Yes I Really Like Hulu

Today Hulu announced it's new desktop application for both PC and
Mac. Now not that having to use the web browser was all that
difficult it's great to see an application that I can use especially
since I use it on my 42 inch TV. Although I just went and bought a
keyboard with touchpad support I'll gladly use my old media center
remote which the app now supports.

I'm looking forward to installing and checking the app out tonight,
much like my new DvR from DirectTV the problem becomes that I start to
watch more because of this when I should be watching less.

In any case Hulu is a great service that just keeps getting better,
now just bring on the iPhone app!

E3 Hopes and Predictions

Wow its been quite some time since I last blogged, quite a long time. But anyway much has been going on in between. I finally moved back to Direct TV which I was going to blog about many times but still have not done. I've even signed up for Satellite radio with Sirius but I only get the Internet version of that which is pretty cool. Right now I'm still trying to get through all the television I've ignored throughout the TV season as well, but I had to take a quick moment to jot down some E3 thoughts.

E3 is a great time, its those couple days through all three big press conferences from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo where we get to hear about all the cool stuff that's coming out. I'm really interested this year since this year is usually the year we'd be at least hearing about new hardware. While we certainly won't be hearing about new hardware that only leaves the software that's going to add the WOW factor this year. Of course for me by software I'm hoping OS level advances for the system's themselves.

I'll keep this brief, but here are my thoughts:

Microsoft: My biggest hopes lay with Microsoft and the 360, and to an extent the Zune. Microsoft has already announced a new Zune HD plus their already kicking off their 1 vs 100 game on live leading me to believe that they've got some pretty cool stuff lined up to announce. Moving the Zune Marketplace into the 360 will be cool especially if they make the ability to buy on 360 and transfer to Zune for on the go with TV shows and movies. I'm looking forward to some pretty cool Live Arcade announcements as well. Microsoft is gearing up to change entertainment at E3 and I'm sure they will. There is also always a few cool freebies they like to put out during these times as well.

Sony: Sony needs help AND FAST. There is the rumor of a new PS3 and PSP, while the PSP may sound cool I'm thinking a new PS3 may cause confusion in the marketplace (and piss off allot of people as well). The XMB needs a revamp and Sony needs to probably NOT talk about HOME during E3. I'd love for Sony to announce they actually have a web browser that will work (since they insist on having it there) and as a BIG stretch it would be cool for them to announce a native HULU app for the XMB or the ability for Netflix, Microsoft is killing them here.

Nintendo: I'm only going to say this once, Nintendo needs to announce the ability to buy games on the Wii then send them over to the DSi to play on the go. If they do this I will run out and buy a DSi. The Wii dash also needs an update as does the Wii Shopping Channels. They've got their new controller adapter launching this summer so that's already out there. I've noticed today at Gamestop that there are ALLOT of Wii games out there. Nintendo doesn't really need to announce anything new, they'll still sell a bunch of hardware and that's probably what they'll talk about most. Its a shame because they really need to excite this year.

Well like I said I'd make it quick, notice I really didn't talk games, mostly because I probably won't buy many. I'm interested to hear about some of the sports games especially the new Madden but these will most likely be lost in the shuffle.

I guess we'll find out soon enough, I can't wait!

iPhone Gaming

It's silly for me to even pretend that I'm not a big fan of my iPhone, every day it continues to improve and surprise me in what I can do with it, with the announcement of the iPhone OS 3.0 which will arrive this summer it will only get better. However what has surprised me more than anything is just how good of a game system the iPhone has become.

I'm a gamer, I've been for as long as I can remember, these days though I'm more of a casual gamer due to the current complexity of some games and the fact that I just don't have as much time (in a sense I've become my father). The iPhone has become the perfect place to play

When I first started using the iPhone I thought I wouldn't be loading it up with games. The first choice of games were ones I figured I'd have as "staples" maybe one to show off (Crash Kart Racing), one to try out the accelerometor (dizzy bee) and of course a card game (Solebon Solitare). Games like Crash Kart and Dizzy Bee showed much promise but it was more an exception than a rule, even games like Super Monkey Ball were good but not great. Eventually I played the free version of Solitaire enough that I finally ponied up and got the full version. One thing I never wanted to do and still hold true is that I don't fill up the phone with trial and free versions of games, its nice to grab one to try out but then I either buy or delete.

That was nice early on, but the more I browsed the iTunes app store the more I veered towards the game section, more and more. What I started to find however surprised me more than I thought it would.

