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You are here: Home / Archives for Web and Technology / Cool stuff

Avot mV allows you to watch near real time video on your mobile device

December 21, 2007 by Tricia

Mobile phones that are capable of accessing web based video are becoming more common. I’d say one of the most well known mobile phones would be the iPhone and also the iPod Touch.

Unfortunately, just like in the old days when everyone connected to the internet using slow modems web based video delivered to cell phones can be slow to download and when playing while downloading the video could go through delays or be of poor quality.

I don’t have an iPhone but I do have a mobile phone with web capabilities and I’m excited about the Avot mV video delivery platform that’s been introduced by Avot Media.

Avot mV is apparently the first solution to give mobile users unlimited access to any web-based video. The platform, once installed on your mobile device, will enable you to quickly and easily search, personalize and play videos from all over the internet.

To download Avot mV directly to your mobile phone you can just point your mobile browser to the Avot mV – Product Site. If you are using your computer you can simply visit the Corporate Site to learn more about this innovative program. You’ll also be able to download a copy of Avot mV to your desktop. At that point you’ll need to hook up your mobile device to your computer in order to upload the program to your mobile device.

I’m certain that you’ll enjoy using Avot mV. The platform features intelligent search capabilities that will incorporate your personal preferences which will make searching for videos across the internet easier and faster.

I hate typing in urls or even much text on my cell phone. I bet you do too. One feature of Avot mV that I’m sure you’ll appreciate is that you can simply point and click on videos that you’re interested in instead of having to type in urls. This is of course most beneficial to iPhone users since the iPhone is a true “touch” phone.

Once you’ve found a video that you’d like to watch the Avot mV platform transfers the content to your mobile device in as little as a few seconds. This is much faster than earlier mobile solutions. Since the video is transferred to your mobile so quickly you’ll be able to play the video in near real time and as a result you should not experience grainy video quality, delays or jitter.

You can maximize the size and clarity of the video just like you can when viewing a video on your desktop computer screen.

If you’d like to download videos and then organize them into a playlist that you can watch when you are commuting to and from work or when you are taking a break you can do so with the Avot mV platform. In fact you can create an unlimited number of playlists. I know if I was still taking the subway to and from work each day this feature would definitely be of interested to me!

You can see a list of supported web enabled devices on the Corporate site. Mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch are supported.

If you are interested in the Avot mV platform visit the website to learn more about it and you can also visit the Avot Media Official Blog to keep up with the Avot mV platform news.





Filed Under: Cool stuff, Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Internet, Movies, Recreation, Software, Video, Web and Technology Tagged With: apple iPhone, Avot mV, cell phone, computer, download, free, install, Internet, ipod, media, mobile device, multiple playlists, no delays, organize, personalize, platform, play, playlists, program, quality, quick download, real time video, search, site, Software, support, upload, Video, watch, watch videos, web capable mobile

Dial up users need to check out Wildblue Satellite Internet service

December 8, 2007 by Tricia

I know that a few of my regular readers are still using dial up service to connect to the internet. Most of the people that I know that are still using dial up modems are in rural areas where they cannot access DSL or cable internet service providers.

I feel sorry for them.

I remember those days when dial up was the only way to connect to the internet. When a 54 baud modem was considered fast! Of course those were the days when a 256 or 386 PC computer was also considered fast and they still had floppy disks that you had to use to run big software applications like Wordperfect.

OMG I’m aging myself here I think!

Well I’m very happy to let everyone know, especially those of you who are still using dial up, that Satellite Internet is finally here!

Mybluedish.com is making their satellite internet service, Wildblue, available to those of you who live in the continental United States. If you have a clear view of the southern sky you’ll be able to receive the service.

Wildblue is faster than other Satellite Internet service providers with download speeds of up to 1.5 mb which of course is 30 times faster than dial up! Isn’t that amazing? Are you dial up users getting excited yet?

Just like DSL and Cable internet the service is always on so you’ll be able to turn on your computer and be on the internet right away. The Satellite modem plugs into a wall outlet (just like my cable modem does). All you need to do after that is plug your computer into the Ethernet port that’s located on the back of the Satellite modem. Simple. Easy. Anyone can do this.

More good news. Wildblue is the least expensive Satellite Internet service in the USA. Prices start at $49.95 per month which is comparable to what I pay for my cable service here in Canada.

You’ll need to be able install a very small satellite dish to your home to use this service. The dish is small, apparently more like a small satellite TV dish rather than one of those huge dishes that you still sometimes see on peoples homes or office buildings.

Dial up users – Don’t you hate waiting for slow downloads? Does it sometimes take several minutes for a website to load? Wouldn’t it be nice to almost instantly load websites and receive downloads from now on? You’d also be able to watch video’s without any lag or delay.

