including an "institutional subscription database" that will be sold to colleges and universities; the "consumer" model of selling perpetual access to individual books; and various anticipated revenue models.

In February 2009, a Google Book Search Settlement web site was created where rightsholders of books could "claim" their books for the purposes of the Settlement. Rightsholders whose books have been digitized by Google and who have claimed their books will receive a one-time payment of $60 per book, or $5 to $15 for partial works (called "inserts"), plus 63 percent of all revenues associated with their works.

The interesting part of the proposed settlement is that it is opt-out, rather than opt-in. In other words, authors who meet the class member criteria have to "claim" their books to be entitled to compensation, or to exclude their books from scanning. In other words, you snooze, you lose. For many books, though, this might be the only solution, as the authors of many works can no longer be found.

Who is Opposing the Deal?

The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed the deal, saying that it extends beyond the parties’ dispute. Indeed it does. The parties are giving Google broad, sweeping, rights, and deciding what the rights of non-parties to the litigation will be. Perhaps this is one of the purposes of class action litigation, but the ramifications of the proposed settlement are shocking. This private agreement would, in essence, create new law, without any participation from Congress.

Other companies and organizations oppose the deal as well. Several entities have banded together to form the Open Book Alliance. The Open Book Alliance is made of the following members: Amazon.com, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Council of Literary Magazines and Presses , Internet Archive, Microsoft, National Writers Union, New York Library Association, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Small Press Distribution, Special Libraries Association and Yahoo! The Open Book Alliance opposes the book deal. In its own words, the alliance "will counter Google, the Association of American Publishers and the Authors’ Guild’s scheme to monopolize the access, distribution and pricing of the largest digital database of books in the world."

What is the Answer?

Should the deal be shot down? What are the alternatives? If Google doesn’t digitize books, who will? Or is the answer to allow Google to digitize the books, but with stricter parameters? Or do the terms of the deal simply need to be tweaked, making it opt in and not opt out? But then what about books where the authors can’t be found?

Or does the problem require a bigger solution – fixing copyright? It seems that many of the problems with the book deal, especially the issues with older orphaned works, would be fixed if copyright had a shorter shelf life. A federal law, know jokingly as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act" (because many feel that Disney "bought" the law), extended the copyright on works made in 1923 or later, so that they won’t enter the public domain until 2019, at the earliest. After that, who knows? Disney or other companies will almost certainly push to extend copyright once again.

The book deal undoubtedly would bring about some good. Millions of books would be digitized and made available, including public domain books, which would be made freely available. Copyrighted books would be made available in "snippets." Nobody else was doing it. Surely within those millions of books are books that would otherwise be lost forever. And the value of having books available in digital form can’t be overestimated. Say goodbye to book scarcity.

What’s Next?

The deal isn’t final yet. Last week, a federal court judge heard argument on the proprietary of the deal, and a decision is still pending.

Our Take

The solution to many of these problems would be to fix copyright. I’m a fan of copyright, but within reason. The initial idea behind copyright – to give authors and artists protection and incentive for a limited period of time – has been abused by moneyed interests in Washington. If older books were out of copyright, then Google wouldn’t need to worry about the opt-out, opt-in question. It could freely use most of those books. For newer books, Google would still need to get the permission of authors. Something tells me that we won’t see any weakening of copyright, though.

What Do You Think?

What’s your take on the situation? Do you see a solution?

Sources:

Google Book Settlement

Wikipedia – Google Book Search Settlement Agreement

Scanning the Horizon of Books and Libraries, by Amy Goodman

What’s Your Daily Tech Routine? What Can’t You Live Without?

Bobby Travis — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:25:21 +0000

What can't you live without? | 40Tech " align="left" width="307" height="178" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/200/503238148_90185d988f.jpg" />Most everyone has a routine for their favourite technology these days (unless you’re Amish, or Luddite, I suppose). In fact, you’ve probably had a routine for tech most of your life: Saturday morning cartoons as a kid, pulling out the calculator a few times a week for math homework, that ever-necessary first cup of coffee in the morning from your favourite coffee-maker, weekly calls to your mother, and so forth. As times have changed and tech has become more prevalent in our lives, we tend to rely on it, or at least engage in it, more and more. For us geeky-types, our routines are often somewhat fluid as we discover, try out and adopt or discard various technological wonders. So ask yourself: What’s your routine, currently? What do you do every day or every week that involves some form of technology or other? And, most importantly: Could you live without it? To get the ball rolling, here’s what I tend to tech with daily:

photo by Rutty

I work from home, don’t drink coffee (though I probably should), have a nearly-two year old, and just bought an iPhone (yes, I caved — don’t judge me!). So, needless to say, my technological routine is filled with kiddie shows, laptops and staring at my phone’s screen as if my eyes were built only for that purpose.

