Just under a year ago I reviewed the Monsoon Vulkano Deluxe Pro which opened up my satellite to be viewable on my laptop and IOS devices. I was able to watch my own television programming from virtually anywhere, even changing channels and setting up programs to record. Watching Monday Night Football on my deck with the iPad and catching NCAA March Madness games while away from a television is awesome. While this technology is amazing and I fully believe that I should be able to watch the content I subscribe to anytime and anywhere, many of the content companies do not agree. The fight over management of our media is just getting underway… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Image courtesy of Synology

You can’t be too cautious these days about backing up your data. Time and time again friends, family and co-workers come to me about trying to recover pictures, music and documents on a failed or virus ridden drive. Some even have their small business data lost when the main computer goes down.

My first advice to anyone is that they should get themselves some sort of backup device, whether it be Desktop Attached Storage or Network Attached Storage and some good software to automate the backups. I have wanted to upgrade my 2TB external drive to a Network Attached Storage Device, but had a really hard time deciding which one to… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It looks funny. It does exactly what it promises. And, at least for me, it is in the running for “iOS Accessory of the Year”.

Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit but I’m pretty serious about how cool I think this iOS hardware/app combination is. The Griffin Beacon is the universal remote on steroids. With this odd piece of plastic powered by four AA batteries and a free download from the App Store I have taken my Samsung HDTV remote, my TiVo remote AND my Apple TV remote and put them away. Now all I need is one of my iOS devices and I have total control over the media in my den… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I spent a large portion of the summer building a nice deck just outside my back door.  Once it was finished we would sit out there under the bright Texas stars and I would tell my wife I needed a way to watch sports out there.  My WiFi is full strength on the deck, but I could rarely watch live sporting events.  If only I could watch on my iPad or iPhone or even laptop.  Enter the Monsoon Vulkano to grant my wish!  The Vulkano sports technology for TV placeshifting, digital video recording, internet video playback, universal plug and play and mobile video recording.  All of this technology comes in a small attractive box… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

TiVo, Slingbox and Roku are increasingly commonplace in American homes. The problem is, more and more of us have multiple set-top boxes taking up multiple outlets and sucking up electricity while costing a small fortune. Vulkano is poised to change all that with their converged set-top box.

Vulkano is

…a sleek consumer device with a tightly integrated hardware and software platform that has a powerful video processor and local storage, is set to replace multiple boxes such as TiVo, Slingbox and Roku providing consumers incredible performance at a low cost. Vulkano is available now- at prices ranging from $259 to $379, depending on storage capacity.

When connected to a set-top

Vulkano is positioning itself as “the next-generation live TV place shifting, time shifting and streaming device for smartphones and other devices”. The system makes it possible to take the home TV experience anywhere and by anywhere they mean… anywhere. When connected to a set-top box and a TV the Vulkano brings video to a host of devices including Android, Blackberry, iPhones, iPads, Macs and PCs. Best of all, when someone is accessing video remotely users can still experience their content (TV channels, videos and photos) on whichever screen they want. As the company explains –

TV set-top boxes are commonplace in households today with over 210 million shipped in 2009 alone, according to analyst firm In-Stat

Woot, newly acquired by Amazon, has a TiVo HD DVR for sale today. As an owner of this same model, I can attest to the fact that it is a nice unit. It will certainly do the trick… At least until Apple’s revamped Apple TV comes out.

And speaking of Apple, the description of the DVR offered by Woot takes a little shot at the iPhone maker’s recent press release. It is rather amusing…

Dear Wooters:

The TiVo HDXL 150 Hour THX Certified DVR has been the most successful product in the history of the world. Ever. Okay, that’s a bit of an overstatement, but we think it’s pretty keen. So we were surprised when

Vampire power is the power your electronic devices use when they’re turned off.  Example:  You plug your digital camera into an electrical outlet to re-charge its battery.  Once the battery is fully charged the camera keeps taking power from the wall and attempts to give it to the camera’s battery even though it doesn’t need it.

iGo‘s new line of green power accessories seek to stop this wasted use of electricity.  This is turn should save you money in the form of less power used and a smaller electric bill as a result.

While at CES 2010 I met with iGo and they were kind enough to provide me with their Power Smart Wall charger.

The iGo Power Smart Wall is available for $29.99.

Click on through to see my video review of the device,  and then head here to learn more.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I love tablets. I used a Windows Tablet PC for years and have been chomping at the bit for the Apple tablet. The iPhone and iPod touch have been and are awesome, but I have been longing for something a bit larger. When the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android came along, I thought it just might be the ticket. Here was a slick slate tablet with a 4.8“ touchscreen with 800*480 resolution. The 32GB model is just thin and light and… it runs Android. I bit.

It is an impressive device. But is it a “keeper”?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It wasn’t that long ago that I expected TiVo to go the way of the Dodo.

It increasingly looked like its time had come and gone as cable companies added DVR functionality to their set top boxes and more and more of us started using our computers to watch and record tv content. Then TiVo started adding services such as Netflix streaming and in the process it got a new leash on life.

Now TiVo is adding yet another service to its growing list of new functionality. In addition to Amazon, Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, and Jaman support for Blockbuster On Demand will be live some time today. The service will be… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve enjoyed being able to schedule DVR recordings from my BlackBerry using the TiVo mobile site, but missed not having a dedicated device application that would give me more functionality and a faster interface than having to access options via a web site.  As a TiVo and BlackBerry fan, I got just what I wanted with the new TiVo DVR Scheduler app, available through BlackBerry App World.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Apple shook up their hobby project that goes by the name Apple TV. They just dropped the 40GB model entirely and discounted the 160GB model to what HAD been the 40GB price- $226. That is a $100 price cut.

I really like my Apple TV, but don’t use it nearly as much as I thought I would. Regardless, the 40GB version is gone, the 120GB version is $100 less, and most people STILL don’t get the point of an Apple TV.

via MacRumors

Some of you may recognize the name Joe Born from the company Neuros, whose open source products we’ve been reviewing and talking positively about for years. What you may not know is that Joe also founded the company Digital Innovations over ten years ago.  According to him, he hasn’t been “very active in it since starting Neuros, but recently they acquired a peripheral company called Micro Innovations that makes a host of commodity peripherals, and [he's] very excited about applying the Neuros open innovation formula there.”

Last night Joel and I had an opportunity to take a survey that Joe had forwarded us, showing some USB Hub concept… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I follow Joe Born(@joeborn) and Neuros Technology(@neurostech) on twitter and I read his blog and generally love Neuros Technology as a company.  They stand behind their products.  They also run open source software on their devices and have quite a community behind their products.  I also own a OSD and one of their original products, a MP3 player.  I still use both on a regular basis.  Well, imagine my excitement seeing Joe’s tweet regarding the OSD 3:

“..it’s probably two years off, but this time Texas Instruments is involved early: discussion of the OSD3: http://bit.ly/Qt5sl”

This Moxi HD DVR is one of five units that’s looking for a good home.

When my wife and I moved into our new house, my office/work area/lab/dungeon got relegated to the basement -  not a full-size basement, mind you, more like a “large cubby under the stairs” sort of place.  Little did I realize though, that when she used the term “Man Cave” for the first time, it wasn’t a novel phrase.

My Man Cave is not much to write home (or even this post) about.  There are lots of books and magazines,  and old or malfunctioning PC’s to tinker with.  It’s not the kind of place that I can really invite “The Guys” over for.  But now, there might be hope for me yet, from the Cool Dudes at Digeo: