Bleeding Edge TV 323: A look at Verizon FiOS TV with Twitter and Facebook integration

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet, Podcasts, Videocasts, Videos

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We’ve been fans of the Verizon FiOS Internet service for about two-and-a-half years now, and as soon as FiOS TV was available for Gear Live HQ, we were first in our area to subscribe to that service as well. Aside from the uncompressed signal that they send through, the service has some features that make it truly unique, like the integration of Facebook and Twitter right on the DVR. I had some of my friends over to show off FiOS TV, and we had the cameras going to capture it all. Hit play for a look at what went down. If you’re curious about Verizon FiOS, be sure to hit up the Facts on FiOS site for details.

A big thank you to Verizon for helping make the party happen!

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Bleeding Edge TV 318: Xbox Live Fall Dashboard Preview: Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, Zune 1080p

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, High Score, Features, Internet, Podcasts, Software, Video Games, Videocasts, Videos

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We got our hands on the new Fall 2009 Xbox 360 Dashboard update, which features Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, and Instant-on 1080p movie streaming from Zune. You can get the full scoop in the video, but in a nutshell, here are our thoughts:

• Facebook: Facebook on Xbox 360 is integrated well into the console. We like that you can see which of your Xbox 360 friends are on Facebook, and which Facebook friends have an Xbox 360 account. The problem is that the Xbox 360’s ridiculous friend limit really stands out here. You have a limit of 100 friends, and if you have a bunch of friends on Facebook that you want to connect with, you will quickly find that you have to pick and choose. You see what I mean in the video. Other than that, being able to view profile data and photo galleries of friends is a nice touch. Updating or commenting sucks if you don’t have a Chatpad.
• Twitter: Twitter, on the other hand, is way too simple for our liking. It shows you the last 50 tweets from people you following, trending topics, and basic profile info. You can also send tweets out from the Xbox 360, but it’s frustrating to do, unless you have a Chatpad handy.
• Last.fm: This works as expected. You sign in, and you get access to all your channels, and you can create new channels on the fly. What sucks? You can’t see your Last.fm friends, which is something I miss. Even worse? The music only plays when you are actually in the Last.fm area. If you leave, the music stops. This means you can’t carry it over to the dashboard, or in-game. So really, what’s the point?
• Zune Instant on 1080p: This was awesome. Definitely blew me away. We streamed a portion of the movie 300. After a bandwidth test, the Xbox 360 confirmed we were good to go for instant 1080p streaming, and it delivered. Fantastic. The best streaming video quality we’ve seen from any service.

There are a few other new details as well, and we give you a detailed look at it all in this video. Sit back and enjoy!

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Bleeding Edge TV 274: A Look Into the Future with HP’s Phil McKinney

Posted by Nate True Categories: Full Episodes, Features, Handhelds, Household, Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Science, Software, Videocasts, Videos

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At HP’s Connecting Your World 2008 event in Berlin, Germany, we caught up with the CTO of HP’s Public Systems Group, Phil McKinney, who had some very interesting things to say about where HP believes the future will take us.

Phil talked with us about what’s coming in the future of technology - everything from wearable computing to a very advanced “avatar” that is programmed to make decisions just like you would, only you can send it to a meeting while you get to go play video games. We look forward to seeing what the future holds. Thanks Phil!

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Bleeding Edge TV 271: Hands-on with the new HP TouchSmart PC

Posted by Nate True Categories: Gizmatic, Announcements, Household, Internet, PC / Laptop, Videocasts, Videos

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At HP‘s Connecting Your World event in Berlin, Germany, we talked with John Cook, VP of marketing for HP’s Consumer PC group. He gave us a hands-on first look at the beautiful new HP TouchSmart PC.

One thing we really liked about the new TouchSmart is its completely redone interface.  The software looks clean, polished, useful, and eminently easy to use.  It would be great, however, if the TouchSmart made more use of multi-touch.  Cook demonstrates a pinch gesture in the software but that’s pretty much it.  We’re keeping our eyes peeled for more multi-touch functionality in upcoming software updates and releases.

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Bleeding Edge TV 270: Computex 2008 - A look at the Promise SmartStor NAS Media Server

Posted by Nate True Categories: Gizmatic, Announcements, Home Entertainment, Internet, Movies, Music, PC / Laptop, Storage, Videocasts, Videos

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Drobo is meeting some fierce competition from Promise this year.  The SmartStor is an all-in-one RAID5 controller with hot-swappable drives just like the Drobo, but it also includes a built-in NAS to share files over the network, and a BitTorrent client to boot.  It’s compatible with dlna, UPnP, and AMD Live! systems so sharing media is a breeze as well.

We talk with Alex Ling from Promise at Computex 2008 and he walks us through the SmartStor’s many features.

