Folks, If you are still paying that cable or dish bill every month you have to stop! I will not go into the reasons why here but you should read Fire Your Cable Provider And Save Your Money With PlayOn, Internet Ready TV And Digital Media Devices, and Are Traditional Cable Providers Becoming Extinct to understand the reasons and options you have at little or no cost with no monthly bill.

PlayLater

I purchased PlayOn many months back and I have been extremely happy and now with PlayLater I have DVR capability and it works extremely well after a few days use. Before you get too excited it is worth noting that PlayLater is in beta and only available via invite. I find the interface is easy to use and list all of the available channels and plugins that are installed in Playon.

Say for example you want to record Covert Affairs that resides in your Hulu queue. Just click on the Hulu icon then find the episode you want to DVR and click on it. From there you have the option to begin recording. If you want to queue a a number of shows you only have that option after an initial recording has begun. Hopefully this is something that will change in future versions of PlayLater.

Once your recording have finished, click on My Recordings and fire up you favorite show all on your own schedule.

Conclusion

Overall the beta version performs better than expected. It is also important to understand that recording can only be viewed on the computer which were recorded. Of course there may be ways around this but I will leave that endeavor up to you.

Are you a PlayOn customer? If so what are your experiences and is DVR capabilities important to you?

The interface on the iPad is exactly what one would expect. It is crisp and clean and extremely easy to navigate. Take a look for yourself.

There is a fairly good range on content available to include The DaVinci Code, Big Daddy, and Quarantine just to name a few of big ticket Hollywood movies. As a child I grew up watching television shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and of course Charlie’s Angels. Now all of with you can turn back the clock for yourself and watch these classic shows should you have never been so lucky.

You can download the app from iTunes and it’s free.

Stop for a moment and think about how much you’re paying that traditional cable provider. The average consumer pays close to $75 a month and others may pay $100 or more depending upon all the additional programming choices. Is it really worth $900 to $1,200 annually to watch that ball game or your favorite reality television show? Have you ever considered alternatives? Do you know what these alternatives are? More importantly what can you get at will it cost you the $75 – $100 a month? You may be surprised at the answer.

Hardware and Software

PlayOn

PlayOn makes it easy for you to watch your favorite videos, shows, and movies from websites such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and more on your TV using your Wii, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3 over your home internet connection. PlayOn also works on your iPhone or Android phone.

There are three different license options and they range from $4.99 a month, $39.99 annually, to a one-time fee of $79.99 which is the option I selected. You can even kick the tires with a free 14 day trial to see if it works in your situation.

Out of the box you have access to Hulu, NetFlix, CBS, spike, and many more. This just to start and with plugins you can pull in a variety of content from many other party site to include:

• Channel 9
• Crackle
• Discovery Channel
• Food Network
• HGTV
• South Park Studios

I have PlayOn installed on both my Android device and iPad for mobile viewing. You can even use a number of DLNA/UPnP media devices such as the LG Network Blu-ray Player. Bottom line for a fee of less than a monthly cable bill you have access to the media of your choosing.

Apple TV

The Apple TV is a simple mechanism for getting iTunes content from computers to TVs as well as first run movies, sporting events, radio, NetFlix and so much more. There is more than 15,000 streaming movies and television shows for as little as $8.95 per month. It can also handle content from YouTube, MobileMe, Flickr, and a large variety of streaming radio stations, as well as accessing your favorite podcast.

The  beauty of this device is the average consumer can just plug in the Apple TV, connect to their iTunes or Netflix  account and  in no time media is streaming. It is that easy! On top of the ease of use the device itself comes in a just under $100 and can be purchased from Amazon at $99.00.

Roku XDS treaming Player

Roku coming in at $99.00 for the XDS or $79.99 for the XD is a little box that allows you to instantly stream tons of entertainment on your TV. Watch over 100,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus and more. Listen to music on Pandora, or listen to your own iTunes playlists. Watch major sports, news, or original Internet programming. It’s all available whenever you want it.

The all-new, top-of-the-line Roku XDS sets a new standard with 1080p streaming video, the latest wireless technology, and Instant Replay. All for under $100. Works with any TV—up to 1080p*. The XDS delivers the biggest and best streaming video experience you can get and it’s really easy. Be up and running in 5 minutes and best of all Roku works with any TV.

