Well for the last two months personal issues in my life have made it impossible for me to find time for blogging. I’m happy to say that things have gotten better, and it’s finally time to get back to writing. Hopefully I can tell you about a lot of new and exciting things. To give you a little preview, I’m going to list some of the topics that I’ll cover in the near future.

• Searchme (the new search engine)
• Getting started with Linux
• The conclusion to the TV for free series (finally)
• Best web browser
• Pandora (radio)
• Songbird (music player)
• Midiomi
• Cool websites
• And more that I can’t remember right now…

Don’t give up. This blog isn’t dead. There’s a lot more to come so be sure to stick around.

I am continuing my TV for free series today with the final entrant, Miro. Miro wasn’t originally going to be part of the testing, but I included it after it was recommended to me by a reader. Thanks Herbert.

I should note that Miro is different from the other services I’ve reviewed since it is a full featured media player. Miro is also different since files must be downloaded before they can be played, as opposed to using streaming media like the other services. Miro works with Windows, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and Linux systems.

I’m still grading on the same key aspects of video quality, show selection, user interface, and commercial interruptions. So without further ado, let’s see what Miro has to offer.

Video quality on Miro differs greatly since you are downloading whatever the provider offers. This can give you an alphabet soup of formats, resolutions, and file sizes.

Some channels offer both a standard and high definition version of a channel. The Systm channel offers three versions. It’s good to have this option since you have to download the video before watching it, and the higher the video quality is, the longer the download time is. I was pleased to find that the HD channels I tested were able to fill up my monitor and still look good.

Miro has a large selection of channels, but let me make something clear: Don’t come looking for all your mainstream cable TV. I would bet money it won’t be there. OK, so there are a few like Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Adult Swim, G4TV, and HBO comedy (audio only), but don’t get your hopes up because I don’t see the prospect for any other mainstream networks.

But don’t count Miro out just because it lacks the mainstream content found on the other services. While you might have to dig through the channel guide (which is excellent by the way) to find something to watch, it’ll be well worth your time when you find something you love on Miro. The indie shows are often a little on the short side but still much better than the standard YouTube fare (dancing teens and stupid stunts).

I love Miro’s user interface. Slick, stylish, simplistic, and clean are all words that come to mind. Miro is so easy to just pick up and use, especially compared to iTunes or Windows Media Player.

With Miro’s color-coded design it’s easy to see what you have to watch, what’s downloading, and what’s available to download (coded green, orange, and blue respectively). Miro uses this color scheme to easily separate videos into lists for each channel. Miro also uses colored bubbles to show you the number of unwatched videos and new videos for each channel. Since Miro is based on the new video RSS technology, it’s easy for Miro to alert you when new content becomes available for one of your channels.

You can easily set up auto download settings for each channel so you will always have a fresh stream of videos. Of course your computer will fill up fast if you keep downloading the new and don’t get rid of the old. Miro thought of this too. By default the videos expire and are deleted after six days unless you choose to keep them. You can also reserve space on your drive so that Miro won’t fill up the whole thing. I think these features are so cool.

Besides downloading from RSS channels, Miro can also download content from popular video sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo!, Revver, and more. Miro can even save a search as a channel (with update alerts) so you can easily refer back to it and see when new videos that match that search are uploaded.

Miro is a full-featured media player so you can also play your own media if you already have some saved on your computer. You can tell Miro to add content in certain folder, such as My Videos, to your library. You also have the option of making it appear as a channel. Miro is also oblivious to the format wars so it supports nearly all of the major formats.

In addition to using channels for organization, Miro allows you to create playlists like other media players. The difference between playlists and channels is that the playlists are created and modified by you while the channels are not.

Commercial interruptions differ by publisher like video quality does. Miro itself has no commercial interruptions or advertisements, but some video providers have them in the video. While this is annoying, they are usually short. You also have the power to skip them, but they are usually so short that it takes more time to skip them than to watch them. But thank you to the video providers who don’t make us endure any commercials!

Finally it’s time for the complaints. They’re minor but there’s always room for improvement, right? My first complaint is lack of streaming capabilities. Downloading videos isn’t a big deal, but can be a hassle if you don’t plan ahead. Then again I’d also be whining if was streaming only too. I guess I want it both ways, but I know I can’t have it that way so I have to choose. In that case the downloading works just fine.

Another complaint is the shortage of mainstream content. While there is quite a bit of good user created stuff, this lack is going to hurt Miro’s appeal to some users.

Another minor complaint is that the audio on an mp4 video on my computer was distorted while playing in Miro. The same file played fine in Quicktime.