Morning

I get up in the morning and can barely move. I probably went to bed late the night before, and got maybe five to seven hours of sleep. I’m not a morning person. The room is dark and my iPhone is beside my bed, on the nightstand. I reach over and pick it up — it also functions as my alarm clock — and once I have turned off any offending noise, I proceed to groggily navigate to my email. It must be an iPhone thing… I never did that with my HTC Touch (Windows Mobile 6.5). Sure, I would sometimes fire up the laptop, if I was planning on staying in bed for a while, but that was a conscious decision. This iPhone thing has become a -habit- — in a week and a half! After an email scan, I determine if anyone or anything is so desperate for a reply that I have to do it right then, and depending on what my schedule is like that morning and how late or early I woke up, I either get up or I read a bit of a book or a comic book — on my iPhone… Thing’s evil.

I finally haul myself out of bed after being pounced upon by my daughter, and head out to the world at large — meaning the living room. If my wife is home, I usually head out and take the dogs for a walk, where I will quite often do more emailing and/or business calling and/or book/comic reading or general surfing, task management — on my iPhone. If my wife is gone to work, then I am usually getting the kid set up with a TV show on the flat panel television (was there really ever any other kind?), while I get breakfast ready for her. All hail Treehouse and Nick Jr.! Thanks for keeping my kid busy for certain parts of the day so I can get things moving. After breakfast on these days, me and the kid will take the pups out for a walk, where I will usually sneak in a few of the above mentioned iPhone-type things, if possible (i.e. kid-permitting). When we get back, I usually play with her, read to her, or watch some TV with her, etc., until nap time.

Afternoon

When naptime hits, I jump right into what I would have been doing for hours already if my wife wasn’t at work — Laptop Land. Laptop Land is where I work, play, and converse with thousands of strangers in various virtual environments such as Twitter, Facebook, email and now Google Buzz. I spend that time researching, writing, putting out business fires, and otherwise trying to get things done in my day. Since I build and market websites for small to medium-sized businesses, I have a very strong relationship with the internet. That is to say, if I have no internet, pretty much 70% of my work can not get done (though I can use my iPhone for emergencies provided I have decent phone signal). I interact with website technologies, on the front and back end, graphics and writing programs, memory tools like Evernote, the aforementioned social tools and the various sharing tools that interconnect them, and with verbal communications tools like Skype and, of course, my phone. Now, you may think that my iPhone is the most important part of this part of my day, too — it’s not. Neither is my laptop. The most important piece of tech that I use in the afternoon, if I’m home, is the microwave (and sometimes my car and credit/debit card).

The microwave is where my sustenance comes from, unless I am at a coffee shop working (like now), in which case it is coming from someone else’s microwave and has been acquired through use of both my car and some form of debit or credit. I am busy. I don’t feel that I have the time to cook something or make a sandwich, so, if I am to eat (which I have discovered is necessary for continued functional though — and life), I utilize the quickness and re-heating wonder that is the microwave. I sometimes use the stove, too, but that is mostly if I am home with my kid. During those times I try my best to dedicate my efforts to her as exclusively as possible. There are other tech items here though, that take us into the evening as well — things like talking stuffed animals, computer games and other interactive tools for kids (on the laptop, iPhone and from Fisher Price and the like)… but also the Playstation 3. This is where we play the DVDs and digital shows when we are not watching Treehouse, but are still using the TV. Speaking of TV, I can’t forget mention of the Digital Box. This is where TV comes from these days. While there are many times when I would like to get rid of TV altogether (because it has become a continuous stream of crap, for the most part), it is not likely to go anywhere until there is a very competitive pricing plan from a reliable internet-based provider.

I should also mention that, while driving, I am often on my cell phone via a bluetooth headset — a stereo headset that will also function to privately stream my music and other media to me while I’m out.

