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Media
Kevin Rose is Wrong Again – iTV will not Kill Cable Television
Kevin Rose (Digg.com Founder) recently published a post on his blog where he “broke” the news of the next itteration of the Apple TV device as iTV.
He went on to gush about how incredible his majesty at Apple has made it. The new iTV is supposed to be the biggest game changer in the living room since the invention of the color television. He also says that it will spell the sudden “Death of Cable TV”.
Oh Reaaaaaly?
- First, let’s start with Kevin Rose’s credibility regarding Apple commentary and predictions.
- Does anybody else see him as an overly biased Apple fanboy/appologist?
- Wow, he got Copy and Paste and iPod Nano right. Only every single writer in the world was begging for this. I’m shocked that Apple decided to address their biggest feature omission. There is a leaked Apple product published every hour. Somebody is bound to get one right.
Will iTV OWN the Living Room?
First of all, there have been a handful of half-baked products fumbling around in this space for a while now. None of them have exactly distinguished themselves. I think that it will be the best attempt yet at a living room media center. That being said, Apple’s ridiculous Nazis Lawyers will probably cripple it into being not that awesome. That being said, I hope that it is cool enough to force Microsoft and Sony to kick their consoles into high gear.
Is iTV or Anyting Else Poised to KILL Cable TV?
Don’t be so fast to cut your cable bill. Who do you think you’re going to get your broadband from? That’s right, the Cable and Phone company. Maybe you will be able to do that, but your broadband bill will go up to $100/month. They own the TV and Internet, do you think that they are going to give up their cash cow and let you have it’s replacement for nothing? I live in the New York Metropolitan area and the three broadband options avaiable are FIOS, Cablevision (Optimum Online) and Comcast. Each of their standalone broadband products START at $50 per month. Then throw in the cost of an iTV ($99), iTunes downloads, Hulu Pro, Netflix, Amazon On-Demand, and other services and where are you? Right up around the price of Cable. Plus, you have to buy, configure, search for, and download this half-assed new TV replacement on your own. Yeah, my parents and their friends should all be super psyched to do all of that.
More likely, you will probably see them finally start to offer A La Carte channel purchasing.
Broadband Providers do not have the bandwidth to simultaneously stream American Idol to every house on your block in High Definition. Despite all of the articles that you read on these tech blogs, broadband companies will not have the necessary bandwidth for a while either. (Think 5 years or so.)
Ask yourself this: “Has a YouTube video stuttered or paused on my this week?” Exactly, and they’re the BEST at streaming video. And a lot of it is not in HD.
Other Factors
Despite everybody’s complaining, Cable, Sattelite, and Fiber TV actually works. You turn on the TV and pick from tons of channels of video that instantly and flawelessly flow into your house. If you turn on 5 TVs in your house, they still all work fine. Try that over broadband.
The devil you know. Everybody I know already has their TV solution in place. Most people don’t dump something that they know for something that they don’t know. Especially if the thing they already have pretty much works. Think about it: are your parents going to ditch cable for a media pc, Apple TV, Google TV, or Roku player? No, mine neither.
What Could Prove Me Wrong?
The one thing that could make this more feasible is if other providers get into the residential broadband delivery game.
Cell Phone Companies – Verizon and AT&T keep beefing up their 3G networks, but I’m thinking that they need to be more like 11G. Sprint could also be a player with their much ballyhooed and troubled WiMax rollout. Tmobile – nevermind.
Sattelite Providers – If these clowns ever figure out how to use their base of installed hardware to transmit realistic broadband signals up and down, they might be players.
Dark Horse Candidates
Teir 1 Internet Service Providers – There area a handful of companies that actually carry all of the internet traffic over long distances. Think of them as the Interstate Highways that deliver traffic between the neighborhoods that your ISP (Level 2 or lower) serves.
Here are the major players: AT&T, Cogent, Level3, NTT, Qwest, Savvis, SBC, Sprint, Verizon, and XO
Some of these player “could” trow up some sort of wireless towers on heavily populated network “end points” and deliver broadband to large groups of people. This is possible, but somewhat unlikely.
I would love to hear what you think
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Major Milestone – One Million Views of VitaminCM.com Video Tutorials
That’s a lot of eyeballs
I use a service called TubeMogul.com to upload and track my videos on multiple video sharing services. Two of my favorite stats are which services get the most views and of course, how many Total Views all of my videos on all sites get. Well Sunday morning I woke up to check my stats and saw that I finally passed the ONE MILLION TOTAL VIEWS mark. Wow! It’s hard to imagine that my silly little video tutorials have been watched over a million times.