My final complaint is Miro’s lack of help documentation. The FAQ is apparently lost, and the only assistance that leaves you with are the forums and the Using Miro channel (which you might not be able to use if you can’t figure out Miro in the first place).

I know I’ve said a lot already, but I want to end on a high note by telling some of the cool features that make Miro unique. The first is an ever-present search box that lets you look up videos in your library, the guide, in a channel, or on the internet. The other great feature is the elegant simplicity of Miro. It’s simple and stylish. I don’t any other way to say it.

If you are interested in publishing your own content, try Miro’s Make Internet TV guide. You can view the gallery of screens I took while using Miro here.

Miro is a great media player. Give it time and I think that the video content available will increase and the features of Miro will improve. I really recommend that you give Miro a chance. I think that if you use it for a while, you’ll be suspired how much good content is out there in cyberspace. So go ahead and check it out and tell me what you think.

I want to take a short break from the TV for free series and talk about something that has been very important to me these past few days. I’ve been very busy lately (which you might have noticed from the lack of recent posts), and this handy web app has helped keep my life organized and intact.

Allow me to introduce Jott . Jott is a multi-faceted tool that I could only describe as the sticky note of the future.

Jott provides a number of ways for you to simplify your busy life. Have you ever called your answering machine to leave yourself a reminder? What about plastering your desk with post-it notes to remember everything that you need to do?

If you’ve ever been away from home and had something you needed to remember for later, there’s a good chance you’ve used your cell phone to leave a voice mail for yourself before. While this is good enough to get the job done, it’s so time consuming both to leave a message and to listen to it later. Instead, call Jott and your voice is changed into a Jott (message) that you can read on your computer later. You even save time by not being forced to listen to the “leave your name and number” spiel every time.

Now what if you are the person with the desk plastered with sticky notes? Well Jott can help you out too. Jott lets you create lists of tasks (such as Home and Work) where you add items and check them off as you complete them. You can add tasks to a list on the go with either a phone call or a text message to Jott.

You can access all of your Jotts and lists from the Jott website. They’re all organized nice and neat for you. Having your notes digital also means you can take advantage of productivity enhancers such as reminders and list check-offs. You don’t even need to pick up the phone to write a Jott. Just type it in from your computer.

Some of you are probably saying by this point, “this all sounds great, but my current setup works just fine.” Well here are some things that are unique to Jott and really increase its cool factor.

With Jott you can use your phone to send emails and text messages on the go using only your voice. You do have to add the contacts to Jott beforehand, but this is much easier to use than trying to type a message on the phone. Plus, you don’t have to pay data costs. Jott will send an email, text, or both (depending on what contact information you have provided) with your transcribed message and a link to the original audio recording. I wouldn’t recommend it for long or important messages, but how many of those do you send anyway?

Another unique feature of Jott is that it allows you to use Jott Links to interact with other web apps. Now you can make a phone call, and Jott will transcribe your message and use it to update an internet service that you use. For example, I use this feature a lot to update my Google Calendar. The supported web apps include: twitter, Blogger, WordPress, and Google Calendar, among many others.

I found Jott to be easy to use with good voice transcription. My advice would be to speak slowly and clearly, and spell out words that Jott may not know (such as names). Soft background noise didn’t seem to have much effect on Jott, but once, when a strong wind was blowing outside, Jott had difficulty understanding me.

I have no problem recommending this to anyone who is busy and is looking for a better way to keep everything organized. Not only will you be free from your clutter of notes, but Jott has the advantage of being able to follow you around everywhere since it’s a web application that also works with your phone. Jott is free, so give it a try, and see if it can make a difference in your busy life.

Today I am continuing my tests for the TV for free series with my review of Joost. As in the other tests, I am grading on the aspects of video quality, show selection, user interface, and commercial interruptions. I should add that Joost is different from the two services that I have reviewed because it requires you to download the application to use the service. So lets jump right in.

Joost has good video quality with a high enough resolution for good viewing in full-screen mode. The video quality differs by provider, but all providers are selected for their ability to provide video that meets Joost’s quality standards. On a side note, I was a little disappointed that none of the video was able to fill up my big new monitor.

As for show selection, Joost has a large catalog. Joost uses a system of channels to organize video clips. You can even build your own channels with individual clips. Indie content make up most of the video on Joost, but CBS and Viacom (includes networks such as MTV and BET) are now on-board. Negotiations are currently underway with FOX to get their shows on Joost.

