2005 July

As someone who only leaves home for conferences, the value of a Pocket PC is marginal. I don’t need all the input functions. I do want all the convenience of accessing information like my contacts and calendar. And I do want the convenience of having my personal info and some forms of digital entertainment in […]

Last week I spent a day on Microsoft’s campus, getting a great deal of information about Windows Vista, the next version of Windows (formerly known as Longhorn). While much of the event was under NDA, and most of what I learned about Vista I can’t talk about, the last session of the day happened to […]

I seem to get tons of mail from people with hard drive crashes wanting to know how to save their files. Starting with my days as a network geek, I have more experience with this stuff than I care to remember. It’s no fun to lose your data. The most recent posting was someone who […]

When my disk space starts running low, I tend to buy more disk space. This is true whether the disk I’m referring to is a flash card for my camera or a bigger hard drive for my PC. Still, adding a bigger memory card for a Sony PSP can be a hard pill to swallow, […]

If you buy a (conventional audio) CD, you expect to find basic
information about the music printed on the disc and/or the
paper insert:

Year published (copyright date)
Song titles
Performers/composers
(maybe) lyrics and other descriptive information

If you buy an MP3 file, most of this metadata should be embedded in
the file in addition to the sounds. Programs like iTunes and
Musicmatch that […]

On a mailing list that Chris Pirillo runs, Vancouver blogger and conference organizer Darren Barefoot asked how to reduce the background noise he was getting when recording interviews with a setup that included nice unidirectional microphones and a compressor. Here’s my response:
I’m writing here as a musician, not someone who records talk-show-style podcasts (I do […]

Gnomie Mark Tar writes:
I just set up a Pluto home system (Smarthome + media server). It’s really cool and works great with Squeezeboxes. Just plug the Squeezebox into an ethernet jack. When it sees the Squeezebox request an IP address, it automatically installs the SlimServer and sets everything up on its own. There’s no software […]

Having your file associations go nuts can be frustrating. I recently received a question from someone wanting to know why their .JPG files no longer displayed the little sunset icon that is the default for images associated with Microsoft Windows and Fax Viewer. Apparently something changed on their system and .JPG files no longer had […]

Delivers Advanced Interactivity and Seamless Access to Hollywoods Best DVD Bonus Content
CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a world leader and pioneer in providing integrated solutions for the Digital Home, today announced that it has released the InterActual Pack for its popular Windows-based DVD player software CyberLink PowerDVD 6.
Based on technology licensed from Sonic Solutions, the […]

Sonos Update Adds Support for Podcasting and Power Scroll Feature.
Sonos, Inc., the developer of the award-winning Sonos Digital Music System, today announced the immediate availability of a software feature update that gives Sonos customers more ways to control their digital music and more content to listen to in every room of the house. Version […]

Playing back movies recorded with your digital video camera by connecting the DV cam to your TV is fairly obvious. A similar feature was available back when consumer camcorders were bigger than my head. Watching a DV movie on your laptop or desktop PC, without first importing the video to your hard drive is a […]

The addition of podcasting in iTunes is outstanding for those of us who publish podcasts. It’s also an improved experience for subscribing to podcasts. As a subscriber to several podcasts, I’m finding certain things about the iTunes user interface to be mildly frustrating. For instance, I want more control over downloading shows. I’d love to […]

Never one to do things by half, Nikon recently released not one but two digital SLRs. Last month we had the chance to try out the D70s - an updated version of the renowned D70 - and today we will find out what the Nikon D50 has to offer. Released as an entry-level model, its […]

How often have you been surfing the web only to come across an excellent video or flash movie that is embedded in the page? With no way to download your only option is to return to the same page for repeat viewings. That is, until now.

Sometime ago I wrote a rather lengthy tutorial on streaming audio files from a desktop PC to a WiFi enabled Pocket PC, effectively creating an in-home radio station playing your favorite tracks. Of course that stream also works for any other computers connected to your network as well, but what if you want to stream […]

Apple did a great thing by adding podcasting support to iTunes. It makes it easier for those of us who don’t like to hack 10 different things together to subscribe and listen to our favorite audio programming. They also made podcast publishing confusing for those of us creating podcasts by adding some new tags to […]

One of the key advantages of the new iTunes 4.9 with podcasting support over all other media player alternatives (including previous versions of iTunes) is the ability to offer direct subscription links that never expose the underlying RSS code for your podcast feed. When someone wants to subscribe to a podcast in iTunes, they simply […]

If you’re an iPod owner or just prefer the iTunes interface to the myriad media player options, Apple is making it easier to subscribe to podcasts. Of course, one of the podcasts we hope will be at the top of your list is The Chris Pirillo Show. We continue to broadcast live every Thursday from […]