Let’s take a look at how those numbers break down:
My Most Viewed Video
How to Control Multiple Computers with Single Mouse Using Synergy had a hair under 150 thousand views. Here are my most viewed videos in order:
Video Site Serving the Most Views
5Min.com is my biggest video sharing service by a mile. That makes sense, since they are a site that specializes in instructional videos. Here are my video sharing services in order:
Most Commented Video
The video that received the most comments was
How to Configure Your XAMPP Server with a total of 38 comments.
My Favorite Video
My favorite video by far is How to Create a Web Operating System Today . Sadly, it only received about 5,000 views. Well, here is its big change at redemption. See why it’s my favorite video.
If you want to see the full Create the Web Operating System Today article, take a look, I think it’s some of my best writing.
Where to find my Vidoes
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Connecting your Computer to your Living Room
Overview: Learn how to stream Music, Photos, and Video from any computer to your TV using your video game console.
This is the second article in a three part series on Sharing Files Between Any Devices in your Home.
- Part 1 - Share Files Between All of your Computers
- Part 2 - Stream Computer Media to the TV using Video Game Consoles
- Part 3 - Sharing Between your Smartphone and Computer
Consoles, Not Just for Gaming Any More
Seeing your vacation photos or your favorite podcast on a 50 inch screen is way more enjoyable than being holed up in your computer room. How about having your favority playlist pumping through your surround sound system at your next party?
There are numerous ways to accomplish this; some complicated and some simple. If you have a Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3, or a Nintendo Wii, you already have the easiest way of getting your media from your computers to your living room. Let’s take a look at how to make it happen.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a great option for bringing your computer media into your living room.
Xbox 360 to Windows
Right out of the box you can get media from your Windows computer to your Xbox. Here are the basic steps:
- Turn on your Xbox 360
- Install Windows Media Player 11 on your PC
- Turn Sharing on in your Library (Library> Media Sharing> Share My Media> OK)
- Select your Xbox from the list of sources.
- Go to your Xbox and go to Media> Media Type (Photos, Music, or Video)> Computer> Browse for file
Here is an excellent tutorial from Cnet on using an Xbox 360 to access the media on your Windows computer. Bonus – they also show you how to pull media from your Microsoft Zune to your Xbox (assuming you’re one of the five guys who bought one).
Xbox 360 to Mac
Just because Xbox is a Microsoft product doesn’t mean that you can’t use it with your Mac. You can use Nullriver’s Connect360 software ($20)to do the same thing as Windows machines. Connect360 automatically indexes your iTunes and iPhoto libraries and shares them to your Xbox 360. You can then use the Xbox 360 Dashboard to browse and play your media, organized in the exact same way that it is on your Mac.
Here are two excellent tutorials on using an Xbox 360 to access the media on your Mac.
Mac to Xbox 360 with Connect 360
Xbox 360 and Mac (This one covers a bunch of other cool things between a Mac and Xbox 360)
Cheapskate tip: If you want to save $20, try some of these free alternatives to NullRiver’s Connect360.
Xbox 360 to Linux
You can even do the unthinkable; connect a Microsoft product to a Linux computer. (Somewhere a Linux snob just felt a stabbing pain in his side.)
Here are two excellent tutorials on using an Xbox 360 to access the media on your Linux computer. (One from the command line, the other using WINE.) Enjoy!
How To Share Media Between Xbox 360 and Linux
How to Connect XBox 360 to a Linux PC
Extra Credit – Install XBox Media Center on your Console
Your Xbox does some cool stuff right out of the box, but when you add the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) application it gets really interesting. Here is the description straight from the XBMC.org website:
XBMC is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub for digital media.
While XBMC functions very well as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Currently XBMC can be used to play almost all popular audio and video formats around. It was designed for network playback, so you can stream your multimedia from anywhere in the house or directly from the internet using practically any protocol available. It will even scan all of your media and automatically create a personalized library complete with box covers, descriptions, and fanart. There are playlist and slideshow functions, a weather forecast feature and many audio visualizations. Once installed, your computer will become a fully functional multimedia jukebox.
You can find the installation instructions in the very thorough XBMC online manual.