Evening

Generally, this involves some combination of PS3, Laptop Land (in Windows and a couple flavours of Linux that I am playing with), DVD/Blu-Ray, Video Gaming (rarely, unfortunately), and television (grown up TV where we can get it). This can be any combination of work, play or family time, including an "all of the above" scenario where I attempt to balance all aspects together – sometimes I even succeed. Often, this route will take me down some tangent or focus or other and I will end up awake until the wee hours. This is a habit I am trying to break, but it appears to be part of the cycle that perpetuates the need for my iPhone (generally also the last bit of tech I use in the day), so I’m not sure if Apple will let me…

What I couldn’t live without

So that’s my day, in a nutshell. I am pretty sure I couldn’t live without the microwave or the internet and a means of easily accessing it (at high speeds) at this point. Not without a major life change, including career-wise. Other things, I could get by without — even *gasp* my iPhone, and kid-TV. I could do it. Really!

How about you? What tech could you not live without?

2 Ways to Get TV on Your iPhone – Slingplayer vs. OrbLive

Evan Kline — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:30:47 +0000

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could use your iPhone to watch the same television stations that you watch on your television at home? Wonder no more, for television on your iPhone is a reality, with the right setup. Today we’re going to look at two methods for getting all of your television stations on your iPhone – Slingplayer and OrbLive. The first method, Slingplayer, works anywhere that you have a data connection (3G or via WiFi), while OrbLive ~~only works via WiFi but~~ also works over 3G and WiFi and can be cheaper. (Updated on 2/24/10 to reflect that an OrbLive update has appeared in the App Store, restoring 3G functionality). Both methods require a piece of hardware. Read on for details.

1. Method 1 – Slingbox and iPhone SlingPlayer app

You’ve probably heard about the Slingbox, a device that allows you to access your living room television anywhere you have a computer and internet connection. There are different models of the Slingbox available, depending on your needs. I use the Slingbox Solo, which lists for $157.95 on Amazon at the time of this writing.

With the Slingbox Solo, you place the Slingbox near your cable box, and use an extra output on your cable box to run outputs to the Slingbox. There is also a small optical arm that you place near your cable box’s remote control sensor, so that you can do everything you could do if you were sitting in front of your television. There are other connection methods as well, such as using the built-in tuner in other models of the Slingbox.

Once set up, you can then control your cable box remotely, and stream the cable box’s signal to another device over WiFi or over the internet. Devices to which you can "sling" your content include a computer, and also the SlingPlayer Mobile app for the iPhone. Using the app, which is $29.99 in the App Store, is easy – simply input your account information, and connect. Until recently, the app only worked over WiFi. Earlier this month, though, after Apple approval, Sling gladly released a version that works over 3G. Below are some screenshots of the iPhone app in action.

My expectations were low, but I’ve found that the iPhone app works surprisingly well, even over 3G. The controls aren’t as easy as the controls on the computer version of the SlingPlayer, which mimics your television’s remote control, but that is because of the screen size, not because of any inherent problems in the app. The easiest way to use the app is to set up some favorites, which are easily accessible. From there, it’s easy to browse channels. You can also use the app to access recordings, and schedule recordings.

All in all, I’ve been very pleased with my Slingbox, and using it on my iPhone.

Method 2 – TV Tuner card in computer, and iPhone OrbLive app

If you have a computer and a television capture card in your computer, you’re almost ready to get television on your iPhone. Using the OrbLive app (iTunes link) from Orb, you can access your tuner card, and watch whatever you’d be able to watch from your computer. OrbLive is currently $9.99 in the App Store. Orb has a full-blown free service, that allows you to access all sorts of media on your computer, in addition to television.

Setting up Orb is also simple, requiring you to input your account information. I found it easiest to configure certain features from my computer, such as recordings and my favorite channels, and just using the iPhone app to browse content.

What TV features you get from Orb will be dictated by the kind of tuner you have. I have the Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150, which is an analog tuner. As a result, I can get 70+ channels, but don’t get certain premium channels that I get on my cable box.

The other drawback of OrbLive is that it currently works only over WiFi. We’ve previously written about Apple forcing Orb to strip out 3G functionality, after users had already paid for that functionality. Update: As of today, February 24, 2010, I’m seeing an OrbLive update in the App Store that restores 3G functionality.

