Joe Tech » review

Video Conference In HD With Warpia ConnectHD

Joe Tech — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:50:07 +0000

With the ability to watch movies and TV series on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, those of us without an Internet-ready TV have been settling for watching at a computer desk or on a smaller laptop screen. One way around this is to get the video from your computer to the TV as seamlessly as possible. Last year, I reviewed Warpia’s USB PC to TV video adapter, which provided decent wireless video up to 720p. After that review, many people asked about 1080p video and other features. Today, I reviewed Warpia’s latest product in this line, the ConnectHD.

1080p HD USB PC to TV Video Streaming

Like other streaming products, the ConnectHD includes a USB adapter for sending video and a receiving unit on the television end to convert the signal and display it on your TV. This is accomplished by Windows treating the Warpia adapter as a duplicated monitor and feeding it all the video you see on your screen. That video image is then streamed wirelessly to the receiver and shows up on your TV. I tested this with video in 1080p and it streamed very well. At the request of my wife, several additional tests were conducted with full episodes of Sons of Anarchy from Amazon.com. The 1080p video testing from YouTube looked great and the additional tests passed Michelle’s scrutiny.

HD Video Conferencing

The premier feature of ConnectHD is the ability to, well, connect in HD to others. The TV adapter includes a 720p HD video camera and the ability to stream video both ways. On your computer, the camera shows up as any other camera you might connect directly. This makes the ConnectHD uniquely suited to act as video conferencing hardware for applications like Skype and MSN Messenger. I tried it with Skype today and was pleased with the results. The video quality showed some signs of compression, but that may have been more Skype than the camera as the image was crystal clear in Skype’s video settings panel.

Warpia ConnectHD Video Demonstration

During my testing, I created video of some of the process, showing how well the ConnectHD works and demonstrating the features as seen below:

Conclusions

Listed on the Warpia site with a sales price of $199.99, ConnectHD is a good bundle considering the $100+ prices of most HD PC to TV video solutions and the cost of a good HD camera. ConnectHD bundles both to ensure they will work well together. If video conferencing is something you won’t likely do from the couch, $199 can seem steep, so Warpia and other companies offer cameraless solutions for a lot less cost. This solution performed very well in all of my testing and works great for the task at hand.

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2011 Social Year In Review

Joe Tech — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:08:35 +0000

As we come to the end of another year, many of us will reflect back on things we’ve experienced, lessons learned, and just everything the last 12 months brought us. 2011 has been an incredible year filled with tons of important world events as well as a lot of interesting celebrity events and gossip. Sadly, but not surprisingly, “interesting” squashes “important” online, putting celebrity news and gossip far ahead of important world events when we measure our digital voice online. Frugal Dad put together the following infographic, showing what the world found compelling enough to search for, share and talk about on Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Source: http://frugaldad.com

What was the single most important piece of news you shared this year (online or off)?

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Desk Pets Trekbot Nearly Escapes Review

Joe Tech — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:04:19 +0000

I love robots and remote control toys and Trekbot is both. He comes to us from Desk Pets, the makers of Skitterbot as well as other fun remote controlled toys. The irony is that these things are so fast that they’re much better suited for use on a floor rather than a desk. My review subject nearly escaped, but I pinned him down for some quick photos and video.

Trekbot Features

Like Skitterbot, Trekbot’s remote has a few button batteries that it runs on and the bot itself recharges via a cable from the remote. To charge the bot, you plug the remote’s cable into the bot and insert the retractable USB end of the remote into your computer’s USB port. Charging time is said to be about 30 minutes for about 15 minutes of play time, but mine took only about 15 minutes to fully charge out of the box. When the Trekbot is not charging, the usb plug retracts into the remote.

On the remote are four directional buttons to make Trekbot spin left or right or move forward or in reverse. In addition, there is a center button to stop movement completely. The cool thing about this bot – other than it’s pulsating blue eyes – is that no matter how bad you are at directing it, it won’t flip over. It’s hubless design lets the body of the Trekbot flip while the wheels stay in place, always keeping its little plastic mo-hawk pointed up.

Controlling Trekbot is a little harder than controlling Skitterbot for two reasons. First, it’s simple one-at-a-time control means you’re either moving or turning, but not both at the same time. This means that if you get off track, you have to hit the right or left button to correct the angle and then very quickly jump back to the forward or reverse motion. Alternatively, you can stop movement, turn the bot, and then start again, but turning gets tricky at that speed. I’m sure a little more practice wouldn’t hurt, though. This is actually the exact same as how Skitterbot is controlled, but Trekbot is just a little trickier to get pointed in the right direction sometimes.

Trekbot comes in 4 colors and each has its own frequency. This means that if you and friends want to battle and race as the packaging suggests, you’ll want to be sure to have different colored bots.

Trekbot In Action

Starting around $13, this is a great little toy for anyone, including yourself. It’s fun to play with and even more fun if you have pets that will chase it with curiosity. If I were to buy one in the store, though, it would have to be the black one. What color would you choose?

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Santa Was Dancing In My House

Joe Tech — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:33:18 +0000

It’s almost Christmas, but I didn’t have to wait to see Santa. In fact, he brought his elves to my house to dance. Well, at least that’s what I was able to make a video of thanks to today’s review of ReelDoozy, a pretty unique iPhone app.

What’s All This About?

ReelDoozy is an iPhone app that uses green screen technology to let you super-impose fun video they provide on top of your own video. The result is a video of, say, your own house with Santa dancing around in your living room. This green screen technology has been used for years in the television and film industry but lately, it’s turning up in all sorts of fun apps like this, thanks to the processing power and video capabilities of today’s smart phone line-up.

ReelDoozy Features And Improvement

When the app is fired up, the first thing to do in order to make a video is select a foreground video. This is the video of Santa, or whatever else you choose, that will be super-imposed atop your own video. There are four short clips starring Santa and his elves that are free to use. For most, these will be fine to play with, but the app offers six additional foreground video collections that can be unlocked for an in-app purchase of 99 cents per collection. While playing, I decided to buy the Dancing Pack to aid in the making of my review video below.

After selecting a foreground video, you select a background video or create one on the fly. So far, it’s been pretty basic stuff I had expected from the app, but the next step was a nice touch. With both the foreground and background videos selected, you can choose where to position the foreground subject and even pinch-zoom to re-size him. Better still, you’re given slider controls to adjust the brightness and contrast of the foreground video and can choose to use the foreground audio, the background, or a mix of both. Of course, this stuff is almost necessary if you want the final video to look good at all. I would have really enjoyed some kind of path selection to allow me to move Santa with the floor if my background video moves too much, but it might be a bit much to ask of a free app.

While I’m being greedy, I’d love some more selection in video packs. The dancing and humor scenes are fun, but I’d love the option for a couple scenes in which Santa is placing presents under the tree or filling a stocking. I’ll gladly throw down another buck for that.

Video of Santa Dancing

Sometimes the best part of a review is playing with fun stuff, so I tried to be a little creative and come up with my own videos with Santa and the elves and here’s the result.

Conclusions

When I first saw the press release for this, I thought it looked like a neat way to show the kids that Santa had actually been there. After installing and playing around, I realized it was pretty fun for those of us without kids, too. The price is always right when it’s free, and even the in-app purchase options were well within reason. The one stand-out problem with this app is that is freezes on me when finalizing a video. The video does save, though, so this is a minor inconvenience. In the end, ReelDoozy is a lot of free holiday fun, leaving you little reason to not check it out. If you try it out, I really want to see what videos you come up with, so share the links in the comment section below.

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Give Humor On Christmas With A Prank Pack

Joe Tech — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:48:07 +0000

I’ve participated in plenty of pranks in my time, both giving and receiving, and they’re almost always a lot of fun. My cousin, in particular, is a big prankster and joker who always enjoys a good laugh. This week, I got a couple Prank Pack prank gift boxes in the mail to review, and who better to try one out on than John.