NOTE: Setting this up can be pretty tricky, so if you’re looking for something a bit less complicated stick with the instructions for your operating system above.
Sony PS3
Sony PS3 is the Cadillac of consoles; BluRay player, stunning graphics sexy piano black finish, you know you want some. Of course it can do more than just play games and DVDs. You can connect it to a computer running all three operating systems too. In fact, DigitalTrends.com has a very thorough set of instructions that walk you through the entire process(es) of using your PS3 to connect to a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.
Sony PS3 to Windows
The PS3 can act as a DNLA (standard for sharing media between devices) Player that will display media content from a computer set up as a DNLA Server. Windows Media Player 11 will act as your PC’s DNLA Server.
Right out of the box you can get media from your Windows computer to your PS3. Here are the basic steps:
- Turn on your PS3
- Install Windows Media Player 11 on your PC
- Turn Sharing on in your Library (Library> Media Sharing> Share My Media> OK)
- Select your PS3 from the list of sources.
- Go to your PS3 and click the Search for Media Servers icon with the X button.
- You will see your shared media which you can navigate through with your PS3 controller.
Here is an excellent tutorial that will show you how to set up streaming from your PC to your PS3.
Sony PS3 to Mac
You can set up Nullriver’s MediaLink software ($20) to stream from your Mac to your PS3 by installing it on your Mac and going to the System Preferences panel.
Click the MediaLink icon to see the configuration options.
Set up your sharing/streaming options here and close the window.
Go to your PS3 and click the Search for Media Servers icon with the X button.
You will see your shared media which you can navigate through with your PS3 controller.
Cheapskate tip: If you want to save $20, try some of these free alternatives to NullRiver’s MediaLink.
Sony PS3 to Linux
Once again, you can do pretty much anything on a Linux machine. If you’re willing to get your hands dirty at the command prompt, that is.
Here is a tutorial that shows you how to configure streaming from Linux to the PS3.
Nintendo Wii
While Wii is definitely the most fun video game console, it is also the weakest multi-media device in the roundup. There are, however a few clunky hacks that will allow you to get media from your computers to you TV using a Wii. Still, if your only console is a Wii, then try some of these tricks. If none of them float your boat, head on over to Wii Media Center to see the new tricks that they are constantly devising.
Nintendo Wii to Windows
Lifehacker.com has a set of instructions that will show you how to use internet media sharing software Orb to stream media to your Wii over the internet (not your home network). It’s not the most elegant thing, but watch the video below to see how it works.
Since this really just uses the browser, it would also work fine on an Xbox or PS3.
Nintendo Wii to Mac
Riverfold has the Wii Transfer application available for free that will allow you to stream media to your Wii using the Internet Channel (browser) too.
Nintendo Wii to Linux
MaximumPC has a good tutorial that will help you set up your Linux machine to stream to your Wii.
Extra Credit Connect a Computer to your TV
Sure, you can use your video game consoles to stream media from your computers to your TV, but why not cut out the middle man? You can buy a tiny, silent computer and place it in your media cabinet. Then, hook up Boxee (Windows, Mac, and Linux), Plex (Mac only), or MythTV (Linux only) and grab some popcorn.
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7 Best Community Driven Online Music Services
The Best Music Services Part 4
One of the things that makes online music services more interesting and useful than your iTunes library is the aspect of a Music Community. Not only can you hear good music, but you can connect with friends and others who share your tastes. This allows you to socialize about your favorite artists and see what others think and listen to. I get a lot of suggestions for new music from the people in my online music communities.
This is the 4th article in a 5 part series on the Best Music Services on the Internet. See the rest of the series:
- The Most Reliable Online Music Services
- Online Music Services with the Best Suggestion Quality
- The Best Music Discovery Service
- Best Community Driven Online Music Services
Let’s take a look at the types of community and social networking that each of these services offeres. (P.S. If you are interested in sharing musical selections with me, there are links at the bottom of the post.)
Community Features Comparison
iLike.com – iLike is allows you to share your music tastes on Facebook, Orkut, Bebo and hi5. Using the iLike application, you can add music to your profiles, be alerted to concerts and new releases by the artists you enjoy, see what music and concerts your friends like, and communicate directly with your favorite artists.
Community Quality Despite my many disappointments with iLike, the Community features are actually very solid. In fact, they’re probably the only reason to use this service. (4 Stars)
Rating: 
At least they got something right.
Jango.com – Allows you to share music with friends and tune in to their selections.
