GeekSugar

Daily Tech: Apple's 24-Inch iMac Is Now on Sale For $1,499

GeekSugar — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:01:42 -0800

Apple's website was down for a few hours this morning and when back up, showed off some great deals. The 24-inch iMac is now only $1,499 and comes with double the RAM and hard drive. - Gizmodo
PadMapper is a cool new site that uses maps to show off Craigslist rental properties. - MakeUseOf
The 65,000-square-foot roof of Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, NJ, has been covered in solar panels and is now capable of producing 412 kilowatts of electricity. - Forecast Earth
Eye-Fi's new Explore Video ($99) and Share Video ($79) cards make it easy to upload video content wirelessly. They will start shipping by the end of the month. - Engadget
Check out a video demo of Amazon Video On Demand on the Roku box. - CrunchGear

Daily Tech: Roku to Get Amazon's Video on Demand Service

GeekSugar — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:10:42 -0800

The Roku Digital Video Player can already stream movies to your TV from Netflix, and it will soon add Amazon's Video on Demand to its movie streaming lineup. - Gizmodo
Steve Jobs admits that he has been suffering from poor health over the past year, and attributes it to a hormone imbalance, which he is now being treated for. - BBC News
The texting while driving ban in California is now in full effect. Texters will be fined $20 for the first infraction, and $50 for each subsequent violation. - Switched
A new buckwheat laptop pillow with a bamboo platform ($98) actually circulates the air quite well so your laptop doesn't get too hot. - Unplggd
Want to find free drinks in your city? A site called MyOpenBar will help you do just that. - Lifehacker

The Practical Girl's Guide to Apple TV

GeekSugar — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:00:00 -0800

Call waiting, cell phones, TiVo . . . all technological conveniences that you told yourself (I definitely did) at first you didn't need; until of course, you had them, and they became indispensable.

This is now how I feel about Apple TV. Our friends at Apple sent me the mighty little movie streamer, and I've been learning to live with this new gadget.

For the uninitiated, Apple TV ($229) is a box-top digital media receiver - basically, a home theater enhancer that functions as a movie or music player. To hear my first impressions, and to whom I would recommend an Apple TV, just read more.

First impressions:

First of all, set up of the Apple TV could not be easier. You plug in the HDMI cable (or component, if that's how you roll), and it's just a few minutes to be all set up. It was truly one of the most painless gadget setups I've ever been through.
The most impressive thing about the Apple TV? Its abilities as a media hoster. That's right, hoster, not player, because player is so limiting. The first thing I did was connect my computer and iTunes account to the Apple TV, and bam, all my photos and music were available. The screensaver slideshow of photos (with several photos onscreen at a time) mesmerized my friends and me.
The movie watching experience is great, but I didn't expect it to be difficult. With no skips for obvious reasons, it's as smooth and easy as using a PS3 for viewing Blu-ray movies.
The 160GB of space is awesome; we watched a DVD the other night, and it skipped, so we ripped it to the Apple TV and watched it from there (effectively saving movie night and my nerves). Not only is it a better way to watch, you can rip your DVDs to the Apple TV's hard drive, and then never have to deal with those discs again.
Watching a movie directly from Apple TV is ideal, and way better than renting or buying from your computer (whether you'd watch it straight from your PC or transfer it from there to the Apple TV). Where downloading a two-hour movie onto my computer from iTunes takes me about an hour, it takes about 20 minutes from Apple TV and we were able to watch it before it had fully downloaded.

Who is the Apple TV ideal for?

Movie Junkies. This is the obvious one, but very true. Having the Apple TV means you can rent or buy movies and TV shows from iTunes (stay tuned for my impressions of that) anytime - no having to get out of your PJs or into the rain to get a new movie.
People who want to digitize their movie collection. You have 160GB of space to fill up, so you can divide that among quite a few movies and then sell those discs or just consider the file on the hard drive a back up.
People who entertain a lot. My favorite part about Apple TV is not movie watching, but photo viewing and music playing. Normally we play slideshows on our TV, but we either have to burn a limited number of images to a disc, or run it from the PS3, whose slideshow isn't as cool looking. Apple TV runs my whole photo library and looks amazing doing it.
People who are resisting Netflix, but sick of actual movie stores.
People who want a movie streamer. There are other streaming devices, but Netflix's Roku doesn't do anything besides movie streaming, costs $99 plus a Netflix account, and you could do it with an Xbox, but you'd have to have an Xbox and an Xbox Live Pass. No subscription is necessary with Apple TV.
People who are not ready for Blu-ray (or think it won't stick around). If you rent or buy directly from the Apple TV, movies are available in HD, and they look pretty clear.
Gadget junkies. Enough said.

This is just the beginning of my experiences with the Apple TV, so if you have any questions or curiosities about it, let me know in the comments below and I'll try to cover it all in the followup!

Xbox 360 Will Now Stream Netflix Movies

GeekSugar — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:00:15 -0700

If you had reservations about that $99 Netflix player, Roku, then you have another alternative to watching Netflix movies: your Xbox 360!

At the E3 trade show yesterday, Microsoft announced that Xbox 360 would now be able to stream movies from Netflix right onto your TV. This is just more awesome news from Microsoft, who just this weekend announced price slashings on its Xbox 360. It is so on!

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