What Is A Prank Pack?

A Prank Pack is a box designed to look like a real product that is just outlandish enough to make the recipient think you bought them some crazy gift that they may never use. Inside the box, you place a real gift so that your giftee isn’t left feeling like you cheated him out of a gift. So it’s the best of both worlds. You get to prank someone, but they still get a real gift that they’ll use. They make a bunch of different gift boxes such as CoffeeTalkies – travel coffee mugs that double as walkie talkies, Bathe&Brew – a shower head that brews your coffee with the same hot water you shower in, ToeTunes – slippers that have speakers built right in, and several others. They sell for $8 per box or you can get a 3-pack right now for $20.

Prank Packing John For Your Enjoyment

My cousin John, as my mentioned above, is no stranger to pranks, so he was definitely due to be pranked. We bought him a gift we thought he’d like, and as it’s a book, it easily fit into the Prank Pack box. The box we chose was the iArm seen in the photo above. It’s a device that straps to your arm that you can attach an iPad, remote controls, or even your dinner plate to. Since John has an iPad, we thought this would be a nice fit. Just believable enough for him to not know if we were seriously giving this thing to him. We wrapped it up and invited John out to breakfast. The video below shows hot it all went.

I really liked the Prank Pack, and I think John’s even going to re-use it to prank someone else for Christmas. $8 per box is more than I’d normally pay for a quick prank, but the boxes look pretty professional and are actually good quality. Pair that with the fact that it’ll likely get used two or three times, and it’s not a bad price at all.

Buy Or WIN A Prank Pack

Like any other product, you can buy a Prank Pack box, of course. As mentioned before, they’re eight bucks a piece or you can snag a deal for a three pack. The web site seems to guarantee shipping by Christmas (as of the time I’m writing this) for only $5, but you can also drop into a Bed Bath and Beyond and grab one there without waiting. You can also try to win one right here. All you have to do is comment on or Tweet about this post or share it on Facebook, but you only have 2 days, so do it now below. Note that the box I’m giving away is the CoffeeTalkies, perfect for that coffee fiend you know.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Can Your Smartphone Really Help Keep You Safe?

Joe Tech — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:31:47 +0000

Bipper AS, a Norwegian tech company best known for Bipper, a parental control smartphone program, have come out with a new application that has already seen considerable European success: bSafe. The application allows you to immediately send out an S.O.S. if you find yourself in trouble while out walking at night. It does this by sending text messages and phone calls to a predetermined list of “Guardians” who function as your emergency contact and who are given a map of your exact location. This information can then, presumably, be passed on to the police.

The bSafe application, which available globally this week for both Android and iPhone users, has already hit select European markets. It has seen impressive success there, garnering media publicity and surpassing two of the most popular apps in the world – Angry Birds and Facebook – in recent downloads.

bSafe has proven that it can be successful, then. But can it actually keep you safe while walking at night? Can it give your phone a security feature besides a basic reverse phone lookup? Is it worth having as a last-ditch, security precaution?

The short answer, it would seem, is no. If you’re truly in a dangerous situation, calling 9-1-1 is probably easier and it is certainly more effective. Most cell phones allow you to program 9-1-1 into one of the speed dial options (usually “9″) and a police dispatcher can figure out your location even if you don’t provide one. Having a text sent to your best friend saying that you’re in trouble is simply not going to give you the same rapidity of response. Think about it; in this hypothetical situation, your friend will likely try calling you back first, just to make sure that you truly need their help. It is probably only if they don’t get an answer that they’ll call 9-1-1. Getting the bSafe app, then, can take away valuable time if you do find yourself in an emergency.

But the application does have some intriguing uses and possibilities, albeit not those that it originally intended. For example, it allows you to go into “Risk Mode”, which tracks your exact location by GPS and can then send that route to a designated computer. For people who want to go for a run and then see their route sitting on the screen when they get back, bSafe is an appealing application. Furthermore, the app’s general mapping and navigation software is accurate, fast, and easy to use.