If this sounds like a service you could use go check out the Wildblue Satellite Internet service at Mybluedish.com.

Filed Under: Blogging, Computers, Cool stuff, Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Internet, Recreation, Services, Web and Technology Tagged With: 30 times faster than dial up, affordable, always on, amazing, computer, connection, continental United States, dial up, ditch dial up, download, downloads, Ethernet port, fast, fast downloads, happy, high speed, home, install, Internet, internet connection, prices, rural, rural areas, rural dial up, satellite dish, Satellite Internet, Satellite internet for rural areas, satellite modem, service, United States, USA, Video, website

I’d love to go to the Rodeo

December 6, 2007 by Tricia

When we picked up our puppy Midnight two weeks ago she was being kept in a pen in a barn. Did I tell you that there were also three horses on the other side of the barn? Absolutely gorgeous horses.

I’ve always loved horses. When I was growing up we had a cottage on my mothers family’s old farm land and when I was very young there were still horses, cows and pigs there.

I must admit that I haven’t spent much time around farm animals in a long while, but I did enjoy seeing the horses in that barn.

When I was growing up my mother used to take me to horse shows. She loved the jumping, but I was always partial to the Rodeos. I guess I loved the action and perhaps all those cute cowboys too.

In their later years my parents were winter Texans and they attended the Houston Rodeo a few times.

Did you know that the Houston Rodeo is rated as the largest rodeo in the world? Over one million people attend each year. It’s so big that each night after each days Rodeo events there’s a concert feature Country, Rock n’ Roll, Hip Hop and and Latin music stars and bands. I doubt very much that my parents ever attended any concerts, but if I got a chance to get Houston Rodeo concert tickets I’d see a band. My preference would of course be a rock band.

Have you ever been to the Houston Rodeo? Did you enjoy yourself? If you’ve been to the Rodeo did you also attend a concert?

I was looking up information on the Rodeo and this years concerts will be by Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), Rascal Flatts, and there’s still a number of concert performers to be announced. Check it out for yourself – perhaps you’ll go to the Rodeo this March.

Filed Under: Cool stuff, Entertainment, Family, Home and Lifestyle, Pets and animals, Recreation, Sports, Vacation and Travel Tagged With: animals, bands, concert, concert tickets, concerts, cottage, events, Family, Horses, Houston Rodeo, live stock, mother, Music, musicians, parents, puppy, Rodeo, texas, tickets, winter, Winter Texans

All I want for Christmas Contest

December 3, 2007 by Tricia

Overstock.com launched a huge promotion today. It’s the All I want for Christmas Giveaway. If you’re a resident of the continental United States you can enter to win.

The promotional period for this contest is from December 3rd until December 7th and you can enter once each day. So enter now. Enter daily!

So what can you win? Well, when you fill out the contest entry form you’ll be asked to pick an item from Overstock.com that is priced at $1000 or less. If you are the Grand Prize winner you’ll receive the item that you picked out.

When you enter the contest you’ll get an invitation link that will enable you to invite up to five friends.

One cool thing about this contest is that Overstock.com will also be giving out daily prizes. If you are chosen as a daily prize winner both you and one of the friends that you invited to join the contest will be awarded a one thousand dollar Overstock.com gift card to be used towards the purchase of each of your selected items or any other item at Overstock. You need to send out those five invites in order to qualify for the daily prize draw.

At the end of the contest one grand prize will be awarded. The Grand prize is one $5000 Overstock gift card. This fantastic gift card can be used for the purchase of all five of the contestants selected items or any other items of their choosing at Overstock.

I’m from Canada so I can’t enter the contest.

I really wish I could enter as I’d probably pick one of the LCD or Plasma television sets as my desired prize. I know we’ll want a TV for the basement when we get around to renovating the basement so it’d be great to win one!

Perhaps I’d also pick out some things for our new dog. Puppy has already cost us a lot of money what with the training crate, accessories and all the toys we’ve purchased in the last week. I’m sure we’ll need more stuff for her as she gets older and bigger.

As for the five people I’d invite if I could enter this fantastic contest? Hmmm that’s a tough one. I’d definitely invite my sister. I’d probably also invite my husbands younger sister. My niece just bought a new home last year and she’s expecting a baby in February so I think she could use some items for her home or for the baby their expecting so I’d invite her as well. Then to finish off my invites I’d probably invite two good friends of mine – Connie and Colleen – who I work with at the hospital.

Who are you going to invite when you enter the All I want for Christmas Giveaway?