Community Quality : The sharing features are decent, but pretty basic. (3 Stars)
Rating: 
Ok, but nothing special.
Last.FM – This is another area where Last.FM shines. There are numerous ways to connect with other people the site and many popular social networks. They also include forums and groups that you can join. You can pump your listening activity out to places like Facebook, Twitter, or your blog in real-time.
Community Quality : You can connect with anyone, anywhere, on any network from Last.FM. (5 Stars)
Rating: 
If you’re a social networking addict, this is the service for you.
MyStrands.com – They have a bunch of ordinary stuff here, but nothing special. This is probably the only feature that doesn’t suck on this site.
Community Quality : OK, but still not enough to make me use this craptacular mess. (3 Stars)
Rating:
Pandora.com – You can share playlists with your friends, but that’s about it.
Community Quality : This is the only disappointing feature of an otherwise amazing music experience. Maybe that’s why I like it, it’s simple. (2 Stars)
Rating: 
If you don’t care about community, this is definitely the best service out there.
Shoutcast.com – Nothing here that I can find.
Community Quality : It’s just radio as far as I can tell. (1 Star)
Rating: 
Man I have to make the Zero Stars image already.
Slacker.com – Nothing here either. (aside from great music)
Community Quality : Not for the Web2.0 crowd. (1 Star)
Rating: If your boss says that you’re not a team player, give this service a shot.
The Best Music Discovery Service
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
If I want to hear all of my favorite songs, I can just listen to the “My Top Rated” playlist in iTunes. One of the real values of a good online music service is the ability to turn you on to good new music that you DID NOT know about.
These days I find just about all of my bands from suggestions on my favorite services. Let’s take a look at how our players stack up on the issue of Music Discovery.
Music Discovery Comparison
iLike.com – They give you the option of seeing “New Music from Your Friends”, “New Music from Your Favorite Artists”, or “New Music from People with Similar Taste”. These are some good ways to find good new music.
Music Discovery While there are many less-than-great things about this service, iLike does a decent job of showing me good music that I have not heard before. (4 Stars)
Rating:
Jango.com – When you build a playlist, they start to suggest other artists that are similar to the ones you have selected. You can leave them alone to hear them occasionally, add these artists to the mix to hear them often, or delete them so you never hear them. Usually I’ll add artists that I don’t know to give them a listen. If I don’t like the, I just delete them later on.
Music Discovery Again, I always seem to .
Rating:
Last.FM – I’m not exactly sure how Last.FM determines which new artists to play for me. I’m also not sure that they’re any good at it either. Whenever I select the “My Recommendations” option I never really like what I hear. However, when I select the “My Neighborhood” option, which plays favorites of people with similar taste to me, I usually do like what I hear. Does that mean that the masses are smarter than them? Probably.
Music Discovery Their suggestions are actually not that good, but the “Neighborhood” ones help me find some decent new music occasionally. (3 Stars)
Rating:
MusicStrands.com – Yet another thing that they suck at. I’m starting to wish I had just left them out of this series all together.
Music Discovery Pure crap. (1 Star)
Rating: Only because I don’t have a zero stars image.
Pandora.com – Pandora uses some scientific mumbo-jumbo to find music that you’ll like. They constantly mix in “new” music with the songs that you already like using this algorithm. I’m not quite sure how it works, but boy does it ever!
Music Discovery This is where Pandora leaves everyone else in the dust. They never fail to amaze me with the mix of great songs that I have heard and great songs from artists that I usually like. At least half of the cool new music that I’ve found in the last two years has come directly from Pandora recommendations. (5 Stars)
Rating: I wish I could give them more than 5.
Shoutcast.com – Shoutcast is just a collection of online radio stations. Your odds of finding good new music are only as good as the station that you pick.
Music Discovery I’m not really that into how Shoutcast works, but I guess you could hunt around and find something worthwhile. (3 Stars)
Rating: Decent, but not for me.
Slacker.com – Slacker gives you plenty of options to adjust your stations music selections. You can stick with more “familiar” music or go for a mix of “newer” artists. This generally helps you find lots of good stuff that I did not know about.
Music Discovery If I’m in the mood to find a lot of good new music I can make Slacker send me a mix of mostly new music that I tend to like. (4 Stars)
Rating: Nice job!
Have Your Say
Well, you know what I think, let’s hear what you think. You can select more than one choice below if you have a tie for your most reliable service.