Boxee

Boxee coming in at $193.66 gives you the freedom to watch what you want. It’s thousands of TV shows ready to watch, instantly. It’s tons of free movies, Hollywood blockbusters, and critically acclaimed films. It’s web-only videos from Funny or Die or College Humor. It’s your videos, your Pandora and Facebook feeds somewhere they’ve never been before – your HDTV: organized, simplified and enjoyed from the comfort of your couch in 1080p. No keyboard or mouse required. For serious!!

Get tons of free stuff, and pay for the premium content you want.

No monthly bill.

No more paying for stuff you never watch. No biggie. Finally, TV gets it.

Streaming Web Sites

Amazon Instant Video

With Amazon Instant Video, you can watch thousands of movies and TV shows on a compatible handheld video player commercial-free, using the Unbox application. You also can’t share your Instant Videos benefit with the rest of the family — while a Prime membership. For more information on Amazon Instant Video, visit getting started.

Crackle

Crackle is the place to experience pure entertainment: full-length movies, TV shows, and original series from genres that embody cool — all uncut, uncensored, and unbelievably free. Crackle is one of the fastest growing entertainment destinations today, featuring only the genres you love — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, horror — anywhere you are. Crackle’s vast distribution network ensures that you have access to Crackle everywhere: on your favorite video site, your television and your mobile device. Learn more about where you can find Crackle on the distribution page.

Hulu

Hulu brings together a large selection of videos from over 260 content companies, including FOX, NBCUniversal, ABC, Criterion, A&E Networks, Lionsgate, Endemol, MGM, MTV Networks, Comedy Central, National Geographic, Digital Rights Group, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., TED and more. Users can choose from current primetime TV hits such as The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Modern Family, Glee, The Office, Jersey Shore, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The A-Team and Alfred Hitchcock Presents; full episodes and clips from Saturday Night Live; and original videos like The LXD and The Confession. Hulu also offers a wide array of acclaimed movies and documentaries, including hundreds of titles from the renowned Criterion Collection.

YouTube Movies

YouTube movies allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small. If you’re looking for a current movie or one from 5, 10, or even 20 years ago then YouTube has you covered.

Conclusion

I hope that you have begun to see a trend here. These devices are easy on the wallet, easily installed, and user friendly and depending upon the hardware you settle on and how much your traditional cable bill runs a month you may find that within 30 – 90 days you’re no longer throwing away you hard earned cash.

If you have dumped your traditional provider leave a comment sharing your experience and what you have in place to watch you favorite television shows an movies. If your on the fence and have questions, feel free to ask and we will see if we cannot help you make this move.

First things first, I am not advocating violating copyright laws and you should clearly understand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act surrounding digital media before you try capturing media. Previously I wrote about How to Backup DVDs with Handbrake and this article is very different in nature. Because you do not own the content that you wish to capture you will likely find yourself in a legal battle should you distribute such content. That being said since I am a paying NetFlix subscriber there are often times that I may be traveling and I don’t have access to the internet. Because of this fact I thought to myself there must be a way to capture that movie or television show and play it on my iPad and then ultimately deleting the media once I have watched it.

In the past few months I have begun using my MacBook Pro more and more and when it comes to digital media and software associated in this area I feel nothing performs better than the Mac Operating System. Case in point is ScreenFlow which is a professional screencasting studio. Just stop and think about it for a moment and I am sure you will begin to understand just how simple it is to capture streaming media.

Recording NetFlix Streaming Media with ScreenFlow on a Mac

• Grab ScreenFlow, a screen video capture software for Mac.
• Launch ScreenFlow for Mac and the following dialog window will appear:

• When you finish your recording, press command-shift-2 to stop recording. ScreenFlow will create a new video files with the recording.
• Press Command-E or select “Export” from the File menu to export your recorded video:

The end result is a high quality recording, grab ScreenFlow and see for yourself.

Update, I just ran across an article titled Media Converter for OS X is the Simplest Drag-And-Drop Video Converter Around where Whitson Gordon says, “If you need to convert a video for your iPod, a DVD, or even just rip the audio out of a movie, free app Media Converter will do it with just a quick drag-and-drop.”

I for one do not like the idea that I have a DVD collection that contains a number of films that I still enjoy watching today. Years ago it was not a problem as a DVD typically played on either my computer or my DVD player. Fast forward to today and I have a number of my Android device, iPad, wi-fi blue ray player and a number of laptops. With all of these different electronics I was to be able to stream my DVD of choice to any device that tickles my fancy. In that I mean inside of my home and only on my personal devices.