Filed Under: Appliances and Accessories, Contest, Cool stuff, Home and Garden, Home and Lifestyle, Recreation, Shopping Tagged With: 1000 dollars, 5000 prize, accessories, baby, basement, Canada, Chris, christmas, Contest, daily prizes, dog, four day contest, friends, gift, gift card, grand prize, husband, invite friends, Niece, Overstock, pet supplies, promotion, sister, Television, win item from overstock

Some very cool applications and websites I learned about at Blogworld

November 29, 2007 by Tricia

I’ve been busy trying out some new software, sites and applications that I learned about either at Blogworld, P0stiecon or through others that were also at those conventions and I must say I’m quite thrilled with these new products and websites!

One new application I’ve been trying out on a few of my sites in the last week or so is Triggit. You can add links to Amazon, Commission Junction or wine related products as well as add photos from Flickr and Youtube videos on the fly directly from the public/published portion of your site. I wrote about my experiences with Triggit on Webstyle if you’d like to learn how to use this great new application.

I’ve also been granted an access key of my own to give out to anyone that would like to become an Alpha tester for Triggit. Just create a login for the site and when asked for an access key type in tricia. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Next …

You might have noticed in some of my recent posts that the photos I’ve used have a Photrade watermark on them? Yes, I’m using a new site to store some of my photos.

I met Andrew, the CEO, of Photrade on Saturday Nov. 10th at the Bl0ggers Ch0ice Awards at TAO. He saw my husband carrying our camera and stopped to talk to us about photography and his new website, Photrade, which is still in Beta.

The beauty of Photrade is that visitors to the site can browse your photos and purchase them as prints, have the photo placed on a mug or turned into a Canvas. Photographers can set their own prices for prints, mugs and canvases.

Also, every time your photos are viewed on the site and elsewhere if you say embed them in your posts you’ll get paid. You’ll also make money if the photos are clicked on. There’s no information on the site yet (that I’ve found) that states how much you get paid per view or click but I’m willing to give this site a try.

One feature that I like is that when I do embed one of my photos in a post it is water marked. That will help prevent photo theft and if someone really does like one of my photos well, they can buy a copy for themselves. I don’t know how many times people have asked me if they can buy my photos or if I could please “provide them with a high definition copy” … why? I don’t know. I don’t mind if someone wants to buy a photo, but to ask outright for a high def copy without explanation as to how it might be used? No.

I’ve only just started using Photrade and I think it will take a while to upload a decent amount of photos to my gallery/portfolio, but once I’ve used it for a while I’ll write more about the site and let you know if I think it’s going to be a winner or not.

At this time Photrade.com is a closed, invite only beta project. I had one invite and I’ve already used it, however I expect to get more invites in the near future. If you are a photographer and would like to try the site out let me know.

Check out my Photrade home page if you’d like.

And finally …

Fix8 is an application that I’ve yet to try, but it looks totally cool! If you use your webcam for chats or perhaps to create podcasts I think you’ll love Fix8.

So what is it? Well … if your like me and you’d like to use your webcam more often but perhaps you’ve still got bedhead you can mask your image with some very cool avatars. The avatars cover your face and move when you move. They are even expressive – so if you smile or raise your eyebrows your avatar does as well.

I believe you can even use Fix8 to create fantasy backgrounds behind your image and add fun accessories that your avatar might use while chatting too.

Here’s a description from their site:

Fix8 is a free and easy to use interactive communication tool that animates expressions and movements in real-time over 3D avatars. All you need is your PC, a webcam, and a dash of creativity. Use a wide mix of creative tools and accessories to “dress up” and create animated videos for sharing. You can also share avatar animation with friends in real-time IM webcam chat.

I’m sure you could think of lots of different ways to use Fix8. You can watch one of their demo videos to see some of the avatars in action if you’d like.

Chris and I spent quite a while talking with Peter Singer, the director of Fix8 affiliate partners group and he was telling us how Fix8 is being used on television series in China and gave us some ideas as to how we can use Fix8 in our videos and for live streaming.

Once I’ve experimented with Fix8 I’ll post more about it and maybe I’ll even post a video using Fix8.

You can download a free copy of Fix8 directly from the Fix8 website.

I’ve got a few more interesting applications and sites to tell you about and I’ll get to that soon. In the mean time have fun exploring the sites I’ve just told you about and give the applications a try!

Filed Under: Affiliates, Blogging, Cool stuff, Entertainment, Home and Lifestyle, Photography, Recreation, Sales and Marketing, Services, Video, Web and Technology Tagged With: affiliate, Amazon Links, animated avatar, applications, avatars, background, blog, blogger, bloggers, buy, buy photos, camera, Chris, CJ links, cool, design, fantasy background, Fix8, free, friend, friends, great idea, husband, information, interesting, links, Make Money, Money, my sites, photo, photographs, Photography, photos, Photrade, podcast, posts, prices, Products, sell photos, Software, streaming video, style, Television, Triggit, Video, watermark, webcam, website, websites, write, Youtube

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