SlingPlayer vs. OrbLive

So, which of the two apps is better? I generally default to the SlingPlayer, unless my wife is using the television to which the SlingPlayer is connected. I find that the video quality on the SlingPlayer is better than the quality on OrbLive, and the controls are more polished and feature-filled. I also have access to all of the channels that I have on my cable box. One drawback is that I find that, over WiFi, the SlingPlayer’s audio is ever-so-slightly out of sync with the video. Oddly, the video is in perfect sync over 3G.

The benefit of OrbLive is that I don’t have to worry about jockeying for TV time. Even if my wife is using the television, I can access television via Orb. OrbLive also gives you the benefit of accessing more than just television. You can access whatever photos, music, and video you have on your computer, as well as view certain types of documents.

If I had to pick one or the other, I’d go with the SlingPlayer, but I’d be perfectly happy using OrbLive. I find that I’m watching more television on my iPhone than I thought I would. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, you may want to look into a Slingbox, or look into getting Orb up and running on your PC, so that you can access television from other computers.

Do you have any interest in getting television on your mobile device? Or are you already there? If so, let us know about the tools that you use.

Bypass Blocked Media and Browse More Safely with Hotspot Shield

Bobby Travis — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:24:24 +0000

Many people are annoyed by the country-blocking that is imposed by massive multimedia companies regarding their content; especially since the rise of sites like Hulu, Pandora, and Last.FM. The lure of legitimate, free, and easy to access streaming content is a hard one to pass up! If you happen to live outside of the US, however, you tend to discover rather quickly that you’re pretty much out of luck. So what to do? If you ask around, and most people will tell you to try a proxy site, but average proxy sites are generally blocked by services like Hulu, and, if you do get through, are very, -very- slow. However, if watching Hulu is a dream of yours — or you simply want to be a little safer when you browse online, or access Twitter and Facebook from work — the current version of Hotspot Shield (1.37) is your friend.

What is it?

Hotspot Shield, provided by Anchorfree, is a VPN (virtual private network) — that is to say it is a communications network that sets up a private, secure tunnel through another network (in this, case the internet). That’s a VPN in a nutshell, anyway. Don’t ask me to explain it in any more detail. I’ve long since reached my current level of Geek on the subject.

Hotspot Shield is free.

Doesn’t cost you a dime and doesn’t bug you. From all reports, Anchorfree used to force an ad onto every page, but as far as I can tell, this is no longer the case (or built in ad blockers in modern browsers have become exceedingly seamless). The software does have its own homepage that it directs you to, which will have some ads on it, but once you close the page, the VPN still works just fine with no interruptions. The only possible drawback is that there may (or may not) be an approximately 10GB limit on monthly bandwidth (the site says unlimited, but users have reported different experiences).

It works — and it’s fast!

The current version of Hotspot Shield is once again Hulu-friendly. Who knows how long this will last, as Hulu is ever-vigilante about protecting the wishes of the license holders (and why wouldn’t they be, considering their business depends on it), but for now, it is working flawlessly. The program runs in the background, can be turned on or off with a few clicks and works with anything that needs your internet connection unless it needs very specific cookies (I had trouble logging in to Digg, for example, and in LastPass, at least for Chrome, there may be a conflict that causes the extension to disable itself.). It’s fast, too. With a decent computer and good broadband connection, you will barely notice and slowdown in general browsing, and streaming works just as it should.

Security.

It’s easy to forget, what with the wonderful shiny nugget that is block-free web-surfing, that connecting to the internet via a VPN like Hotspot Shield is also immensely more secure than regular browsing. Your IP address (and therefore your location) is masked under the IP address given to you by the VPN. Your personal data is much less likely to be nabbed by some unscrupulous hacker or public Hotspot sniffer, and you can browse any site anonymously (outside of whatever registrations you may have signed up for, of course). All in all, it’s a much safer and therefore better way to travel in the virtual world. Even if you have no need for surfing sites like Hulu (maybe you actually live in the US for example…), using this software will go a long way toward protecting you online.

Bypass all blocks.

A VPN is also a tried and true method of browsing past blocks that are imposed on you by your workplace or school. Not that I condone this… they are just trying to get every scrap of productivity out of your lazy behind they can, right? That, and keep you from watching porn (calm down, any who would take that out of context, don’t flame me — I jest). The point is, if you absolutely need to keep up with what your Tweeps and Facebook buddies are talking about, Hotspot Shield should enable you to check your Twitter, Facebook and pretty much whatever other sites are blocked while you are at work or school. Or at home. Parents with teenagers, be wary.