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Bleeding Edge TV 261: ExpressionEngine 2.0 sneak preview

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Design, Features, Internet, Podcasts, Software, Videocasts

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At Gear Live, we use ExpressionEngine to manage our vast array of sites, authors, and blog posts. Things like MovableType, WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal just don’t cut it for us.

During SXSW, we got the opportunity to get an early looks at ExpressionEngine 2.0. If you have a blog, or want to blog in the future, you need to watch this video to see what is coming soon from the crew over at EllisLab. Seriously, we can’t praise these guys enough for what they do. If you’ve never heard of the product and want to give it a shot, you can download the free Core version over at the ExpressionEngine website. If you go for the full version, you have access to all sorts of upgrades.

Of course, ExpressionEngine 2.0 isn’t available just yet, but something tells us we will be seeing it sooner rather than later.

A big thank you goes out to HP and Verizon FiOS for sponsoring this episode.

Read More | ExpressionEngine product page

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Bleeding Edge TV 256: Retrevo gadget comparisons - product research on speed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2008, Features, Internet, Misc. Tech, Podcasts, Videocasts

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Retrevo.com presents a unique take on gadget comparison shopping. By spidering a veritable avalanche of shopping comparison sites, they compile a near-comprehensive snapshot of just about every gadget they can, including feature sets, average reviews and price points. They plot these into neat regression charts that outline a given gadgets “value” as determined by its number of features plotted against its price. They’re also able to sort things into cost points like “high end”, “mid range” and “budget” and make comparisons based on these facts. Since their spider is constantly compiling and recompiling new data points, they’re able to recategorize a given gadget as its prices change and as more reviews become available.

The site is engineering to be a definitive way to get a good look at a given gadget’s feature sets and your value for your dollar. Since they bring in quick access to reviews from all over the net and include product manual searching and archiving, this becomes a pretty useful tool for techphiles.

Take a look at our video to learn a bit more about the service and how it works.

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Bleeding Edge TV 250: Slacker Internet radio and Slacker Portable

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Features, Internet, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Portable Audio / Video, Videocasts, Wireless / WiFi

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Slacker Internet radio is going portable!  Slacker offers free, sponsored Internet radio with 1 to 2 minutes of interstitial ads per hour.  In its free service, Slacker allows 6 skips per hour per station, but with over 100 genre stations to be listened to (working out to the ability to skip 600 songs per hour), even the most skip-happy listener can satisfy their urge to get to the next song quickly.  Slacker’s Premium membership offers unlimited skips and saving and replaying favorite songs starting at $7.50/month.

Slacker Portable is Slacker’s companion personal media player.  Available in 2, 4 and 8 gig models (translated to 15, 25 and 45 stations), Slacker Portable fills itself from the user’s favorite stations every time it’s synced.  Not only is the music on the player, but anything available from Slacker’s site is available on the Slacker Portable, including artist bios, reviews and album art.  Because Slacker Portable isn’t constantly connected to Slacker’s HQ, there’s no cutout when a listener enters a subway train, goes into a tunnel, or anywhere that a signal would be lost with an FM or a satellite radio.  And if you can’t live without that certain album at your disposal at all times, Slacker Portable allows you to load mp3’s from your own library.

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Bleeding Edge TV 240: HawkingTech home automation via cell phone

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, Broadband, Cell Phones, CES, CES 2008, Features, Internet, Podcasts, Software, Videocasts, Wireless / WiFi

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Home automation is becoming a big theme at consumer electronics trade shows like CES. Many companies have been promising the ‘smart house’ for years – a house that automatically anticipates and responds to its inhabitants wants and needs. HawkingTech was showing off some preliminary tech which could help hearken the days of the smart house with a variety of available now products – check out the video for a demonstration of what is to come.

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CES 2008 Video: Bug Labs on the Bug Base and Bug Platform

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Hack Attack, Cameras, CES, CES 2008, Design, Features, GPS, Handhelds, Internet, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts

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Think Lego Mindstorms meets Radio Shack. Bug Labs has been working on their Bug Base—a fully modifiable, open-source gadget building block system. The base itself includes specs similar to “a three-year-old laptop” but includes WiFi and Ethernet, USB and more. Once you have the base, you can add additional “modules,” including LCD displays, GPS, cameras, motion sensors and tons more. Each of the modules will require you to program them using a software package similar to VisualStudio in appearance, but everything is open source. Bug Labs has about 80 different sensors on the roadmap right now and they’re constantly interfacing with the community to come up with new ideas.

The concept has a lot of promise and some great tinkering cred. For the first 60 days, they’re offering an early-adopter special with the base costing just $299 (down from $349) and modules ranging from $49-$119. Pre-orders began on January 21st and will ship by March.

Take a look at our video to see us get our hands on the base and its modules and to talk to Jeremy from Bug Labs about what’s coming down the road and what’s in store for Bug Labs.

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