So I might find myself downloading bSafe in the near future. But I certainly don’t plan to send out any S.O.S.’s – whether or not I find myself in a dangerous situation.

This guest post is by Nancy Evans. She is a freelance writer that specializes in tech and business.

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The Nokia Lumia 800 Attracts Gamers

Joe Tech — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:31:20 +0000

The Nokia Lumia is designed to attract new fans to the Windows Phone ecosystem, and one of its key targets is gamers.

2011 has been the year when smartphone gamers have been able to pick from a wide selection of large-screened devices to make it easier to play games in greater detail in sharp focus. As a Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia also has greater integration with Microsoft products; Xbox Live support makes it easier for gamers to pick up a game on their console and then their phone, or to check their status remotely when away from their Xbox.

Two of the most popular games so far for the device are Jet Car Stunts and Burn the Rope.

Jet car Stunts comes with 3D graphics, perfectly utilizing the AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 pixels and the ClearBlack technology reducing reflection glare. With a fast 1.4 GHz processor and 512 MB of memory, the device is more than capable of keeping gameplay speedy.

The 3D graphic accelerator is put to good use as well in Jet Car Stunts. With colourful tracks, which increase in difficulty the more your progress riders jump through hoops, leap over divides and ramps using 3D graphics to enhance gameplay and the experience. The handset is held like a steering wheel so users tips and turn to navigate the tracks. To speed up or slow down there are large buttons on the screen that only needs users to move their thumbs while playing. The game is available at the Windows Phone Marketplace for $2.99

Burn The Rope again utilizes the Lumia’s fast processor to incorporate movement of the device into gameplay. The aim of the game is to set fire to a rope and then twist and turn the phone to guide the flame until the rope has burnt away. The flame has to be directed upwards so while it may sound simple the phone needs to be tilted to make sure the flame is heading the right way, or it will burn out. The path of the flame gets faster and more intricate as users pass through the different levels. The game is available from the Marketplace for $2.99.

The speedy processor and screen resolution, along with the 3D capability means the Lumia 800 has a real potential for the gaming market. The new device marks the first delivered in the new partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, suggesting a desire to make a greater splash in the smartphone market. Whereas the App Store and the Android marketplace have made a big splash in encouraging gamers to turn off their console and instead play on their smartphone, Windows Phone has not had a similar appeal. Some critics blame this on a limited number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace but it could be more to do with a focus on the Xbox as one of the main Microsoft gadgets on the market. The interactivity and integration between the Nokia and the Xbox suggests this is definitely a target market for the Windows Phone. Their existing dominance in the gaming market, and the appeal they already garner amongst gaming fans, suggests Apple and Android may well be looking over their shoulder.

Simon writes on behalf of Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website, where you can find the cheapest mobile phone contracts for the new Nokia Lumia.

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The Secret History Of Star Wars

Joe Tech — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:07:13 +0000

There’s more to the Star Wars story than you’ve been told in the movies. I always thought so, too, but apparently there’s a LOT more. I didn’t know just how interesting it was behind the scenes making these movies come to life until I recently began reading The Secret History of Star Wars : The Art of Storytelling and the Making of a Modern Epic, a book by Michael Kaminski, a cameraman in the film and television industry and Star Wars fan.

The Book And Its Secrets

Years ago, Michael Kaminski didn’t set out to write a book. Instead, he wanted to show his appreciation for the Star Wars Saga by writing a lengthy essay about its history to publish online. This essay evolved into a 600 page detailed account of everything Star Wars became from its inception through to current day. Spending a ton of time and reaching out to hundreds of sources for his research, Kaminski not only pieced together an incredible story of the birth and evolution of the single most successful series of films in movie history, but he did it in a way that makes it compelling to read. Instead of just throwing some facts on paper and organizing them, this author displayed some great writing and got me hooked from the first page. The book’s introduction paints a vivid picture of a twenty-eight year old George Lucas sitting at his desk just barely beginning with a title on a rainy Tuesday night.

