With nearly 2,500 exhibitors showcasing the latest innovations in
home improvement, lawn & garden, pet care, plumbing, paint and
enough helpful gadgets to choke a Home Depot this May 7-9, you bet that
we’re excited for the 2013 National Hardware Show in Las Vegas!
Boxee TV has a new firmware update making its way out to its connected set-top boxes this week, which includes a number of big improvements including the addition of DLNA streaming. Spotted by GigaOM, the update also adds 3D streaming of content from Vudu, the video streaming service from Walmart, and changes to its TV guide and notification settings.
Boxee TV is the follow-up to Boxee’s original hardware, the Boxee Box. That first-gen device actually had DLNA streaming while the Boxee TV shipped without it. The addition of DLNA means that the Boxee TV can now play back media over a local network from a computer or drive running DLNA server software, and can also play content from select Android devices and from a number of iOS apps. Photos, video and music can all be shared via the DLNA streaming protocol. It’s like a non-Apple-specific version of AirPlay, and it’s a very handy addition to Boxee TV that considerably increases its general usefulness.
The Boxee TV also now gets on-device DVR management, which is a big improvement over the old system where you can to schedule recordings via a website on a separate computer. In other words, this whole update seems to have been about ironing out the kinks and making sure the Boxee TV fully delivered on the generally good impressions it received when it launched late last year.
If you’re in the market for a set-top streaming device, the update makes Boxee TV a good option for consumers who might be looking at either an Apple TV or the new Roku 3, but who want a DLNA-capable device to handle streaming of their own media collection. Like both of those devices, the Boxee TV retails for $99.
I’m sure there are at least a few of you out there who’ve heard of
ROBLOX. After all, as one of the largest user-generated game sites on
the ‘net; it’s kind of a big deal, and getting bigger with each passing
day. With this rapid growth in mind, the organization behind it is
planning on branching out by expanding BLOXCON – ROBLOX’s annual user
conference. On Friday, I got the chance to speak to a few of the fine
folks running the show.
There’s been rumblings that the world’s largest social network just
might want to start using it’s membership clout to affect change in
government, or at least support the candidates that have their
best interest at heart. With over 1 billion followers, the house that
Zuckerberg built is indeed the size of a prominent sovereign state,
second only to China and India.
Everyone in the States at this point in time is very familiar with the
term "sequester" as it applies to limiting the size of the U.S. federal
budget. British Airways, on the other hand is using the concept as
originally defined — "to cause to withdraw, into seclusion." British
Airways’ latest innovation is titled, ‘Innovation Lab In The Sky,’
and their sequestration will not be limiting at all, because their plan
is to expand upon talent and opportunities, with a little help from
their friends.
Pent-up demand, content monetization and copyright stamps have been
instrumental in distinguishing the new social network called Pheed from
the pack. It became the No.1 free social networking app in Apple’s App
Store for the month of February, out pacing competitors like Twitter and
Facebook.
Political cartoons have distinguished Matt Bors from the pack of
modern-day cartoonists. While comics with a message have been around
since the Yellow Kid in the early 1900s, most cartooning is created for
the quick chuckle versus the reflective guffaw that comes from
satirical illustrations.
If everything is already bigger in Texas, your invention has to be
absolutely epic to win the Dallas Market Center’s The Next Big Thing
contest!
We’re familiar with celebrities tipping their toes in the social media
waters. A number of actors now have their a number of pet projects. Some
like Ashton Kutcher actually head up social media marketing firm like
the Katalyst Network or Ian Somerhalder and his news activist site in beta called "Ryot," or Justin Timberlakes’ current attempt at welcoming defectors back to MySpace.
But up till now, there’s been no political figures actively involved in
a social media enterprise. That was, until Cory Booker created
#waywire.
Are you ready for a no-holds-barred way to not only show that your
innovative invention is the greatest thing since sliced awesome, earn
funding for your idea’s creation as well as a nation-reaching marketing
deal to sell it to the masses? Grab your blueprints and get ready to
blow America’s socks off!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