How do I get it?

Easy. Just head on over here and download the program directly from the source. You can also find it on cNet and other download sites, but they don’t have the handy dandy instructions that will make getting up and running a snap.

Does it work on _X_ platform?

It works on Windows and on Mac. Sorry Linux folks, but you will have to try the UltraSurf clone (an alternative to HotSpot Shield that is also free. The link takes you right to a how-to-install-on-linux post. Pretty simple overall, as it is done in WINE). Hotspot Shield also works on the iPhone and walks you through its setup. That’s wonderful, overall, but does nothing for you if you want to watch Hulu, as the iPhone does not support flash (booo!). There is apparently an app that can help you out if you Jailbreak the iPhone, but I’ll leave it to folks more knowledgeable than me about such things to post any verification in the comments. As for other mobile platforms, there seems to have been varying degrees of success. Again, if anyone has experience in this regard, please feel free to jump in in the comments.

What are your experiences with Hotspot Shield? Do you use a different service?

5 Suggestions to Improve Google Buzz

Evan Kline — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:15:19 +0000

Google Buzz is Google’s latest foray into social media. Buzz seems to borrow some elements from Twitter, a few from Facebook, and even some from FriendFeed. Like most new products, though, Buzz isn’t perfect. Many users have expressed their opinions on ways to improve Buzz, and we’re no different. Here are 5 ways we think Google can improve Buzz.

1. Make Comments Be Distinguishable from Buzzes

When you first open Buzz, you’re bombarded with a big blob of text. The first way that Google could improve Buzz is by tweaking the user interface to make comments more distinguishable from buzzes (we are going to use the term "buzz" to refer to Google’s equivalent of a tweet). Comments need to be indented more than they are now, or use a different font or font size than buzzes. Right now, except for a very slight indent of the comments and a thin line below a user’s initial buzz, comments blend together with buzzes. Comments also would be easier to visualize if user avatars appeared next to them, but perhaps Google feels that this would slow Buzz to a crawl.

2. Sort Buzzes by Buzz Chronology, Not Comment Chronology

Right now, a buzz will float to the top of the list every time someone posts a comment to it. I hate this. I care mostly about what the people I follow have to say, not about what commenters say. The current system makes it nearly impossible to find new buzzes. I want brand new buzzes to float to top in a busy stream, regardless of the age of comments.

3. Allow Users to Track Buzzes

This is a corollary to #2, above. After Google changes Buzz so that the most recent buzzes float to the top, then we’ll need a way to keep an eye on interesting discussions. A simple "follow this buzz" link would do the trick, coupled with a separate tab of followed buzzes. Or, Google could borrow the star functionality from Gmail and Reader, to get this same effect.

4. Better Integration with Other Social Media Sites

For Buzz to be a success, it will need to solve a need, not create another island to which users must row in order to get information. One way to achieve this would be through integration with other social media sites. Buzz does seem to allow for this to some extent, hooking up with Twitter, but even this integration is limited. I have tied my Twitter account to Buzz, and all that Buzz does is grab the tweets that I make, and pull them into Buzz. The inverse isn’t true, as my buzzes aren’t being sent into Twitter. This is an odd choice by Google, as it gives PR-minded users an incentive to use Twitter, and just have Buzz pull in tweets. If users could feed tweets to Twitter via Buzz, then Buzz would be the central hub.

There is also a way to connect Buzz with even more sites, but this isn’t simple, and won’t be readily apparent to most users. This needs to be easy, too.

Finally, Buzz should use icons to display from where an item originated. I’d likeTwitter tweets, for example, to have the Twitter icon next to them.

5. Keep Listening to User Feedback

Our next suggestion for Buzz was going to be that Google follow Facebook’s example, and only display a minimum number of comments, making the remaining comments be expandable with a click. It seems like Google has just implemented this, though. In just the few days that it has been out, Google has listened to its users in other areas as well, such as with privacy issues. If Google remains this responsive, Buzz could turn out to be a slick and powerful tool.

The good news is that since Buzz is an open platform, we should be able to count on savvy users cooking up some of these changes on their own. What changes would you like to see in Buzz? For even more suggestions, check out the Buzz stream of Steve Rubel. So far, I’ve been enjoying Buzz. You can see what I’ve been up to with Buzz here, and what Bobby has been up to here.