Kaminski keeps the reader involved as you’re watching it play out in front of you, dropping hints and shocking nuggets about the evolution of Star Wars along the way. Although I’m nowhere near the end of this book, I’ve found myself stopping to tell my wife interesting bits I’ve read. One great example is that, according to The Secret History of Star Wars, Darth Vader originally wasn’t Luke’s father. Vader and Luke’s father actually had scenes together in early drafts and it was only through time and by necessity of the rest of the tale that Darth Vader wound up as Luke’s father.

If I tell you more about what I’ve read, it will not be much of a secret, but I will say that this book intrigued me by title alone and drew me in from the beginning. It’s $39.95 price at Barnes & Noble is beaten by a price of about $27 at Amazon and would make a pretty good gift for any Star Wars fan. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan, and I’ve been having a hard time putting the book down.

Win This Book

The book doesn’t cost much to buy, but free is even better! For the next 7 days, you can enter to win one of two copies of The Secret History of Star Wars. Just follow the entry instructions below and come back here next week to see if you’ve won a copy. Entering is as simple as clicking the “Do it” link, following any instructions, and then clicking the “I did this” button. If you’re already subscribed to JoeTech.com via email or you already follow me on Twitter, you can skip right to the “I did this” button for those entries. Good luck!

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Elmedia Player Pro Review And Giveaway

Joe Tech — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:00:56 +0000

Online video accounts for an astounding percentage of the internet’s traffic. YouTube, alone, sees about 48 hours of new video uploaded every minute and about three billion video views per day. Still, we find ourselves often looking to third party applications to handle video tasks our base operating systems don’t do – or at least not well enough. A good example of this is downloading video from sources such as YouTube.

Today, I spent some time with the Elmedia Player software and tried many of the features offered in the free version as well as the PRO.

Notable Elmedia Player Features

The free version of the Elmedia Player leaves out most of my favorite features, but that’s to be expected. I found, however, that even the free version is very well polished with a lot of options and advantages over most of the free video tools I see. Here’s a list of most of what you find in the free version:

- Support for many video types (FLV, SWF, XAP (Silverlight), RM and RV (Real), AVI, MOV, MP4, WMV, DIVX)
- HTML5 video support
- Zoom in and zoom out options for SWF and EXE (or APP) files
- Growl and browsers integration
- iTunes-like playlists and star ratings

The PRO version, offered for only $19.95 on Eltima Software’s web site, hones in on a few key features that the product is really designed for and delivers in those areas. While this software isn’t littered with too much fluff, there are a few extras that don’t seem entirely necessary (like video ratings). Regardless, they’re not in the way and, more importantly, they didn’t distract Eltima from doing a good job with the core features. Some of the PRO features include:

- Download Video – even RTMP streams
- Full-screen mode
- “Always on top” mode
- Make a screenshot of the current frame
- Convert file into series of images

Of course, downloading video from a wide variety of sources is the feature I’d pay for, but the screen shot and “Always on top” features will also come in pretty handy. Less needed, but great on occasion, will be the option that lets you take a series of images – I’m thinking animated GIFs here.

Hands On Testing

After installing the software, my first test (as seen in the image at the beginning of this review) was to head to YouTube and try to download one of my review videos. In the past, I’ve used plug-ins to download a video, but Elmedia Player takes a different approach. You paste the URL to a web page into the software and it loads the page like a browser. When it does this, it looks for any videos or links to them in the page’s content and makes a list for you to select from. I first downloaded just the video that I was after, but then I tried the “Download all” option which grabbed everything in site.

Tip: You may need to start playing the video in the preview page before it will appear in the list to download.

Once a video is grabbed, it’s listed under the Downloaded section, where you can pull up everything from just today or broaden the listing. The organization extends in a different way to the file folder structure behind the scenes as well. Here, a folder is created that is named after the page you downloaded from.