More importantly, full episodes of popular shows are usually available. I found that Jericho is a great channel because you can watch the entire season, but many mainstream shows have at least a few full episodes available.

Something interesting that I found out is that the Joost channel lineup differs by location since Joost automatically blocks content based on where you are viewing from. This is done using an IP address trace. I would guess that the U.S. has the largest channel selection.

Joost’s user interface is very polished, pleasing to the eye, and just downright cool. I’m no design expert, but Joost should be up for some kind of award. Transparency, colors, and other effects are all used to achieve a great overall effect.

Customization with widgets is a big part of the user interface. Joost includes various widgets that include a clock, instant messaging client, blogging interface, news ticker, and channel chat. Great for the habitual multi-tasker.

I like to use the clock and news ticker while watching TV. I also tried out the Blog This widget (where you blog about what you are watching), but I couldn’t get it to work. It says that it works with Livejournal.com, TypePad.com, and WordPress.com, but there was an error logging in. I don’t know about the instant messaging widget since I don’t have Gmail or Jabber. Joost even provides the tools to create your own widgets. You can learn about creating widgets or download user submitted ones from the Joost Widget developers site.

Commercial interruptions on Joost are very minimal. Ads are displayed between shows sometimes, but you are free to skip them unlike most other free TV services. Sometimes an annoying bubble ad was displayed on the screen over the show I was watching, but I think this only happens on certain channels such as the ones provided by CBS.

I only had a few minor complaints with Joost. The first is that it’s more difficult to find shows on Joost than on the other services that I’ve tested. Don’t get me wrong. The organization is good, but it’s just not as good as hulu.

My next complaint is probably the biggest that I have. Sometimes I found it irritating that Joost allows little user customization besides widgets. For example, it would be nice to be able to choose if you wanted to have the popup bubbles for sharing and next video on or off.

My final complaint is that you are required to register to use the service. I know this is really minor since registration is free just like the service is, but I don’t like being forced to register to use something.

Overall Joost is a solid TV service with a good channel lineup, beautiful interface, and bright future. Although the program is still under development, the list of necessary changes is small. If Joost can get some more mainstream shows in its collection, I could see it replacing your cable company in the near future.

You can view the gallery of screen shots that I took of Joost here. Joost is free software available for Windows and Mac OS X. You can download it from the Joost website here.

In the next installment of the TV for free series I will be reviewing Miro, a late entrant to the testing, so be sure to check back.

Last time in the TV for free series I reviewed hulu . For test number two I tested out the method of watching from network websites. Yes I know what you’re thinking. Running around a bunch of different websites trying to find episodes of a show must be a time consuming hassle. Well yes it is. The good new is that nearly every network broadcasts it shows over the internet so there is a large selection out there, and I have a tool to help speed up the search.

Alright now lets go through each aspect of the grading: video quality, show selection, user interface, and commercial interruptions.

Video quality changed a lot as I went from site to site. Quality ranged everywhere from nearly as good as hulu on CBS.com to YouTube like with no full screen option on History.com. I did not find a website that completely filled my monitor.

Show selection for this method is fantastic since nearly every network publishes full episodes on their website. Possibly the only problem can be the slight difficulty in finding them sometimes.

The user interfaces also differs from site to site, but all the ones that I tried out were acceptable and easy enough to work with. Some of the site designs do make it difficult to find the videos though.

Commercials were usually shown before the start of a show or between the segments of a show (like on normal TV). Thankfully the commercials were only about 20 to 30 seconds long. The frequency of ads differs by site.

The major difficulty with this method of getting free TV is trying to find the shows on many different websites. Well if you have problems with this, this is your lucky day because I found a tool on the internet to relieve some of the headache. Meet Prime Time Rewind , a website which keep track of links to the latest episode of shows on seven major networks. Besides making it easy to find the episodes, you also get a sidebar which lets you comment on and rate shows.

At first the cube interface can be confusing, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a cool way to browse. Let me tell you the secret.

Spinning the cube horizontally lets you select by network with one network on each side (Seven networks on four possible sides. Hmm…). Spinning the cube vertically lets you select by category (Four categories on four side. That makes more sense.).

If you register you can even have your own side of the cube where you chose which videos are on there. You can even embed the cube on your own website which I tried. The cube showed up and the linking worked, but I couldn’t control it.

Prime Time Rewind is still under heavy development and is only in the alpha stage so expect to see a lot more refinement before it is complete. I strongly encourage you to try it out because it already a good tool for finding that elusive free TV.

