I use stock photography sites quite a bit when looking for materials to supplement our video production efforts. One of the great frustrations though is the search engines on these sites are limited by how images are tagged with metadata. The perfect image I need might not be tagged with the phrase I am searching on, meaning a lost opportunity for the photography site and frustration for me. Enter Imprezzeo: Read more
Keith Shaw and I tested out Skype on the iPhone today. You can see the fruits of the test here: Read more
Another reason to love my iPhone: CBS is offering an app (for iPod Touch too) that will let you watch all the March Madness college basketball tournament broadcasts live on the device. The catch: You have to be on a Wi-Fi connection. And the App costs a whopping $4.99. Read more
I was on a plane heading home from DEMO 09 when the Amazon Kindle iPhone App news broke and, after a week of seeing new gadgets and software, didn't fully digest the news until this week. But, we just posted a video of the Kindle App and I have to say the release is a very nice move by Amazon: Read more
We recently had the opportunity to test out a Panasonic HDC-HS100 high-def video camera for our 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. The camera shot beautiful looking video, but the native AVCHD format was not fun to extract or try to edit. Read more
I am about as big a fan of Flickr as there is, but the way they handle account termination is atrocious. Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection talks about a recent banned Flickr patron who found her photos and associated comments completely wiped out after Flickr terminated her, allegedly, without warning. Read more
My colleagues came up with eight great tech-related Super Bowl ads, but missed a few dandies: Read more
File this under don't we have bigger things to worry about: Reports are that the US "Camera Phone Predator Alert Act" would require a cameraphone to produce an audible "click" whenever a photo is taken - even if the camera is in silent mode. Really? This is a plague on society? Read more
Over on the Communications Catalyst blog, David Mullen relays a story about high school friend that may be looking for a new online hangout now that Facebook is being inhabited by (gasp) his parents and (double gasp!) grandparents. This makes complete sense as Facebook, with 150 million members, becomes more commonplace and less of where the cool kids hang out. How can you have inside jokes with your friends when your parents are in on them too? Read more
I am not what one would call a Star Wars nerd, but I might have to go see the movie Fanboys: Read more
I am no security expert, but is it not bad to leave a door to the telephone/network wiring closet wide open all the time?
Wouldn't take much to knock a certain publishing company's phone system and more offline. Seems to be just keeping the door closed would make things more secure since most people wouldn't go sniffing behind random doors.
Any collector of music or taker of digital photographs knows the pain: You've got a killer collection of digital stuff on your various home PCs and NAS devices, but no way to easily show it all to guests without people crowding around a tiny laptop screen.
Fortunately, many networking vendors are taking a stab at the problem and coming up with some pretty workable solutions. A few of those were on display at CES last week:
Linksys' Media Hub: Read more
Wish my room came with directions like this, particularly at these massive Las Vegas hotels:
There'a a lot to be happy about with the Apple's news that nearly the entire iTunes library will be available without Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection. For one, you won't have to count how many computers you've authorized. All your machines with iTunes will be able to play the purchased tunes.
But here's the catch: Not all portable devices will be able to. Read more
Even though the holidays are upon us, the soured economy has everyone in a depressed mood. But, there's new research that says one person's happiness can ripple to those around them. With that in mind, here are a couple of technology items that make me smile in hopes they will bring you some joy too: Read more
Our IT guys shouldn't tell we editorial types to disassemble any sort of technology in a troubleshooting effort:
It's not my phone, though my mini-screwdrivers were used to perpetrate the crime. But, if you're trying to reach Denise Dubie, she may have a little trouble responding.
Adobe is showing off support for Flash on the T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) platform at its MAX event in San Francisco this week: Read more
Surprised to see a press release from Logitech pop in my inbox this evening announcing it has acquired video-chat service SightSpeed for $30 million in cash. Not a bad deal for Logitech and the company says it will have no material impact on earnings (guess they dug the cash out of the couch cushions.) Read more
If it's Halloween it can only mean one thing: Horror movies. Of course, the best of the horror flicks don't really have much of a tech bent, unless you're counting chainsaws and the rising of the dead, but we found three in the Network Downtime that fit the bill. Today, tomorrow and Thursday we'll be unveiling our Good, Bad and Ugly Halloween Trilogy of Terrors picks. Read more
Qik, the live mobile video streaming service, is now supporting the BlackBerry platform (sorry iPhone folks, not quite yet). As of today, anyone with a Blackberry Curve, Pearl, Bold or Flip can start streaming video live from wherever they have an Edge or great network connection to their Qik accounts. Read more
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