The first games I came across were the free i games, iBowl, iGolf, iBaseball etc. These games were like the Wii Sports of the iPhone, although the only one that resides on the phone currently is iBowl (which I love, but still that 300 game evades me). Other casual games started making thier way to my phone such as Wurdle, Tic Tac Free, and Bejeweled. The first really big game I bought after Crash Kart however was Spore Origins. Spore Origins was pretty simple and enjoyable, yet I remain stuck on the last level!

While the holidays brought great games to my iPhone like Tiki Towers, Virtual Pool and Crazy Tanks lately some really big games have made thier way to my iPhone. These are the games that are really started to set the iPhone into motion as a serious gaming device.

First and foremost Tap Tap Revenge 2 is free and its ALOT better than Tap Tap Revenge, I love having a Guitar Heroish type game on the iPhone. Days of Thunder is a great racing game and Aqua Moto Racing is one of the best if not the best jet ski racing game on the app store (okay it may be the only jet ski racing game on the app store). The thing that sets a game like Aqua Moto Racing apart is the level of polish! Talking about polish Let's Golf is absolutely amazing. I am a big Hot Shots Golf type golf game fan and Let's Golf is perfect, even at version one its amazing. Other games do thing that even the PSP can't do, iDracula uses dual sticks to move and shoot, a recent update to the game added more levels etc and it is literally a blast to play. Recently I picked up Metal Gear Solid Touch, while respectively its priced a bit high and you do pay for the Metal Gear name its a great "duck hunt" like shooter and shows that developers are taking this device very seriously.

I even have a plateformer series on the iPhone with the Toy Bot series, I managed to get all 3 for $3 (just .99 each on sale). If your a fan of Skeeball and shooting baskets at the arcade then both ArcadeBowl and ArcadeHoops should be on your list. One of the coolest apps is Aqua Baller, play it and you'll be pleasently surprised and taken back if your say over 30.

This is just the beginning, there are two big games on my watch list Real Racing and Galaxy on Fire are set to push the limits of what anyone thought possible on the iPhone. I simply can't wait!

One caveat in buying games is that generally for me I cap at $7, I have bought a handful of $10 apps yet its not the price that bugs me its the up and down "stock market" pricing of apps that does annoy me. If you browse everyday you can get some pretty good deals on games.

While maybe gaming on the iPhone will not leave you much time to talk its certainly become something I can't do without. The iPhone has already been a much better portable gaming device for me than the DS and PSP ever have.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some gaming to do.

The Canon PowerShot and the Kindle App

I havn't blogged in a while but two recent tech things need to be blogged about, my new Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS, and the new Kindle iPhone application.

Although I have my main, big camera my Nikon D40 with all its photo taking power and multiple lenses I had a feeling that I needed something a bit more compact to have with me. Sure I have my iPhone and its great that it has a camera, but lets face it, its not a great camera. So I pretty much just checked Flickr to see what the best point and shoot camera was and low and behold the Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS was shooting up the charts, and lucky for me Best Buy had it on sale.

I took it for a test drive today and I'm liking it already. First of all I was glad to see it came with a lithium battery and I wasn't going to have to deal with batteries! Next up it was actually able to snap some of those moment shots and not the moments after the actual moment shots. The area I was most surprised with was the video capabilities, I was able to take some video with the camera and guess what not only does it capture audio but the video and audio came out pretty good. As a bonus the video is in AVI format so it'll transfer to Mac and PC alike, it won't stream to the 360 without some help being converted to WMV at least though there was a codec issue.

The next test is taking it on our trip this week, I really can't have the big Nikon with me and it may actually allow me to keep the video camera at home as well. So far its been a great camera and a great compliment to the D40.

Next up is the iPhone Kindle app. My biggest issue with the Kindle is the price, its way too expensive. I am pretty impressed and surprised that Amazon released the app for the iPhone and its free. Sure it doesn't have all the features the Kindle has and you can't order books directly from the app but its not bad to have to go to the Amazon web site and send the book to the iPhone. Although I'm guessing its MUCH easier on the eyes to use the Kindle than the iPhone for me right now I have an iPhone and a pretty good eBook reader! At this point I sent some sample books to the app to try it out, see how it goes. All in all after knocking the Kindle so much I'm glad Amazon gave me a free one!

Both of these little reviews are a bit early in both product lifecycles but I'm pretty confident that both will be used in the future, the camera probably ALOT more! Time will tell, for now its time to enjoy.