My final thought on cruising websites to find free TV is that while there is a great selection of shows floating around in cyber space, some networks do it better than others. Sometimes I felt like I got what I payed for (nothing), and other times I felt like I got the deal of a lifetime.

In my next post in the TV for free series I will be testing out the next contender, Joost , so be sure to check back for my next review.

For the past few day I have been watching a lot of TV, but instead of plopping down on the couch, I’ve been watching on my computer. This has all been part of my test of hulu , the first of the free internet TV services that I’m testing out.

I decided that the most important aspects of the test are video quality, show selection, user interface, and commercial interruptions, and so I will grade each service on each of these points.

As for video quality, with my new 22 inch LCD monitor I expected the video to fill my screen and be at a high enough resolution to be able to see details fairly well, and I wasn’t disappointed. In full screen mode the video quality wasn’t much below a standard TV. Pretty good for an over the internet broadcast.

What is having good video quality with nothing to watch? Hulu has a good show selection with a fairly large collection of TV shows and movies provided by NBC and FOX. About half of the shows and movies are full length (as opposed to short YouTube-esq video clips).

Next up is the user interface. Hulu’s interface is very clean-cut, easy to use, and nicely designed. Options for playback and sharing are displayed well and easy to use. You can also share an excerpt of a video by controlling start and end times. Hulu even provides RSS feeds for its videos including series feeds and site wide video feeds so you can keep up with your favorite shows and what’s happening on hulu. Cool idea.

hulu’s video interface

The final aspect of the test is commercial interruptions. Everybody hates commercials and thankfully hulu doesn’t have many interruptions. I watched several episodes of King of the Hill and the only commercial that I was subjected to was a short ten second ad at the beginning of the show. How great is that compared to having to endure three commercials of three minutes each if I were to watch the episode on cable TV?

In my trial run I only found two minor shortcomings with hulu. Yes they’re little things, but they would still be nice features for the end user. The first is that the service only does streaming video. I’m sure that some people would be annoyed that they couldn’t save it to their computer. (I did try to save it with Miro). I only have a problem with this when my buffer can’t keep up and my video is skipping. My only other complaint is that TV episodes will expire after a period of time. Hulu gives you ample time to watch them, but it would still be nice if they stuck around.

Hulu is a great way to watch TV on your PC. The service gives you access to many shows and movies in one location. You can use hulu without an account to watch videos or create an account to use video queuing and community features. Hulu may also see a significant increase in video quality as the developers are experimenting with this. You can see examples here . Hulu did well in my test, and I could certainly see it replacing your cable company in the near future. Give this one a try for sure!

In my next post I will be continuing my TV for free trials by testing out TV from individual network websites. Be sure to check back for my next review.

Wouldn’t it be great to ditch your cable company (and the bill) and watch your favorite shows for free? Well with recent increases in quality and selection, this is fast growing area of the web. I have decided to test out several of the biggest contenders to see how viable of an option they are to replace your current setup. The services I will be test driving are Joost, Hulu, and video available from network websites. I will also try out the show finding assistant, Prime Time Rewind.

I am going to be grading each service on its show selection, video quality, and user interface. I will be testing out each of these services, and in my next few post I will be reviewing them to decide how they stack up against your TV provider.

Today I want to introduce you to PicLens, a visually impressive browser extension for Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari, which has completely changed the way that I browse through photos on the internet. If you are browsing a PicLens enabled site, one click will launch the add-on, and its signature wall of photos will fill your screen with all of the pictures on the page.

From there you can easily browse though thumbnails to view images. If you want a better view of an image, a click will enlarge it and center it in your view. Another click will replace it in the wall. This makes it easy to find the perfect image without the hassle of constantly changing pages to view more pictures.

If the search you tried didn’t get you the results you wanted, then you can try again without even exiting PicLens, by using its built in search feature which supports Google Images, Yahoo Images, SmugMug, Flickr, Photobucket, and Deviant Art. Many other websites are also PicLens enabled, including social networking sites Myspace and Facebook and popular image searches Ask Images, Live Images, and AOL Images.

There is also the other side of PicLens, the slideshow viewer. PicLens can take all of the photos that are on the wall and view them as a full screen slideshow. This feature is great if you are browsing high resolution photos, but I didn’t find it as cool as viewing pictures on the wall. The gallery I made while using PicLens is located here.

Cooliris, the PicLens developer, has also developed a lightweight, no install required version of PicLens called PicLens Lite. PicLens Lite allows site designers to enable full screen slideshows to impress visitors with that are nearly identical to the ones in PicLens but without the wall view feature. Cooliris has even released PicLens Publisher, which makes it easy to embed the necessary Media RSS feed and picture files into your site to make PicLens or PicLens Lite work.

