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Showing posts from May, 2014

Watch Live TV on your Chromecast

I've praised it before, and with time, Google's Chromecast has been improving at a steady rate.  Last week, with an update to the FilmON app, users can now broadcast live local TV to their televisions or monitors. While it may seem redundant to some to beam live TV to a TV set, in actuality, it may prove very useful to some.  For instance, you may be in a low reception area for a certain channel on your over the air antenna, or maybe your provider doesn't provide a particular station that you would like to watch where you live.   With FilmON streaming live TV over the internet directly to the Chromecast, it may be a great solution to some folks.   Perhaps you have an old monitor with an HDMI port.  Now it can be used as a TV. Some of you sports fans may be able to watch otherwise blocked games this way. Admittedly,  FilmON is not the best looking app in the Play store, nor is it the most intuitive, however, it gets the job done delivering on its basic con

Wii U Mario Kart 8 Promotion brings Club Nintendo to its knees

With the recent release of the highly anticipated Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, Nintendo sweetened the deal by offering early adopters a choice of four games with purchase.  You simply buy the game, register it to your account on the Club Nintendo site, and it will offer you a download code for one of four games. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Pikmin 3 New Super Mario Bros. U Wii Party U The highly anticipated game was release on May 30th, and the promo offer extends until July 31st for game registration. Once registered, Nintendo will allow you to claim your download by August 31st.   The problem is that the Club Nintendo site has been brought down to its knees due to this offer.  Logging in is currently an exercise in patience.  Registering the game mostly works, but when you attempt to get your code, it will either log you out, or loop you endlessly in re-registering the game and then error out.  How Nintendo could have underestimated the traffic that

Vizio S4251w Soundbar Review - An Affordable and Wireless 5.1 Surround Sound System

Every man or gal cave needs a surround sound system These days, no home theater is complete unless one has some kind of surround sound system.  A great surround sound envelops the user in incredibly immersive sound from all angles and can really bring a movie, or a recording of a concert to life. For the last seven years, I have used an old JVC 5.1 surround sound unit that had a receiver with an upconverting 5 carousel DVD player attached to it and a ton of wires.  With most modern consoles offering their own upconverting DVD drives, Blu-Ray drives, and digital streaming boxes, such as the Roku, Google Chromecast, and Amazon Fire, the receiver and cables were overkill for my entertainment center and living room.  In an effort to simplify things, I started to look towards soundbars, but I did not want "virtual" surround sound.  In my years of experience, of trying and testing out virtual systems, none have ever come close to replicating a true 5.1 system.  Sure, having a

Windows 8 Instagram App for Tablets: Instapic

We all know that Windows 8 is a NOT a universally loved operating system.  After riding a wave of popularity with Windows 7, people were not enthralled with the changes that Microsoft forced onto users  on Windows 8.   Admittedly, as a person who owns both a Windows 8 touch PC and a Windows 8 tablet, the 8.1 update has addressed a lot of the pain points of the OS, and the upcoming updates look promising. With that said, there is still a lack of quality apps.  The Windows store is littered with tons and tons of crap.  A lot of it defeats the purpose of having an app store.  Hopefully, the situation will be remedied soon since it's all that Windows RT users can use to install apps. While Windows phone users have an official Instagram app in beta, users of the main Windows platform do not.  Enter Instapic . Their description: Description InPic is the first and only fully featured Instagram Client for Windows 8 devices. 100% Free. The app includes all features of Ins

10+ reasons why classic gaming is better than current gaming

With the recent story of  EA shutting down 50 game servers starting on June 30th ,it really made me think about what a raw deal gamers get these days as compared to the early days of gaming.  In the days of classic gaming, you bought your game, all extras were already included, and if you took care of it, the game would most likely outlive you and your grandchildren. Here are 10 reasons why classic gaming is better than current gen gaming: You own the physical cartridge and can keep it, sell it, or trade it, even if the game company ceases to exist.   Most games were instant on with no loading.  There weren't any online DRM checks that prevented you from playing your games on a train or plane if you are out of range of an internet connection. There were no extra fees for things such as on disc DLC.  All extras such as hidden characters were unlocked by playing the game or with "secret" codes. Cartridges were damn near indestructible.  Seriously.  Check out this

Delicious alternatives to creamer for your morning Coffee

In my search to drink the tastiest possible coffee, I have left no stone unturned.  I have tried non dairy creamers as well as almond milk, and both have their weaknesses.  Almond milk tends to clump up, and does not taste very good with coffee.  Many of the non dairy creamers either taste extremely artificial, or are extremely unhealthy.   Some even have dairy ingredients while claiming to be non dairy which should be some kind of a warning sign. What are lactose intolerant people supposed to do?  Try the So Delicious unsweetened vanilla Coconut milk.  In my experience, I found that it adds a nice and subtle flavor to your coffee without interfering or overpowering its native taste. In terms of ingredients, the worst offender is Carrageenan, so keep this away from infants (which should be common sense with most non dairy alternatives) as they may not be able to properly digest it.   According to Fooducate , this product rates a B+, which is decent for occasional consumptio