While this software’s core features are not that unlike some free browser plugins on the surface, the extra video formats it supports can be invaluable. Additionally, some of the browser plugins I’ve used in the past can be sporadic in their reliability. I haven’t used this software long enough to be certain it will stand up to the many challenges I have in store for it, but so far, everything indicates that it likely will. Finally, one thing that Elmedia Player will not do that the browser plugins do all too often is cease to become useful after I upgrade to the latest browser version or switch from one to another. Being browser-independent has its advantages.

Conclusions

Cons: The only con it that it’s not free – well, it is free, but the best and really useful features are in the PRO version. Pros: This is well-built software with some thoughtful extras, the price is low enough to barely be a factor, and it doesn’t care what browser you have or version. Want 15% off? No problem. Just use the coupon code JOE-TECH-PROMO when you purchase.

Don’t Have 20 Bucks? Win It Here!

That’s right. Even if you’re just a little interested, I have been given not one, but two PRO upgrade codes to give out to lucky winners. Just follow the entry instructions below and come back here next week to see if you’ve won! Entering is as simple as clicking the “Do it” link, following any instructions, and then clicking the “I did this” button. If you’re already subscribed to JoeTech.com via email or you already follow me on Twitter, you can skip right to the “I did this” button for those entries. Good luck!

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id America’s Brushed Aluminum Gasket iPhone Case Reviewed

Joe Tech — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:29:25 +0000

I have reviewed a bunch of iPhone cases on this blog, but today, I have one that stands out from the crowd in many ways.

id America provided me with their Gasket Brushed Aluminum iPhone Case that you see above and it didn’t take long for me to love it. When I opened up the box, I got a peek at the design and got a little excited. The real joy, though, was seeing it hugging my phone. From the back, it looks like… Well, just look at the picture above. It exudes more of that “Ooh! Shiny!” feeling in the flesh, but the picture should give you some idea. Sadly, because this is brushed aluminum, it would be a bit cold and uncomfortable if id America had wrapped the design around to the front of the phone, so they opted not to. It’s a good choice, but I honestly find myself setting my phone on my desk face-down to show off the Gasket case design. This is just one of the reasons I applied the included clear screen protectors that came with this case.

I don’t much believe in having a case unless it will serve some non-aesthetic function, and the Gasket case meets that requirement with its hard exterior. Although I didn’t drop it on purpose to test it out, it only took a couple days before I handed my phone to someone at a party to take a photo and it dropped to the bricks below while I gasped. This case really does nothing at all to protect the fragile iPhone screen, but as is usually the case, the phone bounced on one of its corners and lived to complete it’s photography side job. The Gasket design wraps completely around the side edges and corners while leaving much of the top and bottom edges open in order to not obscure the charging port, speaker, mic, headphone jack and power button. As well, id America left the vibrate switch and volume buttons unobscured and was sure to not even get too close to covering the camera lens and flash.

Unlike silicone cases, this one is extremely rigid, making it a little more difficult to wrap around my iPhone and a little harder to remove. An interesting side effect of the Gasket’s design is that any dust that collects on the parts of the phone that the case does not cover seems to be more visible and leaves that same cool gasket pattern on the phone when I remove the case. Another unexpected side effect of the material used is that the edges feel a little sharp. They’re not law suit sharp, or even enough to worry about much, but it’s something to get used to. A side effect of this case that is a definite plus as far as I’m concerned is that it slides in and out of my pocket very easily. My biggest complaint about silicone cases is that they bring my jeans pocket out with them. Conversely, this case does not sit still on my lap. Put it in your pocket or on a flat surface, but don’t try to balance it on your leg.

At the end of the day, this is my favorite among all the cases I’ve used personally. It’s cool, functional, durable, and at $29.95, it’s priced well for the materials and design. I have the Titanium on my iPhone now, but I’m torn between that and the Silver. Which is your favorite?

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