New Life for Old Friends

I'll admit when I first got my Media Center PC I thought that Media Center was the coolest thing around. Here was a great way to finally watch AND record TV on my computer, something for some reason I always wanted to do. There was also a pretty cool program I picked up along the way called MyTVtoGO and started using it a little to record shows and drop them onto my PSP. That wasn't really a long lived thing. Eventually the 360 dashboard picked up and I pretty much put Media Center to the side, not really having a need for it. As a matter of fact when I did some cable cleanup I even disconnected that cable from the PC, TV to PC disconnected.

Fast forward to the present and boy that has changed. I am always on the search for ways to do more with technology and media and in a sense make my media world better and easier (which always means more work and complicated). I came across a program I once used called Pocket DVD Wizard and it reopened some doors. Initially it was a way to start putting some more movies on the iPhone but then I realized it worked with the PSP as well. Well for some reason it didn't want to work well with all the files I was throwing at it for the PSP (the iPhone was fine) but that led me to updating to the PRO version of the PSP Media Manager and I started to convert and send movies to my PSP with ease once again.

Of course this was movies and my kid likes allot of his cartoons. Luckily the latest version of the PSP Media Manager works with dvr-ms files, you know the ones that Media Center creates, and as it goes PBS and the Disney Channel don't put commercials during their shows!

So tonight I hooked back up that cable to the PC and once again I'm recording a bunch of TV shows that will soon make their way to the PSP. It does help that I picked up an 8 gig memory card for $35 (they originally retailed for $300!!!).

I like iTunes but lets face it at $2 a show and a finite amount of storage anyway I can't really keep that up, and once the kids get to a certain age these shows go away so their not long term keeps. This way I can alternate new shows in once in awhile since the good thing about kids is they can watch the same episode over and over.

So Media Center and PSP welcome back to the world of media, glad you stuck around and were willing to come back and join us!

A Tale of (3) 360's!

For the first year of the Xbox 360's lifespan I ignored it, didn't see a reason to own it, I was happy with my current Xbox. Actually at some point I bought a second Xbox to use as a Media Center extender. For the original Xbox there was a rarely sold disc that you put in the Xbox and it played the Media Center extender software and connected to your computer. For the longest time I didnt update my computer anyway so I couldn't use the actual Media Center software included with the 360.

But time would pass and I would update my computer (the whole daylight savings time issue kinda forced me to do it) and eventually I'd add a 360. As time passed though the 360 dashboard sort of made the Media Center portion of the dash obsolete. The dashboard was easier to get to and it finally would support Divx and Xvid as well as many other codecs for video.

I really enjoyed using the 360 as a media player so much that I really wanted a second for the upstairs parlour. Turns out a friend would get the red lights and couldn't wait for his return so he bought a new one, when his old one arrived I traded a PDA for the 360 and just like that I had a second 360. Then as time would pass I would start to need yet another for the toy/computer room and as would have it my brother in law would get ther red lights (for like the 3rd time) and he didnt wait either. So $60 and two weeks later just like that I have a 3rd.

My 2nd 360 gets used all the time to stream movies that my kid loves to watch, its great to not have to constantly pull out DVD's all the time. The 3rd location gets used the same way and even more as a DVD player. I use the 2nd sometimes for games for the family but the 3rd hasn't been used yet. Ironically the 1st gets used little for media streaming as I tend to use the PS3 for that in the main location.

Its kind of weird that I have 3 gaming systems and 2 in particular that don't even play games to use as media streaming devices but they work and they work very well. If you said I'd have 3 360's at one point I'd say you were crazy, but its kind of really cool to have them now and that's not crazy at all!

The Twitter Bowl

The Steelers have defeated The Cardinals in the Super Bowl, the event is over. So how much fun was it? Turns out it was a lot of fun, because of Twitter!

Sure everyone hopes for a great and close game and of course the commercials and many people get together with friends and family to party. This year I didn't have a party and I didn't attend a party, well any actual parties. I stayed home and ate a barrage of food with my wife and two kids, but realized the party came to me via Twitter.

Whether it was thoughts on the game itself or the commercials or thoughts on movie trailers everyone had something to say via Twitter. Of course with responses that helped bring the party together. I have not twittered so much in such little time since I started my twitter account but tonight I had a blast and I twittered A LOT!

So thanks to social networking and twitter I didn't attend a party per say tonight but I partied for the entire game. For the record I was routing for the Cardinals, thought the G.I. Joe trailer rocked. laughed more times than I can remember, and thought Bruce and the E. Street Band ROCKED the half time show.

But if you follow me on Twitter, you already knew that.