With Thanksgiving right around the corner, you may be spending copious amounts of time with the family.  After you’ve polished off that second — or sixth – helping of turkey, watched the last of the football games on television, and heard all of Uncle Tommy’s old college fraternity stories, you may want to get out of the house for a while.  Why not go enjoy a movie?  The holiday season will have more than a few flicks that you can take in with the family…and guess what?  You can use one of our favorite BlackBerry apps, Poynt, to take care of all the hard work.

Continue Reading

Today’s post in our on-going series “Technology Meets Tradition” has to do with creating connections using technology in ways that weren’t available just a few years ago.

On the occasion of one’s 13th birthday it is common for a young Jewish teen to become a bar or bat mitzvah. The young person goes through a period of study and then leads the worship service and both reads and teaches from the Torah. It is a powerful moment made all the more special because during it the young person is surrounded by family and friends. That, however, can be a double-edged sword for it also raises the sadness and longing for family members who are not able to be present whether they are deceased or just too ill to travel. That was the case this post Saturday as one of our young people became a Bat Mitzvah. She desperately wanted her grandfather to be at the the service but he was not physically able to make the trip.

Continue Reading

Most people are familiar with the social networking site Twiiter which allows you to post updates to your followers about what you’re doing.  Twitter limits these update messages to only 140 characters.

SMS Messaging is another popular form of communicating quickly with friends and family.  It also places a limit on the number of characters you can use for your message.  A text message is limited to 160 characters.

Today I learned of a web site “12-Seconds” which allows you to record video updates to your friends and family but the catch is like the other methods of communication I’ve mentioned, 12-Seconds places a time limit on how long your video message can be.  You guessed it, each message must be under 12 seconds long.

Here’s why 12-Seconds limits your messages.

Because anything longer is boring. The scientists here at the 12 seconds dodecaplex have conducted countless hours of research to determine the precise amount of time it takes for boredom or apathy to set in during typical Internet video viewing. Our patent pending Electro-Tear-Duct Prongers have determined that exactly 12 seconds of video is the ideal amount of time to keep anything interesting.

You record your 12-second messages directly on the 12-Seconds web site or via your mobile phone (you then e-mail it your special e-mail address.)

Check out 12-Seconds here, and see what you can record in only 12 seconds.

I’m not sure how long it will last, but if you were one of those who paid big money for your Blu-Ray player when they were first the hot new item, this deal will sweeten the sting of being the early adapter and now having to see all of the new ones selling in the <$150 range. Amazon is having a 60% off sale on 101 of their selected Blu-Ray titles – some are as low as $9.99. That’s a little better than usual … right?

via BFAds

Apple just sent out an urgent email to Apple TV owners to alert them of a necessary, immediate upgrade to Apple TV software version 3.0.1.

Continue Reading

I love Boxee.  I’ve use it off and on, and I am anxious to get a HDTV so I can get a Neuros Link connected and use Boxee even more.  Boxee is almost ready to unveil their Beta in New York on December 7th at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.  I am really looking forward to seeing what is in this Beta.  Boxee has been the same for me for a while so it would be nice to see a few new things.  Maybe integration with Hulu Desktop??  Who knows!  We’ll just have to wait another month.  In the meantime, I am gorkon on Boxee, so feel free to friend me!

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 a on screen guide to what is coming up next.

Continue Reading

Oh, hey party people.  Got big plans for your Pre-Halloween Friday night?  Wanna catch a live Foo Fighters concert?  Did I mention it was Free?  You don’t even have to get all dolled up or leave the comfort of your own home, either.  The live show will be available to view straight from Facebook via LiveStream.

C’mon.  All the cool kids are doing it.  U2 just did it.  So did Weezer.   Now the Foos are doing it, too.  RSVP if you like –  or just show up at 7pm PT/10pm ET and stream till your heart is content.  You can hold up your iPhone and use that wacky lighter app during the encore.

[TechCrunch]

I love my Roku media streaming device. I love its ability to stream Netflix streaming movies, Amazon Video On Demand an Major League Baseball. Best of all, the company is promising more content partners, and if their past track record is any indication, they will come through on that general promise.

I love the ease of use, the quick set up, and the fact that the box itself requires no on-going subscription.

Now Roku has released two new players. Continue Reading

Do you watch a lot a YouTube vidoes?  I certainly do.  One of the problems I routinely face with YouTube is buffering issues.  Often times when I’m watching a video, especially one in hi-def, the video will stop to buffer.  This results in a spinning wheel across the screen and I’m forced to wait for the video to catch up before I can continue watching.  Granted this doesn’t happen with every video I watch, but it happens often enough.

SpeedBit has the solution.  Their SpeedBit Video Accelerator is a small application which you install on your computer and in turn it greatly speeds up your video viewing experience. I just installed the trial and was immediately impressed at how fast the few YouTube videos I watched downloaded.  I experienced no pauses even during the hi-def videos I viewed.

Dave Kaminski’s (Web Video University) independent and unsolicited review of the product reveals how playing an HD video in the US over a very fast 20 mbps Internet connection resulted in 25 buffering stops, while watching the same video with Speedbit Video Accelerator installed eliminated those 25 buffering stops to just 1 split second stop.

You can download a free trial of the software and test it out for yourself here.

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 to be on.  The EyeTV also allows me to view live TV on my Mac and my iPhone and it also allows me to record shows on my Mac just like a DVR.  The recordings are then available for viewing on either the computer or the iPhone.  But the big drawback to EyeTV is that you must have the connected computer on with the application running to view streams remotely.

Both of these setups combined meet my live and recorded TV needs.  But do I really need two systems running independently to satisfy myself?  Turns out I might not.

I might just only need one system and that system might just be HAVA.

Continue Reading

I love Hulu.  The online based service that allows you to watch media content, including movies, TV shows etc. is a staple around my home.  I have it on all my computers and on my Apple TV.  If I forget to record an episode of one of my weekly shows I’m usually able to catch it on Hulu.

Well it seems all good things must come to an end.  You see currently Hulu is 100% free.  While you’re subjected to a few advertisements here and there you pay absolutely nothing for the service.  I know of several people who have ditched their cable service altogether and gone strictly to using Hulu.

Just this week however News Corp. Deputy Chairman, Chase Carey revealed Hulu’s new plan at an industry Summit in New York. Broadcasting and Cable reports that Carey informed reporters that a subscription based system is likely but, there may still be some free content.

So will I have to start paying to catch up on my missed prime time TV shows while my kids can still watch old episodes of “I Dream of Jeannie” for free?

Say it isn’t so!

Via Broadcasting and Cable

The popular “This Week in Tech,” or TWiT, netcast network recently partnered with Mediafly to expand it’s podcasting and video distribution across multiple platforms.   Leo Laporte, the man behind TWiT, recently announced the partnership with Mediafly at this year’s Blog World Expo.

The move will expand TWiT’s audience and make the technology show’s video available beyond just iTunes users.  Mediafly will be able to direct the content to a wide variety of devices,  including the Palm Pre, Android devices, BlackBerry, Zune, Logitech Squeezebox, and soon directly to your Roku video player.   While it is clear that iTunes will continue to reach an extremely large audience, being able to reach more people through multiple devices and delivery streams will certainly benefit content providers.

Full Press Release follows.

Continue Reading

You use your smartphone for everything from playing music, snapping photos, recording video, banking and playing game.  Are you ready to rent and view your next movie on your mobile phone?  mSpot certainly hopes so.  The company recently launched their 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…

Continue Reading