There are a number of products that fit the bill of ripping your DVD, but the product I have settled upon is Handbrake. Handbrake is open source software and the it is cross platform which means you can download a build for Mac OSX, which is my preferred operating system, as well as Windows, Ubuntu, and Fedora. I cannot speak from experience, but I have read numerous write-ups from folks running Handbrake on Windows that is was extremely slow. In fact some references I have came across made claims of 6-12 hours to fully backup a DVD on Windows. I’m not entirely positive that I buy into blaming the Windows operating system as much as I would tend to lean to hardware as the problem.

So head over to Handbrake’s web page and download your copy. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the software, you’re ready to start backing up you DVD collection!

How to Backup DVDs to Your Mac (other operating systems vary)

Basic DVD back ups is fairly simple. In truth is is so simple anyone can do it with little or no technical knowledge:

• Insert your favorite DVD into your Mac. Apple’s DVD player will start and when it does, just close it.
• Fire up Handbrake.
• First, Handbrake opens the selection screen. Make sure the DVD Volume is selected, and click Open.

• At this point in time Handbrake begins to scan the DVD in order to to determine the various titles and chapters.

• Now, go to the Destination section. Handbrake’s default destination is your desktop. To make life a little easier, though, you can select any location you like. Also, choose a name for your backup file.
• Click start to begin importing your movie. Sit back and relax it may take a little while!

Now plug up your iPod, iPhone or iPad and sync or if you manually transfer from iTunes, drag the movie on to your device. Thais all there is to it! Now you’re no longer tied to that DVD and you favorite movie is now as mobile as you are.

The point of view that I take is technology is only as good as those that use it. What am I saying you may ask? All technology has good and bad points and the individual behind the use of the technology makes the difference. For example, just because I have the freedom to publish my thoughts that does not give me the right to do so should it cause harm to another. Using common sense should always be the focal point and as technology rapidly changes it is more important that ever that you understand the services you’re using.

If you’re concerned with you face being tagged then you will want to pay close attention. According to Facebook, for any reason you don’t want your name to be suggested, you will be able to disable suggested tags in your Privacy Settings.  Just click ‘Customize Settings’ and ‘Suggest photos of me to friends.’ Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually.”

Currently, you have the option of untagging photos you’ve been tagged in by friends. To accomplish this just go to the photo and click your name. There is no sure fire way to prevent friends from tagging you in photos, but you can prevent others from seeing the photos via your tagged name.

• From the Account menu in the upper right corner of your profile, chose Privacy Settings.
• Underneath the list of your current privacy settings, click “Customize settings.”
• Scroll down to “Things others share” section.
• Next to “Photos and videos I’m tagged in” click “Edit settings.”
• From the “Edit settings” prompt that appears on your screen, use the drop-down menu to choose “Customize.”
• In the “Custom Privacy” prompt that appears, you will see a drop down menu next to “These people.”
• From the “These people” menu, you have the option of choosing who can see photos via your tagged name. You can set it to “Only me” or you can add specific Facebook friends who are permitted see those photos via your tagged name. Here, you also have the option of preventing specific Facebook friends seeing photos via your tagged name.
• Save this option. As with other Facebook privacy settings, you can change it at any time. You just have to do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kHGsKnf3_I

I personally have seen a great deal of conversation concerning Facebook’s facial recognition technology, but I simply do not understand what all the concern is about. I do agree with Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security vendor Sophos comments that Facebook should make this feature an opt-in rather than and opt-out. If you’re a fan of Google Picasa this technology was implemented back in 2009 with Picasa 3.5 and unless you have been living under a rock more and more of our lives is becoming digital.

Client Interface

Web Interface

My question to you is simple; does Facebook’s facial recognition go too far? What are your main concerns with this type of technology and how the companies we engage with each and every roll out such technology?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iREJiSgIxAk

Is this the future?

During my search for a product that would capture media content that I was interested in many came at a cost and did not allow a trial run. I for one typically do not pay up front for something that I am not entirely sure will work as expected. I ran across StreamTransport and best of all it is free, however the author does accept donations. this application is able to browse and download video clips from video hosting websites of HTTP, RTMP, RTMPT, RTMPE, RTMPTE protocol, and these cover overwhelming majority of websites such as Hulu, Veoh, Boxee, Joost, YouTube, Yahoo Video, CBS, etc. Setup is very simple and in no time at all I was capturing media.For example, the following video is that I captured of my daughter playing the piano as a Flash video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfImDnjJpsQ?

The user interface is simple in nature and therefore extremely easy to use. All that is needed is to enter a URL and click start. This software will auto capture any video clip being played and you can then download the media with a single click. I love the fact that I can also save the media as MP4 and sych to my iPad for mobility.