The only key feature that I see that is missing in PicLens right now is a save feature which the developer says that it is addressing. Cooliris stated on their website that PicLens has a number of new features coming including a save feature and the ability to use PicLens to view pictures on your computer. As for the features of the different versions, Firefox and Internet Explorer are the same and have been updated the most recently. Safari is still waiting for the 3D wall and search features, but it does allow you to surf through photos with an Apple Remote.

I also downloaded the PicLens Publisher tool to see if I could make PicLens work on a site of my own, and it really simplified the process of generating everything that you needed to enable PicLens and PicLens Lite. However I did find that while it is possible to do some more advanced tricks such as integrating music and video, you have to do this the old-fashioned way: typing with a text editor. You can try out PicLens or PicLens Lite with the gallery that I created here.

PicLens is already a great way to view photos, and with more features on the way like saving and browsing your own pictures, I can’t see any reason not to be using this great add-on. I strongly encourage you to check out PicLens because it truly is fresh tech.

Computer games have been changing a lot lately. I remember when I bought a game, it came in a box, and I took the game home to play it. Well times are changing for PC gamers. As I see it the three major options for PC gamers will be Valve’s Steam, GameTap, or Microsoft’s Games for Windows.

If you get your games through Valve’s Steam or GameTap your games don’t even come on a disk anymore. Instead of buying a physical product you are buying a subscription to a game that is downloaded to your computer over the internet. Steam games are similar to games you buy at the store because once you buy a subscription to a game it is permanently tied to your account. With GameTap you pay a monthly subscription which gives you access to all of the games available from the service as long as you are a subscribe. Games for Windows still uses games that come with disks and boxes, but they are unified by features of the platform and Windows Vista.

A view of the Steam storefront.

All of these platforms focus on giving you a multitude of features to improve your gaming experience. Most of the new feature that developers are trying to deliver are community features because they seem to be very important to gamers these days.

Personally, I am a user of Steam and while I find the chat and groups features useful, I don’t see them as essential. After all if I want to chat, I’ll chat, and if I want to play a game, I’ll play a game. Maybe I’m just not much of a multi-tasker.

Then again these features aren’t really that new. I remember GameSpy Arcade back with Battlefield 1942 that offered similar features for gamers. I think what is changing more than gamers is the market. The reason developers of Steam, GameTap, and Games for Windows are pushing new features for their PC gaming platforms is because gaming lineups among the platforms are becoming more and more similar as they start to overlap into each other’s territory. It’s going to start being these extras that make the difference in who makes money and who doesn’t.

Regardless of your opinion on the importance of having achievements, gamer scores, or friends lists with your games, these features are already commonplace, with some being potentially useful. We should certainly expect to see developers releasing many new ones soon.

I have just discovered the greatness of the opinion poll . A friend recently showed me the Everybody Votes Channel on the Nintendo Wii, and I was surprised that it was so much fun to spend my time voting in these trivial polls and then trying to guess what everyone else in the world was thinking on the question. After quickly becoming addicted to these opinion polls, I decided that I must find something on the internet that could satisfy my craving for them. In my search I found one of the freshest and most unique sites that I have seen in a long time.

Ask500People is an opinion poll website that says that it is based on the concept of The Wisdom of Crows by James Surowiecki which is that: “diverse, decentralized people voting independently are better at predicting future events or trends than individuals, small groups or even domain experts.”

What the website does is allow from people all over the world to vote in user created polls. The results of the polls are displayed in real time on the website. It appears that the site uses an IP address trace to determine the location of voters. The website displays results, recent votes, and a map of the voters generated using Google Maps. Members of the site can post questions for polls, comment on polls, and promote polls to move them up in the queue. According to the website stats, most people who vote in the polls vote from a third party site by means of a widget on that page.

While Ask500People is like Wii’s Everybody Votes channel in several areas, it’s really more like comparing apples and oranges. The most striking difference is the subject matter of the polls. Everybody Votes polls can be submitted by users, but they are checked by Nintendo so they tend to be pretty light-hearted and appropriate for all audiences. Across the street the users of Ask500People are asking the difficult questions about politics, philosophy, ethics, etc. But of course there are plenty of fun polls in the mix as well.

Let’s face everybody has their own opinion and wants to share it with everybody else, and Ask500People is one best ways that I’ve found to make your thoughts known and to find out what people all over the world are thinking. Now get out there and vote!