As you can see it is very simple to capture that “legal” media that you are interested in. You can download StreamTransport here and if you are in need of a basic, no frills, and free FLV player, I recommend Wimpy. I hope that you find this article useful and if you have any tips and tricks that you would like to share with other readers please leave a comment.

It was only a matter of time before the Kinect technology mede it into the hands of people like okreylos. He has released his software to the public for others to experiment and see what they can achieve.

[asa raddev]B002BSA298[/asa]

To see more of the interesting things this guy has been doing with Kinect, be sure to check out his YouTube channel.

Kinnect Controls Windows 7

The Hard Numbers

According to Reuters, the largest United States cable company Comcast lost 275,000 basic cable subscribers during the third quarter of 2010. Now to be fair the loss was those who did have basic service and I myself currently subscribe to basic service and I am not considering cutting the cord for good. This is still important in the sense of bottom dollar because the loss of 275,000 customers comes to $8,250,000 which is nothing to sneeze at.

As you see from the chart above the numbers dramatically dropped and it will be interesting to see where the numbers end up at the end of 2010. In the meantime my thoughts are people are cutting the cord because digital media is easily consumed over the internet and it simply does not make sense to spend $30 to $75 a month for a cable package that most individuals typically only view maybe 10% of the channels for which they are paying for.

The Gadgets

There is no shortage of devices that you may want to look at and find out what works best in your case. Each choice has a unique set of pros and cons, therefore be sure you do your homework.

Boxee Box by D-Link

Never be limited by what you can watch and when – the Boxee Box makes it easy to choose the TV shows you want to watch, and most importantly, the ones you want to pay for. And with over 40,000 TV episodes from your favorite networks instantly available – that’s a lot to choose from. The Office, Family Guy, Entourage, True Blood – If we can’t find it for free, the Boxee Box will connect you with premium options who can, instantly. Get tons of free stuff, and never pay for the stuff you don’t want to watch. Easy.

Apple TV with 160GB Hard Drive

Apple TV gives you instant access to the largest selection of on-demand HD movies. Choose a movie, and in minutes, you’re watching the opening credits with theater-like Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. HD rentals start at $3.99, and you have 30 days to start watching. Hit Play, and it’s yours to watch as many times as you want in 24 hours. Rent or buy standard-definition movies to include the most popular Hollywood titles, from comedy to drama, romance to classics, independents to thrillers. Standard-definition movie rentals are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases.

Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller

The TV you already own is now the TV of the future, and it will only get better. Revue is a companion to your TV and not a TV itself. So it will work with your current TV and any HDTV you get in the future. Plus Google TV is an open platform, with developers creating more apps and functionality, so your TV will do more as Google TV does more. With Revue, you get a cool selection of preinstalled apps created just for your TV, including Netflix, NBA.TV, and Pandora . And with a huge community of developers creating apps for the upcoming Android Market, there is no telling what your TV will be able to do.

Closing Thoughts

What do you think? Are you willing to cut the cord and possibility purchase one of these devices? If you have previously cut the cord and are using any of these devices or others, why not leave a comment and share your experience and tips with others.

(Update: 13 November 2010) I now own the LG BD570 Network Blu-ray Disc Player and I am extremely pleased with this device. Upon opening the package it took less than 15 minutes to get it installed and of course I opted for HDMI for the audio and video connection to my LCD television. It is important to note that LG provides updates for this device and once I updated to the latest firmware, it now includes Divx TV which is great in the fact that I can now also watch my favorite video podcast with ease. There is no built in web browser so trying to watch Hulu, CBS, or the other usual suspects is not possible. While this device comes bundled with software from Nero to stream media from your personal computer I found that I was able to simply use my Windows 7 machine to share content and it worked without fail.

As you can see from the product image to this device offers up a number of services to include:

1. Roxio CinemaNow
2. NetFlix
3. YouTube
4. Vudu
5. Pandora
6. Picasa
7. Accuewather

Amazon has this product listed at $162.43 which is not a bad deal considering that at the local Best Buy is cost $189.99.

SnapFish

Crawler Photos

PictureTrail

The Essential Guide to Digital Photography: This 59 page guide is for readers who want to take photography beyond the simple point-and-shoot experience to more advanced skills and techniques. Its an introduction to some essential things you need to know to get started and outlines further resources that you can use to grow as a photographer. With this free guide you will also receive daily updates on new cool websites and programs in your email for free courtesy of MakeUseOf.

ShutterFly

Zoomonga

Bravenet

Pix.ie

Do you know of a service not listed that you highly recommend?